Monday 17 August
We leave Stockholm and head north to Norrtalje which is about an hour drive. We need to spend all the Swedish money we have left since we leave tomorrow so we head for a supermarket and buy a few things. Its funny we always seem to get a couple of favourite things in each country we want to buy more of so we tend to buy a couple of extra of them before we leave. In Sweden it was the muesli I have each morning which is really nice and the berries. We decide to stay in Kapellskar rather than Norrtalje as it is only 5 minutes to the ferry. This camp ground is in the middle of nowhere right on the sea and there is only a port close by and it isn’t a big port. It seemed like the place you would only go and stay before you left for Finland or when you arrived from Finland, but when we got to the campsite there were a lot of permanent residents there which was quite surprising. It was quite a barren area and not in the least pretty with greenery. These people must get sick of campers like us who arrive late in the day and get up early and take off for the port. You can hear the trucks unloading off the ships from the campground which would bother me if I was staying there for any length of time. I did wonder why these people wouldn’t stay in a more pleasant place as this campsite wasn’t a cheap one either, so there are many others that are much nicer to stay.
Tuesday 18 August
We were up early and all sorted and arrived at the docks early. We waited an hour to board and then we were on. We parked the van, added electricity to keep the fridge running and headed upstairs. They had a hot buffet breakfast which was amazing for free, plus free juice, tea, coffee etc. The ferry isn’t a passenger ferry – it only takes vehicles and no walk on passengers, so it was really quiet and you can book a cabin and even take your pets on board. If you have a dog you have to have a cabin for them and outside they have an area for the dogs to pee and poop. Scot enjoyed the bar because the beer is so much cheaper than we have had to pay in Norway and Sweden. The scenery was interesting – lots of little islands most of the way over. We stopped in Aland on the way which is an island that is owned by Finland but the people there speak Swedish. It is an area with lots and lots of little islands. Here we took on more vehicles and there could have been a couple get off.
At 4pm they serve dinner which was smoked salmon and 3 other types of hot fish, beef, spaghetti bolognaise, 3 types of potatoes, lots of salads, breads and then several types of cheeses and crackers. An amazing meal for free. I thought of what this would have cost us if we had to pay and it meant the trip would have almost been for free. During the day there were only a handful of people like us who hadn’t taken a cabin and we sat looking out at the scenery or went up on deck to enjoy the sunshine. They had a duty free section on board and we bought a few cartons of beer and cider as it was the cheapest we had seen in quite a while and hopefully it might last Scot until we get to off the boat…..lol. I do hope a lot longer than that but I am not holding my breath.
We arrived at Naantali around 7pm where we drove off the ferry and to the nearest camping ground a few miles away. I was quite disappointed as we pulled into the area the port was as in my mind I had imagined this pristine looking country with just a small port and no industry, but I clearly wasn’t thinking. This port although not a big one, Tuurku and Helsinki are much bigger, was still full of industry and refineries. The campsite was quite cool, located on a hillside overlooking the water although the view blocked a bit by pine trees, they had a memorial to the naval seamen who had lost their lives during WWII. We had been without wifi now since well before Oslo, so I was a little desperate to get on to some, but this camp had a poor signal and it was only near the main building. In the morning as I was sitting down on some rocks trying to quickly upload some photos for our blogsite, when I saw two squirrels having fun chasing each other around a tree up and down. They were like two little kids they were so hilarious. I called Scot to come and have a look and as he tried to get close to take a photos they got spooked and started tree hopping. They jumped and flew in the air to other trees so well they were amazing. I haven’t witnessed squirrels in the wild like this before. They reminded me of Chip and Dale.
We left this campsite and decided to head off north. We were going to go to Pori, then across to Tampere and up to Vaasa. We didn’t get that far though, we only got to Pori and decided to stop for the day. The campground was a little west of Pori right out on the sea where there was a big port. Because it was a beautiful day again we thought if the beach was nice we would stay. The lady at the campsite said it was possibly Finlands most beautiful beach, so we stayed. We parked up and headed down to the beach and were surprised as there were hundreds of people on the beach and in the water. It was about a 6km long beach and people were spread out. The water looked lovely and wasn’t that deep – you had to walk out a way to be able to swim and it was really flat. We had a swim and enjoyed the sun for a bit. The water was very strange though. Although it was the sea, the water wasn’t salty at all, it was quite unusual and when you got some in your mouth you expected the sea taste but that didn’t happen. I have no idea why it was like this, I thought all the sea was salty end of story.
We had thought we may stay another day, but our morning walk the next day put a stop to that. The beach, although appeared lovely the day before was quite different when walking along it. There was a strange rusty coloured substance floating in some parts and washed up all over the sand in others. It was trapped in little puddles and looked very odd. Then I started to look quite closely at what I thought was just normal weed, but to me it appeared to look more like strange algae. There was definitely oil slick type looking bits of water and the sand away from where we had been sitting the day before was dead and awful looking. The strange thing was there was no wild life here. No sea birds, no sea shells, no crab tracks, no little fish swimming in the shallow water. Maybe what we saw was just normal for here, but I felt this beach was very polluted from the large ports that were around the corner and the rusty stuff was something coming off the ships. I don’t know but I felt quite sick looking at the beach and didn’t want to go back in for a swim. We decided to leave and head north.
We drove across to Tampere which is quite a big city such that we drove in and back out again as there is never anywhere to park and they get too hectic to try and find a place, so out we went. We tried to stop just outside of Tampere for a coffee but the cooling in the van wouldn’t stop when the engine was turned off and last time it ran the battery down, so we started the van back up and kept driving…buggar!
It was quite a drive to Vaasa again on the coast and we found a campground late in the day – after 6.30 that had it’s reception closed for the night. They had a notice saying to come in and see them in the morning when they opened at 10am. Who stays later than they intend just because they aren’t there to collect money? Not us! Again we had a look at the little beach maybe for a swim but as we looked around the bay there was a huge industrial plant of some description not far away and I didn’t think it would be wise to swim again. I am so disillusioned with Scandinavia. My vision was of these very pristine, natural, beautiful countries with no pollution, but each country was destroying their environment in a huge way and feel very sad indeed for all of them. I guess it is also difficult having to share seas with many countries in close proximity to them, you have to put up with whatever your neighbour is doing to their waterways and countryside. Norway’s western side is perhaps the cleanest of all Scandinavia – maybe because there is no neighbours.
We left early the next morning – well before the office was manned. Nothing like the security of a campground without having to pay. This campsite closed it’s gates for winter in a weeks time anyway so I don’t think they would have cared less. One thing we have found so far in Finland is there don’t seem to be any vans from any other countries here. We have only seen Finish vans in the grounds and travelling or in car parks. The facilities aren’t as good as other countries so maybe others don’t come here, I am not sure. In all other countries we always saw vans from at least a couple of other countries and I don’t think it is the time of the year that is the reason.
We leave Vaasa, a town I would like to have seen more of if there was time as it looks very nice. This is about the furthest north either of us have ever been anywhere in the world – further north than we went in Norway. Still had not had any wifi in any of the campsites so far and I desperately needed to get into my banking and bill paying – securely this time. So I am getting concerned. We head off east towards Juuyvaskyla. At a tiny settlement we stop for fuel and a coffee. A lady asks us in English if we have finished with the paper Scot was looking at so I decide to ask her what the headlines translate to English as, because we can see it is about the refugees. She tells us and we tell her our internet access has been nil for a while, so she tells us there is a little library around the corner where we can get internet access for free and secure too. It is a library in a school but the little community obviously use it as well. We venture there and talk to a lady with not bad English and she helps us so I can get some banking stuff done in a secure fashion – well the most secure I am going to get around here. We decide to donate our English novels we have both read so far – about 12 of them – to the library as she has some people who would love to read them. She was really thrilled to receive the English books as they didn’t have too many of them, so I figured that was a great swap. We both gained and we felt great that someone else was going to benefit and enjoy the books we bought with us. She wanted to give us something so she gave me a memory stick with some library stuff on it and some book marks – what a lovely feel good afternoon.
The Finish scenery is very similar to that of Sweden. They have lots of pine, spruce and fir trees, but also lots of paddocks with crops growing. A number of the trees looked like they were about to start changing colour for the autumn which is a shame we will miss here as I imagine it will be quite spectacular. There are a lot of yellow wheat looking crops growing which is the same as we saw around the rest of Scandinavia. There are more lakes in Finland I think than in Sweden especially in the middle of the southern part of the country.
I had found a campsite not far from this place where we could stop for the night as I had had to mark out which grounds were now open and which were likely to be closed. The campsite was on a lake in the middle of nowhere. On arriving it looked like a baron deserted camp, but after checking in and driving down to a spot near the lake we realised what a gem we had found. A beautiful clean wilderness. We could swim to our hearts content and they had saunas and fireplaces, row boats and lakeside walks. A lovely spot. We loved it so much we stayed for two nights. When you are on the road driving almost all day – particularly in these large countries it is really nice to stop for a full day and enjoy the rest.
