Journey: Pärnu – Sooma National Park – Viljandi – Tartu

Pärnu is a lovely town full of green spaces, we walked through Villi Park and Rannapark while enroute to the beach only to find out dogs weren’t allowed, but nevermind Mabel and Jasper still found some sand to roll in on the promenade. We then walked back through Vanapark and the main town. There are lots of hotels and spa facilities with mud baths, so a lovely place to go for a break away.

Still the towns can’t keep us for long and we were soon on our way to Sooma National Park to walk the beaver trail. It was only a short loop but so exciting to see the evidence of their work, chomped trees and dam.

We then drove on to the lovely town of Viljandi which has castle ruins, a large lake, picturesque old town and is a music festival hub – the highlight being a big folk music festival in June.

We have been putting it off for ages but are literally on our last few items of clothes and so our first stop in Tartu is at a laundrette where we will spend several hours attacking our huge laundry pile – having realised there is no such thing as a laundrette in Finland. It’s pouring with rain, but it doesn’t matter, we have bellies full of Thai noodle soup, and Latvia to plan 😊

Journey: Salpa Asema – Kayralemmon – Ahvionkoski – Kotka – Porvoo

When you live in a van 24/7 with someone you have very little privacy or personal space. This makes things like present buying/wrapping difficult. I’d managed to snaffle a bag of gingers into the van unnoticed and hid them in my bag intending to wrap them up in an old map…but had not got a chance. So at 5am when Mark went to the toilet I quickly pulled map and sweet bag out of bag wrapped and put on it on the kitchen worktop. Phew job done. Markles woke at 8am saw his present and unwrapped…a bag of dog treats! 😂🙈 I still can’t believe I did this, but in my defense it was dark and I was half asleep. After we had stopped laughing I did dig the right bag of sweets out of my bag for him. What a plonker!

Our first walk of the day was the forest fortress Salpa Asema and it was so well camouflaged you could hardly see it until we were right up on it. They used spikey stones to stop tanks, trenches, machine gun bunkers…its crazy to imagine them living in these hideaways.

We then drove on to Kayralemmon where they had a little doggy beach and fenced in area so the dogs could be off the lead (their first time in 3 weeks!). The pups loved it, and made friends with two locals. It’s especially nice for Ernest as he hasn’t had much doggy socialising and gets very over excited on the lead when he sees new dogs. Another huge perk of this place was they had public showers! This was like a birthday present for both of us, as we could have a leisurely shower and feel properly clean for the first time in ages. The road dust gets everywhere so you always feel a bit grubby.

All spruced up and even wearing a dress I took Mark into Kouvola town to a wonderful cafe that had vegan cake (thank you Happy Cow!). High on sugar and caffeine we were ready for a third walk out in the sticks at Ahvionkoski. Turns out it was more of a scenic spot and didn’t have any trail walks from it so after a little potter and three dead ends we called it quits and drove on to the old capital Kotka.

I’m already getting apprehensive about being in cities again and expecting parking woes but we found somewhere easily enough and had a lovely walk around a manmade water park and the sculpture promenade. Ever the weather psychic Mark suggested we head back and we made it to the van seconds before a massive rain storm.

Our luck was not to hold out though as we opted to have dinner at a bar in Porvoo that was stated as the best pizza in town…only they weren’t doing pizza…but they did have vegan burger so we ordered that, and sat in the only half dry seats while the heavens opened up once again. Our burgers were delivered raw, cold and with sticks of cucumber. At €16 each I wasn’t entertaining that for a second and despite being British we sent them back and waited patiently for fresh meals to be cooked. Their second attempt was much better with proper side salad and vegan majo. It was scrumptious 😋 I was absolutely stuffed and walked back to the van where mark ate a wierd chia seed pudding I’d made him (a cross between frog spawn and rice pudding…he ate it, is still alive…may or may not eat more of it).
This evening he is buried in his book and I’m wondering if I can lift my still full tummy of the sofa to do my exercises.

Journey: Koli National Park – Joensuu – Salpa Asema

Despite being only 5 minutes from Koli National Park it was still 10am before we made it. I’m just useless in the morning; I’ve got to have my doggy cuddles, meditate, lots of coffee, potter about…it takes me ages lol. The other morning I had made porridge and was wondering why it was taking so long to thicken only to realise I’d forgotten the oats 😂

Anyway once I’d got my arse in gear we had a wonderful 8km walk with breathtaking views from Ukko Koli over the islands. This is one of the busiest most popular national parks, but despite that you hardly bump into anyone. The pups got their first time on an outdoor lift which they were very brave about. Conscious I was yet to do my run, the parks visitor center was at the top of a big hill which meant an obvious easy run all the way back down…and so Mark met me at the bottom with the van – a good way of getting a PB in your average running speed 🏃😜

After a late lunch we drove on to to see a cool sculpture called The Courting Wolf and potter around the international food market (there was British fudge and tea 😋). By a miracle I resisted the delicious Austrian apple strudel…Mark devoured it…and reported it was devine. I’m sure to have cake tomorrow.

The rest of the day we have been driving a beautiful scenic route. There are masses of lakes, forests and long views but we are seemingly too far south to see reindeer anymore. It’s noticable all the town’s and villages are much bigger. We have camped up at a forest fort which we can find in the morning.

Journey: Komulankongas – Kajaarni – Tiilikkajarva National Park – Koli Nature Centre

We are literally going from one National Park to the next and it’s wonderful being out in nature so much. Driving in between them we are listening to various podcasts and today’s Sustainabable one talked about how treadmills were originally made as a torture weapon 😂 (Oscar Wilde was put on one for 6 hrs a day)! However if there is a presence of nature be it apot plant or just a picture you still get stage 1 benefits of environment engagement, though ideally you would run outside undistracted by a podcast, or for stage 3 full engagement get fully immersed and run through mud or climb trees. Nature certainly lifts your mood 🌳

While getting further into this journey I am trying new ways to better myself and alongside regular exercise/water/healthy food, I’m now trying to meditate in the mornings and kurb my social media addiction. To this end I’m trying some apps my friends have recommended:
Freedom – allows you to block selected apps for set periods of time, so now I only look in the evening rather than constantly through the day. Tried it today and works great!

Headspace – loving this meditation app as it’s tailored, friendly, has a good range of courses, looks nice and is easy to use

10 percent happier – this is great as it separates learning about the benefits of meditation from the actual meditation practice. The basics course is pared down with little music/talk which I personally prefer

Insight Timer – I found this one less easy to use, but did find a nice morning affirmation one. Think it would be more trial and error finding a teacher whose style you liked

I’ve still a few more to try but it’s nice having that 5min focused me time (though Mabel was nuzzling for attention during one session ❤️).

Anyway back to our day. Our first walk was at a lovely double waterfall called Komulankongas, once again Mabel caught a scent and we were left jogging behind her as she zig zagged in pursuit, to no end but she had fun.

We then drove on to our first major town in ages. Kajaarni had a strange art gallery…very abstract concept art, we did the daily grocery shop and I bought a jazzy pair of socks off a lovely lady who knitted them on her market stall. Typical of me to buy woolly socks as we drive south to the warmth 😂

Our afternoon walk was at Tiilikkajarva National Park which has a promintary between two lakes and leads out to a little beach area where Jasper could swim, Mabel could roll and Ernest could sit and stare. After dinner a long drive to Koli Nature Centre but we are ready to roll out of bed and walk the pups first thing

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 🦌❤️

Journey: Posio – Riisitunturi – Ristikallio – 2km from Russia

In Posio we had camped outside a beautiful ceramics gallery so we had a lovely look around there, then visited a small museum linked to the shop.

I’d accidentally taken us to the wrong part of Riisitunturi National Park so we ended up on dirt tracks in the middle of nowhere but still had a lovely short walk. A big bonus of being off the beaten track is that the dogs get really animated and I imagine it’s because they are more likely smelling animals, though I confess we haven’t seen any wildlife (bar the occasional bird, frog and squirrel) while out walking. It’s always a striking contrast how wrapped up I am compared to Mark, our thermostats are very different lol 😂

We then had the choice of three walks in Oulanka National Park – a canyon 6km, a scenic point 8.5km, or orchid woodland 5km. I plumped for the longest as I’d read it was a stunning view, plus it avoided an hour roundtrip of road works to the main park entrance (having already rattled off the ceiling screen cover again on bad roads 🙈).

The walk was lovely, Mabel is like a new dog – having lost a bit of weight she is always the most keen to go out and bounds around. A transformation from her sofa dwelling days where she would quite often decline a walk. We saw lots of different mushrooms and I’m getting better at spotting the yummy blue berries that you can happily munch along the route (Fins make jam/sweets from them).

After a late lunch we drove into the back and beyond for Marks early birthday treat – I dropped him off deep in the woods just 2km from the Russian border so he could spend the night out bear watching with a group. He has amazing photos and details to share with you in tonights write up 🐻❤️

The pups and I had a relaxing evening. With no phone signal and thus no social media or internet distraction, I deep cleaned the van, did my exercises, made Mark a birthday card, then had a little pamper with face mask, snuggled into Marks hoody, made a hot water bottle, lit my prosecco candle (thanks Celine it smells devine!), and enjoyed a game of banagrams with a tumeric latte (my new favourite). I really am a happy old lady at times #simplepleasures