Journey: near Russia – Oulanka National Park – Kuusamo The Silent People – Variscongas waterfall
So Markles got back from his bear watch at 7am with the biggest smile on his face. He has written the next bit:
Bears have always been my favourite animal, so when I saw details of watching them, I knew I had to go. Just a few hundred metres from where Maria was tucked up in the van, we were sat in a lovely heated hide, waiting and hoping that some bears would show up. And boy did they.
First a female, soon followed by a couple of large males, then another female with two cubs. More males followed and at one stage there were eight adult bears dotted around the clearing, bog and small lake that we were overlooking. Then another mother appeared, this one with four much smaller cubs in tow. Altogether the guides reckoned we saw more than a dozen different adults as well as the six cubs.
At their closest some of them were little more than 20 metres away from us. Some gave the hide a bit of a wary stare, but others showed no reaction to it. Late into the evening four bears were just playing around in the lake.
As if this wasn’t enough, at an early stage in the evening a huge white tailed eagle swooped in, and it was later joined by three others. Quite magnificent, immense birds. No wonder I had a big smile.
Back to Maria:
After a huge bowl of porridge and a mug of coffee we decided to brave the roadworks and drove back to Oulanka National Park to do the 5k walk. As predicted the roads were horrendous, but the walk was spectacular with gorgeous dolomite rocks, waterfalls, meadows and ancient woodland.
We then had lunch and needed to go to Kuusamo for groceries. In Finland human food is expensive even in Lidl but dog food was eye wateringly so – 2 X 12kg bags of food and 2 X doggy treat bags €130! Obviously they are worth it and they are cheaper than children but gosh that’s a lot of money, especially when you consider Mabel and Ernest inhale their food so I’m not sure it even touches the sides 🙈😂
Our dinner stop was at a strange art installation called the silent people, which was over 100 dressed up stick people with peat heads. Quite surreal but effective. We then camped at Variscongas waterfall and had a lovely bedtime walk. I found an axe and wood in the woods, as you do in Finland, and failed spectacularly to chop anything…was fun though. Mark was at a safe distance as didn’t trust me. On my evening run I spotted deer in woods – a special treat 🦌❤️
SofaWolves 