Gorran Haven August 30

On this day we went a bit closer to home on the south coast of the county, Gorran Haven. We had a few difficulties finding the private car park, but eventually found it and even worked out how we were meant to pay, after being chased by a man at the gate...

Again, there were lots of people about making the most of a sunny summer day. It had started out chilly, so I wore a long sleeved shirt, which I bitterly regretted almost immediately. Always wear layers! We made our way down winding streets to the water's edge. There was a tiny beach, maybe 15 metres square, jam-packed with sunbathers. We left them behind, and started heading uphill to the cliff tops.

Again, there were blackberries along the way, which we happily browsed on. This was the cause of some friction with another family with a small boy, who wanted to pick berries too, but his parents just wanted to move along. Too bad! We couldn't let them go uneaten...

We had to walk through a few fields with cows, which were supremely unconcerned with us (thank goodness.) It was very hilly, but we soldiered on gamely.

Somehow these cliffs did not seem so wild as the north coast ones, although it is hard to say why. Both were right next to farms... We walked through a bit of woodland, and through another village. People were seen picking more sloes than blackberries, which interested me. Maybe there is something else to do with them than soak them in gin... or maybe many people like a good store of sloe gin in the cupboard. Hmmm.

The last stretch of the walk we saw few people in.

We were glad of long trousers because of close brambles and rampant stinging nettles.

Then there was the most vicious uphill stretch we have ever encountered. It was all soft green turf, but only about 2-3 metres wide, so zig-zagging up it was not an option. The children actually went on hands and knees in a couple of places. Wayne decided to power up it, but I floundered up it panting like a fat labrador. Sheesh! I don't think this photo of Eleanor and me on it does it justice, although Eleanor is crawling and the foreshortening is not at all flattering to my legs. Thankfully, it was nearly the last stretch, so we did not have far to go to the car park.

This time, we did look around for a pub. Unfortunately, we could not find one that was open for lunches. At least we quenched our thirst before heading home for a feed.

Polzeath walk August 29

Once we had overcome our exhaustion from trips to The Continent, we resumed our exploration of this lovely county, Cornwall. Here we are at Polzeath, an area recently getting its 15 minutes of fame for being where the holidaying British P.M. unexpectedly had a baby arrive. (This was some time after we had an explore of it, I might add.)

This was not one of the famous pub walks. Wayne found a good site on the internet about circular walks that involved the Cornish coastal path, without having to imbibe pints of ale afterwards. (Well, okay, that is always an option, but you don't have to circle about a pub). So this time we found a beach car park and payed an outrageous £4 or so to stop driving. Then we wound our way through the main street, very full on this sunny day. It was on our way through a caravan park, cutting up to a footpath, that we had our first moment of bliss. Blackberries! I hadn't picked them since my girlhood days on the Queanbeyan river. Yum!

Interestingly, there were some small trees with what looked like oval blueberries on them, high up, interspersed among the brambles. I later found out they were sloes, growing on Cornish blackthorns. So now I know what the poets meant when they talked of sloe-eyed maidens. Another box ticked! Apparently sloes are the primitive fruit whence modern plums were bred. Sloe gin is very tasty... sloes themselves are not, although not poisonous. Jack and Annie tasted them, and reckoned they (sloes) sucked all the moisture out of the mouth. A bit like a mouthful of alum, then...

We forgot our camera, but Wayne remembered his phone could take photos. (My phone died after being doused in water from a leaking bottle). This is why he is not in any of these pictures. So, we started out in the lanes near green fields and contented cows. We stopped often to browse on the blackberries...

Here are Jack and Annie resting on a stone wall, quite rare in rural Cornwall where hedges rule. You see the hay baled up in large cylinders behind them. The footpath then took us through the fields towards the sea.

Here are the girls in front of an island just offshore. It was a glorious day for a walk.

Then we came upon the coast walk proper, and set off southward along the cliffs. We actually saw some other children on this walk. (I think our children had heretofore thought they were the only 'rambling' children in Cornwall, if not Britain.) The summer brings them out... and actually, the last bit of our walk was not far from a large surf beach, with many families making little forays in all directions.

Here is Annie near an interesting cleft in the cliff. Jack did not like these cliff bits. Not afraid for himself, he thought everyone else might topple at any moment.

Eventually, we rounded a headland and looked down on Polzeath beach beneath. It is quite renowned for surfing. Anyone in the water had a wetsuit on - the day was warm, but the water was not. The beach was a wide expanse of flat sand that was suitable not only for beach cricket, but a full test match, Wayne reckoned. People sunbathed everywhere.

We thought we would have to come to the north coast around here again.

Last days in Finland: August 18 & 19

Wednesday morning the children had an invitation to visit the local Primary school. (Minna, our Treasure Island host, is the principal). They were a little nervous, but had an interesting morning. Wayne and I went in with Eleanor to see what was what. Children start school at 7, and the first two years are the Montessori system. Eleanor had to take her sneakers off at the door! Stocking feet only for all students... I think you can wear shoes at high school.

In the evening, we went to Tuija's house for a walk and dinner. Tuija's husband is a keen cross country skier, so they bought a house that backs on to a special track. This gets sprayed with snow as soon as the weather is cold enough, and has lighting for skiing in the dark. Here we all are at the top of a hill behind her house.

On Thursday it was the grown-ups turn to go back to school. We had a tour around my old high school. I noticed that the teachers aren't on a platform at the front of the classroom any more. Every class was still full of very studious pupils. These students are 16 - 19, in the 'academic' stream. (Other students go to the equivalent of TAFE after junior high). It is almost like university, where you sign up for courses, and are not necessarily with age-mates. It seems to work!

We picked these berries from the front garden in the afternoon. I think they are redcurrants. There were a lot of gooseberries too.


That evening we took our hosts out to dinner. Minna and her daughter came too. Pekka didn't come- he was off to his summer cottage again, first to work with his colleague, then to do some duck shooting the next day. Worryingly, duck season was due to start at just about the time our plane takes off from Kuopio. I had visions of flocks of ducks taking to the skies in panic, and getting caught in our plane... (It didn't happen.)

Wayne and I ate duck for dinner, anyway. It was a 'game evening' - as in things you shoot - at the restaurant. The other adults ate elk. The girls boringly ate hamburgers and Jack had a mighty 'hunter's sandwich', but did try some fried 'muikku' (vendace in English, a freshwater whitefish ) as a starter. Here's Mette showing how it's (apparently) done in Holland. Good food, good company!

So, we flew home the next day and managed to get a train to Liskeard that afternoon. A terrific holiday!

Blueberries, blue water: August 17

On Tuesday, Pia had to go to work, but Kari said he would take us out to look for blueberries. We had no great hopes of success, because it has been such a dry season. The blueberries we had already seen were few and far between.

But Kari is a cunning chap, and knows some good spots. Off we went down some dirt roads. Kari said there were supposed to be houses built here, but development plans had been put off. So, there was no groomed forestry land. There was good old weedy, dense undergrowth - and, somehow, it was damp! I imagine in an ordinary year it would be like a swamp here. But this year it certainly delivered the goods.

We had a large bucket, and a smaller one, and some special combed scoops purpose built for dragging through the berrie bushes and scooping up the stuff by the litre. Kari said you could fill the whole vast bucket in 20 minutes in Lapland. It took us about 3 hours, but we were happy to wander about, enjoying being outside.

What impressed me was the smell. Not only pine trees, but some beautiful perfumed shrub released odours when you tromped through it after the berries. How good can this get, I thought!
(Note the childrens' purple mouths. Not all berries made it into the buckets!)

Clever Kari managed to find some more mushrooms, but not chantarelles this time. Check out his birch-bark mushroom basket, made for him by a friend. (It is divided into four sections, for different sorts of mushroooms.) When we got back, we had to sieve the berries, because we got a fair amount of leaves and other detritus in the scoopers. Then we put some berries in a pie, and froze the rest, ready for winter. Pia was very pleased that we had found so many in a bad year.

After dinner, Kari went off to direct his male choir. Pia had a children's sailing club to run. We went down to watch, and our kids managed to get some spare boats, too. Wayne and I went for a little row in the club tinnie. It was a beautiful evening.

Exploring the country: August 16

After we left the Korhonens, we drove around the Heinavesi area, which is a very attractive part of Finland. First we drove up a tall hill, which had lovely views of the surrounding lakes. Here we are in front of it:

Right behind us was the Heinavesi Lutheran church. 90% of Finns are Lutheran, so there is usually only one big church in town. This was the biggest church in rural Finland:

We were going to look inside it, but the official tourist season had finished the day before, so we had to be content with a walk around and a peer within. We could hear someone practising the organ within.

On we went, to look at some rather rare rapids and a lock system for boats. (Pia and Kari go sailing a lot in the summer, so they were checking out future options as well as the scenery.)

There was a museum near this set of locks that Kari was interested in, but, again, it had closed yesterday. It was very warm, but apparently summer was over!

We then went to an outlet selling rag rugs and table runners and other handicrafts. Riita Korhonen had told Pia about this, as the crafts were very cheap, being more a social project for the handicapped rather than a straight-out business. There was some very good stuff in there, but Pia did not buy anything this time. Kari bought a wooden fly swat with a leather flap...

On we went, surprisingly to a monastery. The other 5% of Finns are Orthodox, and this was their headquarters. Bearded priests with black robes could occasionally be seen. It was very interesting looking at the heavily ornamented churches, and peaceful buildings. There was a very good restaurant there, where we stopped for lunch. There was an excellent fish soup, and I particularly liked the fried herring and the mushroom mashed potatoes. There was an excellent 'home beer', non-alcoholic... something like root-beer, I think. It is made on site. Several wines are made here too, but they were not in the restaurant! There was a shop too, where I bought some 'forest tea', which should be interesting. Anyway, the monks seem to have found a good way to supplement their income.

We finished our tour by driving to the big tower in Kuopio, to look at the surrounding land. Here we are on the observation deck:

Some people managed an icecream here; I don't know how after our large buffet lunch! I didn't.

Back we drove to Iisalmi in the evening sun.

August 15: Heinavesi

After a quiet morning in the sun on Treasure Island, we packed up, ready to visit another host family. "I want to live here!" said Eleanor, who had been exploring the island with the dog in the morning. I had joined her for a bit, but I found no mushrooms. There was plenty of 'horsma', though - a tall weedy plant at the gone-to-seed stage, all fluffy white. 'Purple loosestrife'? Nothing I've seen in Australia.

This time we did take two trips to cross the lake, as it was quite windy and choppy. Anyway, soon we were on the road to Heinavesi, about an hour away. My first host family had retired to this place, and I was really looking forward to meeting them.

Their house was quite a long way on an unsealed road. I wondered if they got snowbound in winter, it seemed so far from the main roads. Anyway, soon we arrived, and were warmly greeted not only by my former host parents, but my 'sister' Liisa, who was holidaying from Germany where she now lives with her film-making husband and two little girls.

We walked up to the house. "Did I say, it can't get much better?" Wayne said to Kari. This place was absolutely beautiful. No summer cottage, but a year-round house, it was spacious and furnished in a great deal of wood and rag-rugs, in the traditional Finnish way. We were led out onto a back porch, overlooking the late-afternoon lake. A tiny island was just off-shore. Large lichen-covered rocks were interspersed amongst the tall firs and gracious birches. I was reminded of a Japanese garden, somehow, although it was all completely natural. Our hosts had just put a tub of scarlet geraniums in one or two places, which perfectly set off the colours and textures. Then Matti put a glass of champagne in my hand, and I was so overwhelmed at the beauty and the joy of seeing them again that I got a bit teary!

After our welcome drink, we had coffee and some lovely pie. Then we started preparing for the sauna. Matti was going to make fresh birch 'vasta': bunches of birch leaves with which to dip in water and whack on your skin. Here we are, trying to make them ourselves...

And Matti gathering a bunch together with green birch bark.


Then we got the grand tour of the propery, including the sauna here.

This sauna was very large. The girls went first tonight (to Annie's grim satisfaction), and four women and four little girls fit in their very easily. The tiny ones, two and four, sat on the ground pouring water from bucket to bucket. The four year old, Lily, was very taken with Eleanor. She couldn't speak English (only Finnish and German, dear dear!) but somehow they got on well. The two year old had floaties on her arms in the lake. And this lake had no slimy bottom, no icky weeds, no dodgy boards on the pier. Everything was just perfect. The birch leaves made everything smell beautiful. I had a bit of a rash from too much sun (of all things!), but the oil in the leaves made it go away. The Finns reckon there is not much that a sauna won't cure, and they may well be right!

After the men had their go, we had a delicious dinner. It was another sort of home-smoked salmon, and lovely potatoes and salad and different breads. We tipped the tired children into bed, but conversed late again. Liisa's husband has a very interesting job, and they travel to many places. He can speak German, English, French and even a bit of Chinese as well as Finnish. Wayne and I felt our isolation as Australians.

We had another sleep in. We took these pictures the next morning, before we left. That is a shed in the background, not the house proper. (The light was wrong both in the evening and the morning for a photo of it!) It had been an excellent visit.

August 14: Treasure Island

Today we had been invited to visit the island summer cottage of Minna (Pia's other sister) and Pekka. Its name translates into 'Treasure Island' in English, which excited my daughters especially. (On the long train journey to Italy, they had read 'Swallows and Amazons', mostly because their was nothing else to read, but they eventually got hooked on the sailing adventures of those old-fashioned children. Their sailing lessons with Pia cemented this.)

It was about 45 minutes by car. This island is one in the Kuopio district - we probably flew over it as we came in originally. We parked the car on a rough road and carried all our gear to the lakeside. Soon Pekka motored up in his tinnie. I thought seven passengers plus luggage was a bit much for one trip, but we made it okay (although a bit deep in the water!) And what a place! An excited retriever dog barked a lot as we disembarked, just to make it all a bit more perilous, but then it raced off to sniff all over the island as it seems to do all day.

Pekka owns the whole island - about two acres I guess. The sauna was down by the pier, for ease of jumping in the water. What made the place really beautiful was that the house was up on a hill - unusual for Finland. It is quite new, too, so climbing all the stairs up to the deck was pleasant and safe! A huge deck framed the cottage on two sides- another unusual feature for a summer cottage. It was painted dark red, in the usual manner, and a little outside loo (composting, non-stinky) was off on a path around the back. The sun shone down, we relaxed on deck chairs and gazed through the tree tops around us across the lake.

The grown ups then enjoyed a glass of sparkling wine. (Eleanor didn't, although in this photo she looks a bit woozy!) Then the men went down to the sauna for the first shift, as Pekka was appointed chef and would cook while the girls had their go. We had a pleasant chat, and waited... after 2½ hours we sent Jack (who had had enough some time before) down saying that we were fed up with waiting and were going to crack the next bottle of champers. Kari apparently told Jack, "They wouldn't dare," (knowing that Pia was a bit scared of the cork), when a loud 'pop' shot the cork over the roof! We had finished this second glass before they emerged, though.

"It doesn't get much better than this," said Wayne, and we could not disagree.

We women-folk only had ¾ hour in the sauna and lake, which Annie especially resented as 'not fair'. Since it was now about 10 o'clock at night I was prepared to forfeit my rights and eat. (It's funny how you stay up so late when it is light. Out children are usually all fast asleep by 9:30 at the latest.)

It was a delicious barbecue, quite well oiled with wine. The men had had quite a lot of beer at the sauna, too...

Needless to say we all slept rather late when we finally went to bed, and breakfast was rather quiet. It was a terrific day, though!

Heikkinen's and Rautavaara Lake August 13

It was another sunny and hot day. Pia and Kari had to work in the morning, but Lassi had arranged to take us out to visit my third host family, the Heikkinens. I barely recognised my old home, which I had gone to live at in the dark, cold end of the year. Here was a summer house, with barley fields ripe near the path, and apples, gooseberries and more ripe in the garden.

Sakari, my host father, has Parkinsons now, but is still getting about. Maija seemed unchanged. My host sister, it seemed, was recovering in hospital having given birth to her first child! We met her husband.

We were given an absolutely huge morning tea, with all sorts of cake and biscuits and even ice cream. Even the children were full to bursting. Then we had to go out into the garden and sample the fruit...

We walked down to the lake, where Anne and her husband live and help with the farm as well as other jobs. Here we are, with Lassi...(light blue shirt)...

And Wayne is in the picture here: Here is Anne's house, all lovely and wooden and snug. They have a smoke-sauna also.

With much well-wishing on both sides, we went back to Pia's house. Soon we were off to Rautavaara, a lovely national park near Kari's home town. Here is Jack near a sign of the attractions:

Usually this would be a marshy walk, but the hot weather had dried it out a lot. Still, we picked some blueberries along the way. And here I am at the end of a peninsula. It was so nice to walk in a pine wood that was not a monoculture... lots of berry plants and lichen at the feet of the trees. Still, it has been a harvested forest. Very light and airy though.

Down to the lake for a swim! This is what the children had been waiting for:

And here is Wayne, looking all out-doors-y:

And one of everyone, with the camera on automatic in the sand!

We had a snack here, then pushed on to Kari's Mum's old place, near a dense wood and (of course) a lake and sauna. This was a proper brushy, weedy, sink up to your knees sort of place where we hoped to get some mushrooms. It was very dry, though, so Pia soon led us back down to the sauna. Kari persevered, up to a secret spot of his, and came back with some treasured chantarelle mushrooms. These were packed away. We then had a modest, mixed sauna (i.e. with swimmers on), and alternated between sauna and lake for a while, while sausages cooked on a grill. We had to tread a bit carefully on old boards, and over some ants, but it was very pleasant indeed.

The dear little girls decided to have a stinky mud fight at one point... Then Wayne found a fishing rod... No fish, but a lot of fun. Back home to a well-needed rest.