Southern Finland, more wintry forest and a small accident

After the desolate north, with Santa Claus and wild life, we drive through Southern Finland. Also here more forest and snow, slippery roads with a small accident as a result.

The Finnish forests

Driving through the Finnish forests in winter is a challenge in itself. After each snow shower, the main roads are thoroughly cleaned. The side roads or paths are sometimes cleared of snow by the snowplow and sometimes by the inhabitants. Yet there is always a fairly slippery layer of knocked-on snow on the roads, I am happy with the preparation I have done on the tires.

Sometimes we take a break from driving to enjoy the surroundings.

Or just to process the impressions.

It is very special to drive for days on snowy roads. The days are still short and the first days in Finland the sun does not rise above the horizon. So it’s dark early so I’m happy with Milady Landy’s good lighting.

Along the side of the road the trees are covered in snow, the small spruces look like trolls.

As we drive south, the days get longer, until the sun rises above the horizon again, we both cheer at the first rays of the sun.

We haven’t seen the sun for weeks, especially the last week, towards the North Cape and back south we only had twilight for a few hours a day.

In the Rokua National Park we take a forest road as far as we can drive.

We take a lovely walk in the National Park and in a log cabin we can make a fire to warm up.

We have lunch by the warm fire with the polar sandwiches we brought with us.

Then we go back to the car, it will stay light a bit longer, but we still have a few kilometers to go. Let’s see if I’m still as young as I feel.

A small accident

We continue along the Finnish lakes to the east towards Kajaani. There we saw a nice camping spot at the Olujärvi lake at Park4Night. It gets darker, but we find the road to this camping spot.

The road to it branches off from the main road. The snow plow has driven up to the houses, but the road continues straight ahead. I put my 4×4 lock on and shift to low gear and drive into the small road. This goes well for about 200 meters, until the car slides next to the path and almost immediately sinks into the roadside ditch.

It’s okay, I think, I don’t have a winch for nothing…

The most amazing thing about this event is that Sonja has remained extremely calm, she even filmed the entire event.

So we are back on our wheels, on the path and quickly look for another place for the night.