Skiing at Saariselkä

• Length of the trip : 1 week, 30.11 - 7.12
• Total distance skied : 170 km
• Exercise time : 14 hours
• Animals seen : 2 reindeers and 3 Siberian jays (kuukkelia)

• Coldest day : Sunday -27 degrees
• Shortest day : Friday 0 minutes
• The most memorable day : Friday (Finnish independence day)
• Track conditions : Good, 40 km ready-made tracks

The new year

The most natural starting point of the new year for me is in the beginning of November instead of traditional new year in the beginning of January.

All the plans and goals are typically targeted during the first 10 months of the year and summer time being the most active time. When autumn comes the body turns into an energy saving mode and starts to prepare itself for a long winter time. It's the time to do next year planning as well. When real new year comes in January, I have lived a next year already two months.

Now when we are living the last days of the year 2013, it's time to look back and to see how I managed to complete the objectives and goals set last year.

First of all I was planning to ski 6 Worldloppet races around the Europe last winter and all of them were successfully finished!

Secondly the plan was to cycle 3 Skandinavialoppet races during the summer. I managed to complete 2 of them.

Thirdly I was trying to conquer by paddling 2 unvisited lighthouses on Baltic Sea. I did it and even managed to visit on a 3rd lighthouse as well. Well done!

Fourth goal was to run on Jukola relay and so I did.

Fifth goal was to visit in a 3 new countries and thus get 100 countries. Well, this goal was exceeded clearly as I visited in a 9 new countries. As a consequence there are no European or American countries anymore, where I haven't been. It's easy to guess where I'll be travelling in the future -> Asia and Africa.

Sixth goal was to establish a start-up company and currently I'm employed by myself in my own company.

Year 2013 has been exceptionally laborious and exhausting. Therefore I haven't been planning such amount of tasks and goals for the next year. The goal setting for 2014 can be seen on the column right-hand.

Couple of lighthouses and daymarks in a day

The last weekend was great paddling weather in Finland and thus on Friday I made a quick decision to head to Baltic Sea to paddle on the area of Tamminsaari archipelago and visit on 2 lighthouses and 2 daymarks.

Paddling route on Saturday can be seen from here.

I have been paddling in Tammisaari archipelago many times, but now the intention was to head out to more remote lighthouse islands. The start was from the harbor of Sommarö and the first leg was 18 km stretch to Längden lighthouse. It took 3 hours to reach the island, wind was blowing moderately 3-4 m/s. Island is tiny and full of ladybirds. It seemed that lighthouse was painted just recently...

Längden

There were only 3 km paddling to Storgadden - daymark island. It's a tiny islet and extremely difficult to get ashore from kayak. I even managed to capsize my kayak when trying to leave the island. Fortunately water was quite warm and sun was shining.

Storgadden - daymark

The next daymark was Segelskär roughly 5 km from Storgadden. There were good spot to get ashore between two islands and it seems it is known by local people as well. During the time of 1 hour there were at least 4 boats bringing people to enjoy the beautiful weather and scenery.

Segelskär - daymark

On a nice tailwind of 2-3 m/s it was good to paddle still towards Sundharun - lighthouse island. There were 10 km crossing, but it was nice and fast. There were good landing spot on the southern bay in the island.

Sundharun

44 km paddling day ended on Jussarö - island on a guest harbor. Lot's of sailing boats and people were spending weekend here. I had had cold at some point earlier on this week and I was getting flu.

On Sunday I was totally exhausted and having fever. Therefore 14 km stretch back to starting place was tiresome. All in all it felt great to get a chance to visit on Längden lighthouse, it was my 36th lighthouse visited by paddling, only 2 lighthouses more to go...

Last one in Europe

It was the last one for me. Belarus. The only country in Europe, where I hadn't visited so far.

Welcome to cozy airport in Minsk

I mailed my VISA application to the Embassy of Belarus at Helsinki. Few days later I got it back via return mail without success. I had to change the application and didn't had too much time before the departure date. Therefore I was forced to travel to Helsinki and submit my application personally to embassy.

Fortunately I got my passport with Belarusian VISA couple of days before the flight to Minsk!

Broad avenues

The international airport of Minsk is not the most attractive and modern one. It's kind of relic from past Soviet times. Foreign visitors need to buy a travel insurance before entering the country. It was only 2 Euros for a short visit. When I had successfully bought insurance and passed passport control, I entered bare entrance hall and managed to exchange Belarusian rubles.

The bus from the airport to the center of Minsk was only 2 Euros instead of taking taxi and paying 30 Euros. The bus driver (and nobody else) didn't speak any English.

Orthodox church at the best place in town

Minsk is full of smokers and blondes. It seems to be some sort of fashion to tint hair from brown to white. Avenues are broad and buildings huge. Orthodox is present in everyday life. English is not spoken at all, you need to know some Russian...

Jere Karalahti was flying back to Finland in the same plane.

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.