Sorry still no photos. They require copying from camera to computer, and this needs the cable and I never seem to have it at the right time.
Anyway, to continue, and we got a bit of a history lesson, and a sad one, in the second day I am writing about. After Hossa, we cycled to Suomussalmi. Nothing much to report on that stretch, except in an intermediate village, Juntusranta, a building that turned ou tto be the community centre did coffee and really good doughnuts. Ths woman serving was Thai, her husband is Swiss and is some kind of EU agent and had a hand in negotiating funds for the centre. Quite a bit of chat, then on. It was a fairly hard day - long distances and several quite taxing uphills, but we arrived first in Suomussalmi kk, ten anmother 5km to the campsite. (They have or had "church villages" here, and we think this what the kk stands for|).
Here, we met up with an American couple, Brian and Janet, who we had originally met at Oslo airport, while waiting for bikes to come through the "outsize luggage" conveyor. They are touring Scandinavia and the Baltic States over the summer, on a tandem and we had kept in touch (just) by email. Nice to have a good chat on many things.
The next day took us to the Raate Road. There was an important battle here in the Winter War, which took place over the winter of 1939 to 1940, when the Soviet Union invaded Finland - and started in November, when it is not warm. In this part of the invasion, the Soviet troops were Ukrainian. They werre not issued with full winter kit, because party propaganda said the Finns would welcome socialist liberators. The Finns did not and their army fought back. Having local knlowledge, winter kit, including skis, they turned back the Soviets, who did not know the forests and kept to the road - this road - isolated them into pockets and ,massacred them, though the cold and lack of supples did its bit in that too. Something like 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers perished and quite a few (though less) Finns as well. We saw a touching memorial to the Ukainins in the woods and there was a museum about these events, which was very interesting, with a touching memorial consisting of a central sculpture and a field of rocks, one for each person, Soviet or Finn, who died. A large area. In the museum, one touching exhibits was from a Ukrainian son of one of the soldiers who did not come back and was buried in a mass grave. He came many years later to trace his father's remains. The story is that he stood with a white cross on the site of the mass grave and did feel much more fulfilled. It was very touching.
Why did the Russians attack then, and so poorly equipped? They must have known winter in the North. Well, one factor we have read is that Stalin had purged all his generals a few years ago, and military decisions were now made by much younger party cadres, who knew not, and of course by himself, who may have known but may not have cared.
We cyclkd the road, an unsealed road, and in a way it was just another road, but evocative. It ran to the border zone (a strip of lands about 3km wide that runs along the border on the Finnsh side). At the end was a reconstructed border post. Then there was another unsealed road going South that was the offical route. Whereas the Raate road had been well graded and not sto"ny, this one was very stony and rather hard cycling. But got to a more regular road an it was "on and on again. Stunning natural beauty, but we have done a lot of that. This was our longest day so far, We arrived at Lentiira holiday village after 122km (about 85 miles), at about 22.40 ands very tired. Put up tent, supper with whisky and water, and bed.
Tom
Anyway, to continue, and we got a bit of a history lesson, and a sad one, in the second day I am writing about. After Hossa, we cycled to Suomussalmi. Nothing much to report on that stretch, except in an intermediate village, Juntusranta, a building that turned ou tto be the community centre did coffee and really good doughnuts. Ths woman serving was Thai, her husband is Swiss and is some kind of EU agent and had a hand in negotiating funds for the centre. Quite a bit of chat, then on. It was a fairly hard day - long distances and several quite taxing uphills, but we arrived first in Suomussalmi kk, ten anmother 5km to the campsite. (They have or had "church villages" here, and we think this what the kk stands for|).
Here, we met up with an American couple, Brian and Janet, who we had originally met at Oslo airport, while waiting for bikes to come through the "outsize luggage" conveyor. They are touring Scandinavia and the Baltic States over the summer, on a tandem and we had kept in touch (just) by email. Nice to have a good chat on many things.
The next day took us to the Raate Road. There was an important battle here in the Winter War, which took place over the winter of 1939 to 1940, when the Soviet Union invaded Finland - and started in November, when it is not warm. In this part of the invasion, the Soviet troops were Ukrainian. They werre not issued with full winter kit, because party propaganda said the Finns would welcome socialist liberators. The Finns did not and their army fought back. Having local knlowledge, winter kit, including skis, they turned back the Soviets, who did not know the forests and kept to the road - this road - isolated them into pockets and ,massacred them, though the cold and lack of supples did its bit in that too. Something like 20,000 Ukrainian soldiers perished and quite a few (though less) Finns as well. We saw a touching memorial to the Ukainins in the woods and there was a museum about these events, which was very interesting, with a touching memorial consisting of a central sculpture and a field of rocks, one for each person, Soviet or Finn, who died. A large area. In the museum, one touching exhibits was from a Ukrainian son of one of the soldiers who did not come back and was buried in a mass grave. He came many years later to trace his father's remains. The story is that he stood with a white cross on the site of the mass grave and did feel much more fulfilled. It was very touching.
Why did the Russians attack then, and so poorly equipped? They must have known winter in the North. Well, one factor we have read is that Stalin had purged all his generals a few years ago, and military decisions were now made by much younger party cadres, who knew not, and of course by himself, who may have known but may not have cared.
We cyclkd the road, an unsealed road, and in a way it was just another road, but evocative. It ran to the border zone (a strip of lands about 3km wide that runs along the border on the Finnsh side). At the end was a reconstructed border post. Then there was another unsealed road going South that was the offical route. Whereas the Raate road had been well graded and not sto"ny, this one was very stony and rather hard cycling. But got to a more regular road an it was "on and on again. Stunning natural beauty, but we have done a lot of that. This was our longest day so far, We arrived at Lentiira holiday village after 122km (about 85 miles), at about 22.40 ands very tired. Put up tent, supper with whisky and water, and bed.
Tom
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