Bushcraft trip to Finland.

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Chris the Cat

Full Member
Jan 29, 2008
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Exmoor
I fancy a bit of a bushcrafty trip to Finland,maybe summer time or maybe the boreal north,in winter. Any folks on here had much experience of this interesting land?
Or any of or Finish friends with recomendations of parts of the country that may make an interesting trip!?
Thanks.
Chris.
 
Only been in the winter but the locals warned about the mosquitoes in the summer. The place is all lakes and trees so the mossies are prolific and the size of sparrows, allegedly.:eek:
 
im going in beginning of december this year going to the far north, no idea what its like. doing a half and half trip cos SWMBO isnt massively keen on the bushcraft side of things lol so most of it is in a log cabin........ thats ok though
 
im going in beginning of december this year going to the far north, no idea what its like. doing a half and half trip cos SWMBO isnt massively keen on the bushcraft side of things lol so most of it is in a log cabin........ thats ok though

Far north in december is very dark. Just a word of advice. I would go around easter if I were you.
 
Yes its dark at december,the bright part of day lasts only few hours,from about ten in the morning,to four at evening and it gets dark fast then.


but what comes to this insect hysteria:lmao: ,dont you believe those who arent been here ever.the pollutions are making insect populations smaller every year and in the lapland,the "largest" packs of those swallow sized mosquitos are excisting from mid-may to mid-june,then it calms down.And its also depending about where you are at that time,as the mosquitos (hyttynen / hyttyset ) arent poplulating whole lapland,nor the whole finland.
 
I know about the dark in winter ( been in the north in both Sweden and Norway in the Winter- Love it!! ) Thinking about wilderness cabins,trails,cross country skiing in the winter , and canoeing and exploring the forest areas in summer!
It is early days for my plans, so any ideas ?
C da C.
 
That's great info.

It can be cheap to fly to Tampere (which Wikipedia describes as a kind of Finnish equivalent of Manchester) so I'm following this thread with great interest.
 
Well if youre outdoors oriented,i mean more into Do-It-Yourself outdoor hiking in national parks,or other forests,trails etc,i too suggest you book a flight to Tampere,as its big town but surrounded by large amount of wilderness and all,its near to good simple rental cabins without nonsense yuppie electrics etc:lmao:

And there are also airports in north,but if youre going to those,you have to be prepared to travel still,to get near any outdoor activities located in lapland or where ever.

From tampere you can easily take a bus or train,to anywhere id say,or rent a car as theres few big rental shops located just next to trainstation,and from airport goes few busses,they stop about 300 meters from train station.
 
Good info, thanks.
Looks like Ryanair go to Tampere for 26 pounds return or so, and transport connections from Tampere are pretty good.

I have a Finnish friend and it's pretty obvious the language is a bit challenging, but I hear most Finns speak some English and/or Swedish?

I have a 6 day window in May and had been planning to go canoeing here in Scotland but I feel a change of plan might be coming on. Serves me right for reading the Kalevala.

However, I don't want to hijack Chris's excellent thread so I'm away to do some research on this one.
 
Good info, thanks.
Looks like Ryanair go to Tampere for 26 pounds return or so, and transport connections from Tampere are pretty good.

I have a Finnish friend and it's pretty obvious the language is a bit challenging, but I hear most Finns speak some English and/or Swedish?

I have a 6 day window in May and had been planning to go canoeing here in Scotland but I feel a change of plan might be coming on. Serves me right for reading the Kalevala.

However, I don't want to hijack Chris's excellent thread so I'm away to do some research on this one.

Finnish men have traditional hatred(different levels though:lmao: ) against anything swedish,be it hockey team or sausage,language or anything,as we were under swedens command for ages.Swedish females on the otherhand,attract us but theyre too posh and picky for us hillbillies :D So much of us arent talking or interested in talking swedish,and we are,mostly against the fact swedish is force-feed / taught in our schools because of this historical background we have:o.We are silent shy nation,some are even ashamed to speak english,but offcourse those who are younger and work with different nationalities,speak well english,even swedish.
 
Had a look round.

The Urho Kekkonen national park looks a good bet. There is a train from Tampere to Rovaniemi.

Hmm, interesting.......:)
 
Had a look round.

The Urho Kekkonen national park looks a good bet. There is a train from Tampere to Rovaniemi.

Hmm, interesting.......:)


ive been there some bit over ten times,an can recommend it to anyone whos bit experienced.
 
I was there for a month around Lahti in July and loved Finland and the Finns (well OK one in particular). We didn't do any serious wilderness trekking, just camped on the lake, fished, canoed etc. but I everything had that clean, clear feeling to it. And I guess because summer is short the plant growth is amazing, everything still fresh and green, not that dull colour we can get as things age. The weather was great often up in the 30's so being out on the water was a must and swimming was fantastic, and sitting there at 3 or 4 am in daylight!! Well it confused the hell out of my body clock, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Loads of people spoke English and were shyly happy to do so, I tried to learn as many useful Finnish phrases as possible just so I didn't come over as cocky English person expecting everyone to understand, but they didn't really stick.

As for the mossies, yes they're huge, but they're lumbering slow moving things and you can feel them settle on you before they bite so I rarely got bitten (I seemed to eat quite a few though as they had a habit of landing on my food just as it went into my mouth).

I picked up a bit of kit while I was there too, including a great pair of Nokia's (wellies), and some fishing gear. Beer's bloody expensive though.

Next time it'll be winter just to experience the same landscape with snow, and driving out to her island summerhouse over the ice instead of canoeing across.
 
I have a 6 day window in May

Well make sure you're here/not here* for Vappu (May Day), we'll all be trashed. :)

Vappu is the first Finnish drinking festival of the year, then follows Midsummer and New Years Eve.


* delete as appropriate
 

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