Enjoying the Finnish Archipelago

One of my activities this summer has been exploring the Turku archipelago with my kayak. The Finnish archipelago is the largest in the world by some measures. There are 179 584 counted islands in Finland, some of them in the lakes, but most of them in the sea. The largest archipelago area, the Archipelago Sea, is around Turku, where I live, with about 50 000 islands. Most of the islands are tiny, some just ten meters wide, but yet make great places to visit. The archipelago is also really tightly packed, and you could usually throw a rock to the neighbouring islands.

Not amazingly, many people here have a boat. So did my family when I was a child. We had a rather small motorboat, and my family and other kindred would all gather at the Maisaari island. My brother has a motorboat, and many of my friends have had one, or a sailboat. I kind of like sailboats, so I may get myself one some day.

The number of islands is so high that even though thousands of people go out there every summer weekend, everyone can always get their own island to stay in, if they like. Some of the islands are just small treeless rocks, but most have some forest.

Nevertheless, most of us who live here take the archipelago for granted, and rarely even think about it. So have I for most of my life. I kind of rediscovered it last year when I got into paddling. A kayak is really very useful for exploring the archipelago, as you can get everywhere with it. Many parts of the archipelago are unreachable by motorboats or sailboats, as they are too shallow and have too many underwater rocks, but with a kayak or canoe you can get everywhere. It is a bit slow and requires some effort, but on the plus side, it keeps you in shape. Not surprisingly, kayaking and canoeing have become really popular in Finland, and especially so in the Turku area.

I started kayaking mostly last year, and after some trips with rented kayaks, I got myself one. So far, most of my trips have been just daytrips or one-night trips, and one two-night trip for a weekend. But why stay longer, as you can always go next weekend as well.

At Ominainen, the most famous haunted island in Finland. They used to bury criminals and other nasty bastards here.

A private boat is by no way the only way to explore the archipelago. There are many "water buses" that go to some islands daily, and bigger ferries to the more remote islands. Most of these ferries, especially to the most remote islands, are actually totally free of charge. The ferries go also in the winter, pushing through ice. There's also an Archipelago Route, which you can go by car or bicycle, with free ferries between the islands.

Oh, Finland also has 187 888 lakes (larger than an acre). The number of lakes by the land area is also probably the highest or among the highest in the world.

Transit of Venus in Lapland

Last week was the transit of Venus between Earth and the Sun. This is a rare phenomenon that occurs just twice in 120 years. The last time was in 2004, when I was able to observe it in Turku, and the next time is in 2117. While the event has little astronomical significance today, it was quite significant historically, as it was used to determine the scale of the solar system. As I'm a bit interested about the history of astronomy, this was something I didn't want to miss.

So, last Monday I packed my car and headed towards Lapland. Well, actually on Tuesday morning at 2 am, as packing took a bit longer than I had planned. I drove all night and all day, taking just a short nap. The weather was a big question. Most of the Southern Finland was clear, as was Lapland, but the forecasts were changing more quickly than I could drive with my car. I had to make my final decision at Sodankylä and head either towards Utsjoki in the "head" of Finland, or to Kilpisjärvi in the "arm". I chose the arm over the head.

I had never been at Kilpisjärvi before and it was quite beautiful area, in all its barredness. The Kilpisjärvi lake was still almost completely frozen and there were many groups of reindeer on the road.

As was almost expected, it was totally cloudy when I arrived in Kilpisjärvi at Midnight, just an hour before the transit would begin. So, with 1400 kilometers behind in 22 hours, I turned back. If I had not, I would probably have completely missed the event. After driving some 100 km, I got a very short peek of the Sun at around 01:15, just a bit after the transit had begun, but I had to drive yet another 100 km before I found an area free of clouds.

Well, there it was, the Midnight Sun, hovering low behind the hills. It was unfortunate that I had missed the beginning, because measuring the time from the first to fourth or second to third contact was how the scale of the solar system was calculated using the parallax between different latitudes on Earth.

So, I continued driving to East, trying to find even better spot, even one with other amateur astronomers. I knew there was a group in Saariselkä, on top of the Kaunispää fell, some 400 km away, but while driving there I encountered another cloudfront and had to turn back. So, I settled on the top of the Levi fell, where there is a famous skiing center.

I had also my 30-year old RET-45 telescope with me for visual observations. It was a bit unstable and the secondary mirror was a bit loose, so using it wasn't exactly easy. I tried to take some photos through it with my cell phone, but wasn't successful. So, my main instrument was my Canon 40D with a 700-300 mm f/5.6 tube. It wasn't really long enough, but what could I do.

I left the Levi after some hours and observed the third and fourth contacts at a parking place nearby. I stopped there because I had noticed couple of German amateur astronomers there, taking photos of the phenomenon.

Trekking in Lapland

As I was in Lapland, I wanted to see it a bit. Just by coincidence, my brother had rented a cabin there for a few days and I was able to stay there for some nights. I visited mainly the national park around the Ylläs fell. There were quite a few interesting places.

Near the Ylläs fell and the Äkäslompolo village lie two very deep saivo lakes, Äkässaivo and Pakassaivo. The saivo were though to be sort of bottomless lakes that lead to the Underworld. In the other world, there lived some other people. There were also couple of sacred seita stones nearby. I took walks around them on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. On Thursday I had to work most of the day - isn't Internet wonderful? I logged four geocaches.

On Saturday evening, I went for a short trip over the Aakenus fell. It was a 17 km nature trail that goes over the fell and through some marshes. On the Eastern side of the fell there were remains of a German Junkers Ju-52 transport plane that had crashed in the fell during the 2nd World War. One of the crew had survived the crash, but was injured and killed himself as rescue proved hopeless. After the rescuers arrived after 2 months, they found a puppy at the site. It had survived by feeding upon the crew...

At the midway of the trail, there was a "Porokämppä", literally "Reindeer Hut", a small wilderness hut, which is free for trekkers. It was quite comfortable and I stayed there overnight. In the Sunday morning, I released Vaadin 6.8.0, as the location was more than convenient for our reindeer-themed product.

I arrived back at my car a bit late in the afternoon and headed back to Turku. The drive 1000 km south took almost 12 hours, so I arrived home at about 6 am. I was quite tired and slept a bit long.


Well, the trip was quite interesting. As I had left everything extra off my car (roof box, rack, bicycle), I managed to squeeze the gas consumption to well under 7 l/100 km. Next time I would probably take my kayak with me, or the roof box, which would raise the consumption a bit. It's usually been around 8 l/100 km with the roof box.