scandinavia 6 [eng]
hello dear friends
i am writing you the following lines, from the ferry to tallin. Finland is now behind me. today you can read how i spent the week in the north waiting for the spare parts for the bulli...
have lots of fun reading!
8/7/22 - 8/13/22
a slightly overcast sky greets me on this sunday and i cook my coffee and breakfast comfortably under the tailgate of the bulli. after breakfast i drive to pyhä to the second part of the national park lousto-pyhä, here i am greeted by a ski area that is a bit confusing in summer and i first sit down in the cafe, which is connected to the visitor center, to catch some wifi.
the southern part of the national park is a bit more touristy and after i parked the bulli a little further up the mountain in front of a large hotel, i trudge off up the gravel roads, which are probably blue runs in winter.
i circle the central mountain of this ski area and finally arrive at a long staircase, on which people, who are already panting, come towards me. it goes down into a picturesque gorge with small waterfalls and clear pools, through which the water rushes its way.
then it goes on to the boggy part, here again strong wooden planks lead over the damp ground and about halfway through the loop a bird observation tower awaits me from which the bog can be overlooked almost completely.
here i rest for a while and only walk on when the clouds come up. the next lavuu i take a short break, which is then extended by the rain, it's pouring and i'm glad i reached this dry shelter just in time.
when the rain subsides, i trudge on through the forest and in the evening reach the parking lot in front of the hotel again. i drive the bulli a few more kilometers to a rest area on a quiet country road. there isn't much here other than a small ramp for the fishing boats, but that's not a big deal. i have noticed in the last few days that although the water problem seems to have been fixed since the last spontaneous repair, an unusually large number of stains appear under the car when i park the bulli somewhere. A closer examination shows that it is diesel. slightly alarmed, i push the mattress aside again and look for leaks in the engine compartment. my eye falls on a drop on the high-pressure lines that carry the diesel from the injection pump to the injectors. Unfortunately, that's also a part that you probably can't order anywhere around here. when i start the engine, i also see that at a tiny point, a barely visible jet of diesel is escaping, there are only a few drops in the few minutes that the engine is running, but over the long journeys there is quite a lot of course. actually, these lines don't break, at most they leak at the connection, but in the middle of the pipe, that's strange and i suspect that the vibration over the last 30 years has caused a kind of material fatigue. this is definitely not a good sign.
after everything is reassembled and closed, i cook myself a hearty portion of potatoes with red cabbage and crawl into the blankets to fall asleep a little worried.
somehow this morning I can't make up my mind, there's always sun and rain alternately and while I'm crawling under the tailgate to avoid getting wet, the coffee is boiling and I'm looking for an answer to the diesel problem.
a phone call to my favorite bulli parts shop helps, the friendly employee makes the same diagnosis as me and recommends replacing the faulty line as soon as possible. so i bite the bullet and order the missing parts, with a bit of luck they will be in a hotel about 50 km south of here by the end of the week. So I have to get around somehow for the next few days and look up the nearby national parks. luckily there are some.
in a sun phase, i pack up my breakfast and drive to a small mountain nearby, from which you can see the surrounding lake landscape very well.
there are a lot of blueberries growing here and the delicious berries find their way into my mouth as I walk up and down. since i don't have any stress anymore to cover a lot of distance, i spend the afternoon looking for a comfortable shelter, i hope for a fireplace and a nice view and finally find a kind of turret that has a shelter integrated in its base.
in the evening i use the leftover potatoes to make fried potatoes and spend the wonderful evening reading until the sun goes down.
i sleep in comfortably and it takes a while before i can bring myself to really get out of bed and start cooking breakfast. i sent off an application for the internship semester to an austrian company. after some porridge and yoga, i drive the bulli a bit to the east, here is the oulanka national park, a well-known circular route, the small bear circuit, about 13 km long, leads here over suspension bridges and past rapids, through beautiful forests. It's a nice trail, but unfortunately very crowded, I parked the bulli in a huge parking lot with about 200 other cars, a lot of people, correspondingly well-trodden "hiking roads" that lead through the impressive but also very polluted nature. In any case, I can't imagine that there are bears roaming around here on purpose.
about halfway I made myself a cup of tea and trudged along a small path that ended at a beautiful lake, there was nothing going on here except for a few people camping and I rested a bit before climbing the steep stairs to a plateau.
two bridges later, i was back at the car and driving to a kota at jäkäläniemi, a few kilometers away from here.
I sizzled a load of couscous with tomato sauce on the fire and then crept under the blankets quite early.
the sun is shining again and welcomes me to this new day, i have breakfast and read something before i drive on to posio, here i sit in a gas station for a while and continue writing the blog, then i drove to a parking lot in the south of riisitunturi national parks, where i cook myself some noodles to strengthen myself, while i prepare my backpack for the next three days. an approximately 30 km long hiking trail through the park starts nearby and in the late afternoon i set off over hill and dale, as the saying goes.
in the evening, after about 7 km, i reach the open wildernes hut ahmatupa, a cozy log cabin with two large rooms and 10 beds. some fresh firewood is quickly prepared and i keep this large hut all to myself. Unfortunately, my hiking shoes are no longer particularly waterproof and on the muddy stages of the way here my feet got very wet, so I took the soles out and then hung the shoes over the fireplace to dry.
a warm footbath in an old tin bucket does the rest. the oven heats up the room and my instant noodles quickly, i read at the open window until it gets too dark and i fall asleep in my sleeping bag.
Today, as an exception, i had tea for breakfast instead of coffee, after I kindled the oven again. around noon i hike back to the trail after stocking up on wood supplies and sweeping the cabin.
first it goes relatively steeply up a hill and then through a really picturesque landscape. i always take short breaks when i rest and snack when the landscape or the view is too beautiful to continue hiking.
apart from two pensioners, i don't meet any other hikers and i am very satisfied with my decision for this remote trail. on the summit of koljatinlathi, i rest a little longer and even close my eyes for a few minutes.
the following part of the way is unfortunately badly signposted and extremely muddy, i fight my way panting through levels where the water is ankle-deep, while it rains a bit again and after a long downhill stretch i finally reach the liittolampi lavuu. I throw my backpack on the wooden planks. i took off my shoes and looked for firewood, then started the firet, which is not easy at all with the whistling wind blowing across the lake.
I hang my shoes and soles over the flames with a rope. over time they become drier and i lie down and read in the lavuu until late in the evening. tonight there is again couscous with tomatoes and tuna cooked over the fire. a large portion, because it also makes the backpack lighter. after a phenomenal sunset i fall asleep to the sound of the water splashing and the wind rustling, cuddled up in the down of my sleeping bag.
it was a restless night, always awakened by the uncomfortable position on the roughly hewn planks of the lavuu, the fire warms my body, as does the portion of porridge. I then prepare some firewood again and have breakfast, reading in the bright sunshine. afterwards i follow the now better maintained trail through some bogs and reach another lavuu around noon, where a few more hikers are already sitting. here i rest for a while and then climb a steep path to the viewpoint on the riisitunturi, a few drops falling on my neck let me guess that the view will probably not be very exciting.
it's getting a little cloudy and windy, as i cover the last few meters of altitude. when i arrived i looked into the distance for a while and then shouldered my backpack again to hike down the path to the parking lot in the north of the national park.
here i ask my way through the cars and then find a nice finnish couple who are also on the way to posio and can take me to the bulli.
lying exhausted in the car, i check my messages and am over the moon, one of two packages has already arrived at the post office in posio and is ready to be picked up. so i rush down to the city and after some confusion because of my german passport i hold a new big coolant hose in my hands.
the tracking of the other package also reveals that it has already arrived at the hotel and i only have to pick it up. a short time later i hold the fresh injection lines in my hands and start to install everything right away in the parking lot. practiced in the handles, after an hour everything is in its place and when the engine is running, neither diesel nor water drips out.
i bleed the radiator and reinstall the stove and bed. happy that everything actually worked out, i follow the country roads to jokikylä, where i accidentally discover a shelter with a fireplace at a bend in the river. here i cook a round of gnocci and drink a well-deserved beer to celebrate my repair success.
i wake up well rested the following morning and start the day very slowly, a phone call to ada, in which she tells me that she will arrive in kajaani by train in the afternoon, relaxes me. after breakfast i tidy up the bulli and dispose of the rubbish, wash the dishes in the river and then read comfortably in the sun until it's time to leave for the train station.
around 5 p.m. i reach the kajaani and pick up ada with her bike, which fits lying on the bed. since we would like to drive to the national park in koli tomorrow, i look for a nice parking space by a lake and we spend the evening on the beach, cooking and chatting.
thank you very much for taking the time to read, hugging you from afar and joyfully saying:
see you soon
love
pauli
previous posts of the scandinavia trip:
scandinavia 1 ger
scandinavia 1 eng
scandinavia 2 ger
scandinavia 2 eng
scandinavia 3 ger
scandinavia 3 eng
scandinavia 4 ger
scandinavia 4 eng
scandinavia 5 ger
scandinavia 5 eng