Open sea paddling and couple of lighthouses

Majestic Norrskär - lighthouse at sunshine

One of the objectives for this year was to visit on Norrskär and Utgrynnan lighthouse islands by kayak. The islands are very remote and there are absolutely no shelter at all for stronger winds or bad weather. After the midsummer I checked the weather forecast and it looked pretty OK.

The Monday would be still windy, roughly 5-7 m/s from SW, but Tuesday would be perfect day for visiting these islands.

I decided start on Monday at the southernmost tip of the Raippaluoto island towards Rönnskäret - archipelago. On a way I visited Ensten daymark island and started a long, windy and tough crossing over the Gloppet. It took 4 hours to reach Rönnskäret islands and I was totally exhausted. Rönnskäret has old daymark as well and nowadays it's having nature center in one of those islands. The major part of the Rönnskäret archipelago is nature conservation area.

Ensten - daymark

I pitched the tent in a stony shore of the Storskäret island after 35 km paddling. I was feeling the headwind section in my shoulders.The first day route can be seen here.

Rönnskär - daymark

At 6 AM my alarm clock rang and I started to prepare for long open sea crossings. I had a decent breakfast and packed my tent and other stuff in my kayak and started paddling. It was 17 km crossing to Norrskär - lighthouse island ahead of me. The wind had calmed down, but it was misty and foggy. After 2,5 hours paddling I was wondering why I can't see lighthouse anywhere. According my GPS it should have been some 1 km away. I was pondering if I had stored wrong coordinates by mistake. Then suddenly when it was only 400 meters to lighthouse it appeared in the middle of fog, oh boy I was relieved.

Rocky shore, misty and no wind at all

I had a good break at Norrskär, it cleared and sun was shining. I took photos, ate some snack and checked the next crossing. This time 15 km to Utgrynnan - island. I started paddling again and fog appeared again. Similarly after 2,5 hours paddling I was wondering where lighthouse would be, cause it was only 200 meters and I couldn't see it or the island. I was already bypassing the island totally, when on my right hand side there were glimpse of lighthouse in the middle of fog. Unbelievable! I could see the island and lighthouse at 200 meters distance. Without my GPS I couldn't have find the lighthouses, which at normal conditions can be seen from 5-10 kms away!

Utgrynnan

I had lunch on Utgrynnan and the last leg of today's crossings were still ahead. 17 km back to Raippaluoto - island was still waiting. All in all I paddled 87 kms during these 2 days. I'm extremely happy I managed to visit both Norrskär and Utgrynnan - lighthouses.They were my 34th and 35th lighthouses in Finland visited by paddling. The second day route and mainly open sea paddling is available here.

Jukola relay

The start at 11PM

It was my 9th Jukola relay in a row, since 2005. I was hoping to run either 1st, 2nd or 5th leg, because those were the legs I haven't had a chance to try in earlier races.

The original plan was to start a relay in Tampereen Pyrintö team, but last minute changes moved me onto a 2nd leg. It was quite dark just before 1 AM, when I got the map from the 1st leg runner. The first control point was quite far, but it was nice and easy orienteering at the beginning.

Ready for 2nd leg

After 3 km run on a flat terrain there were a steep and long climb, after which a bit more demanding control points. Despite of darkness all went well so far, no problems at all.

Roughly at 6 km from control point 12 onward I had huge difficulties. I lost at least 15 mins during the next 3-4 control points. The latter half of the 13 km leg was just tired running towards finish line. The goal was just to complete the leg and to get to sauna to warm up and to wash myself.

This was the poorest and weakest performance of the Jukola legs in my orienteering history since the first Jukola on 2005. Next year again :)

830 km by bike

830 km by bike during the last two weekends.

Vänern runt 2nd day

Around the Vänern lake in 3 days (580 km) in Sweden was the first cycling event this year. Weather was sunny, but windy and the last 250 km we had to cycle against strong headwind. All in all the event was very social, because everybody had to cycle in a group. I was only Finn at my group and during 3 days I learnt many new Swedish words like rumpa, kissa, omkörning, alla med, bil bakom, möte, hål, etc...

170 km behind at Telemark Tours

The second weekend cycling event was in southern part of Norway, Telemark Tours (250 km) in Skien. The scenery in this birthplace of Telemark was absolutely stunning. Uphills were steep and long and downhills as well. All went well, but at the same time on the other cycling event in Norway "Bergen - Voss 170 km cycling tour", there were fatal accident, when 48 - year old Norwegian cyclist died after 40 meter drop.

Elevation chart of Telemark Tours

The longest uphill took from me 35 minutes to cycle up and at the same time it started to rain. When I was coming down the serpentine road nearly at 60 km/h at rainy and slippery road, I felt time to time a bit uncertain...

This has been absolutely the most beautiful cycling tour I have ever participated. The views were just stunning!

Now it's time to sleep, recover and recharge the energy for Jukola orienteering relay within two weeks in time.

Tres Hombres Adventure

Live now!

Breath thin Himalayan air, get salt water splashed on your face, sit by the fire in a freezing cold Finnish forest and listen to the silence.

We make it happen.

TresHombres Adventure Oy was founded in February 2013 and currently consists of three lines of business.

Tres HombresTravel arranges activity trips to magnificent destinations in Asia, Africa and Latin America. 

Tres Hombres Adventure Club offers a social network for likeminded, active people. We make sure that people are capable and fit enough for the nature experiences and activity trips we provide. 

Tres Hombres Activity provides activities for companies in the Finnish nature. Activities that are fun, teach people new skills and offer a break away from the urban city life.

At the moment Tres Hombres Adventure Oy is in the process of building the digital tools to conduct the business, including interactive web pages, means to share experiences with friends and an active use of the social media.

But, in line with our ideology, we also escape every now and then from the every day life to see, learn and experience.  We just returned back from a tree-week expedition to Southern Africa, where we discovered unspoilt and unforgettable destinations for our new trips.

At your service,

Antti Härkönen, Vesa Airio and Pasi Oksman

www.treshombres.fi.

Zimbabwe - Botswana - Namibia - Zambia

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Tour has continued on a research on Zambezi - river and Victoria Falls area. I flew from Johannesburg to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and started mini-tour of travelling by minibus / combi / taxi in Zimbabwe - Botswana - Namibia - Zambia. The timetables of transportation are not available anywhere.

Sunset at Chobe - river, Kasane, Botswana

But in every village someone knows where minibuses stop or leave to next villages. You just have to go there and wait 2-4 hours in an unbearable heat until minibus, which is full of people will arrive and you realize that everyone who is waiting will be squashed in. Now you can relax and enjoy the bumpy ride tightly squashed side by side the others and sweating like in hell, cause there's no air condition in the bus. This is Africa !!!!

Evening at Zambezi - river, Katima Mulilo, Namibia

You just need to get rid of the clock and just let things happen... Everything is going to be alright finally.

Picking Peri Peri chili

I just fell in love with Botswana. It has incredible nature, vast natural parks, friendly people and great weather. What else could you ask for ?

Moon over Zambezi - river, Katima Mulilo, Namibia

My favorite countries so far from southern part of Africa are Swaziland and Botswana. Hopefully I'll have a chance to relive the hospitality of these two countries many times in the future.

South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland

Berlin Falls at Blyde River

It has been warm and exciting 10 days so far on a travel through South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland. All of those three countries are so different from each others, which surprised me totally and I couldn't imagine it at all beforehand.

Zebras at Kruger national park

I have been travelling with other two partners and we have been doing a research on the southern part of Africa to find travel destinations, which we could put on our offering in Finland. Kruger national park is a huge park, where you can spot e.g. big five, i.e. lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino and leopard.

South Africa is enormous country and we have covered only northern and northeastern part of it by driving 2700 kilometers on long and straight roads through the savanna, forest, jungle and fields...

Local traffic jam at Kruger

Blyde River Canyon had stunning views on viewpoints and the milder climate with pine trees and South Africa's heaviest rainfall per year. 

View from the terrace of the lodge at Ant's Hill

Swaziland offered hospitality I have not encountered elsewhere. I must admit I lost my heart to Swaziland totally. It reminded me about Belize, which is a country in Central America and which made similar impact to me when I was travelling there.

Paying for the gazoline

Our trip will continue still one week before returning back to snowy and cold Finland...

P.S. Swaziland was my 100th country

Comparison of Worldloppet ski events

Finlandiahiihto was 6th and last Worldloppet ski race this winter for me. Now I'm feeling totally exhausted and need a good rest. Based on my subjective opinion and experience from the different Worldloppet events I composed a comparison of 7 different Worldloppet ski race.

	Birkebeinerrennet	Dolomitenlauf	Marcialonga	König Ludwig Lauf
Distance	54 km CL	42 km CL	70 km CL	50 km CL*
When (week)	11	3	4	5
Total ascent (m)	1010	745	757	272*
Start	Rena	Obertilliach	Moena	Ettal
Finish	Lillehammer	Obertilliach	Canazei	Oberammergau
Track condition	10	10	9	1*
Route	10	8	9	8*
Fluency (no jam at track)	8	8	6	7
Washing facilities	9	6	4	-
Transportation	-	-	9	9
Comments	Scenic route over the mountains. Physically tough.	At high altitude. Steep and long climbs.	Through tiny villages at Val di Fiemme valley.	*Due to exceptionally warm weather and lack of snow, route was shortened to 42 km.
Tips	Start slowly, demanding climb at the beginning.	Travel 2-3 days before to acclimatize to higher altitude.	The start place is crucial. Lots of waiting and standing in queues if start place is in the last groups.	Original 50 km route would have been more scenic.

	La Transjurassienne	Tartu maraton	Finlandiahiihto
Distance	50 km CL	63 km CL	50 km CL
When (week)	6	7	8
Total ascent (m)	648	695	527
Start	Les Rousses	Otepää	Lahti
Finish	Mouthe	Elva	Lahti
Track condition	10	10+	5
Route	10	10	6
Fluency (no jam at track)	8	9	7
Washing facilities	8	-	9
Transportation	5	8	-
Comments	Very scenic route. Lots of snow.	Well organised. Easy and good route. Tracks in excellent condition.	Overpriced. Tracks always in poor condition.
Tips	Rent a car from Geneva airport, don't take transportation from the organiser. Get accommodation from Mouthe.	Tampere maja accommodation in center of Tartu is excellent. Buses to start leave very close.	Never again…

As requested I added similar comparison table from three well-known ski events in Finland...

	Pirkanhiihto	Pogostan hiihto	Vuokattihiihto
Distance	90 km CL	51 km CL	60 km CL
When (week)	9	11	12
Total ascent (m)	749	447	777
Start	Niinisalo	Ilomantsi	Vuokatti
Finish	Tampere	Ilomantsi	Vuokatti
Track condition	8	8	9
Route	7	8	9
Fluency (no jam at track)	8	9	9
Washing facilities	-	9	9
Transportation	9	-	-
Comments	Early start at 7 AM. Typically dark and cold at the beginning.	Hospitality and nice atmosphere. Beautiful route in wilderness up to Petkeljärvi national park.	Scenic climb to Vuokattivaara.
Tips