10 July 2008

Thursday 10 July 2008

Our plan for today sees us reaching Helsinki. This involves around 65 miles of riding South along Route 130 which is a little bitty yellow road running alongside the gargantuan E12-3. A horror show of a major motorway.

Somewhat surprisingly, we managed to get on the road at the 'must have wet the bed' time of 08:30. This had the benefit of skipping whatever passes for rush hour in Hameemlinna as we had a very straight forward exit from the city.

Turning due South onto Route 130, let battle commence....

Very little traffic as most had diverted to the nearby highway. We also had the pleasure of a reasonable shoulder therefore any traffic that did put in an appearance had little effect on us.

Stopped for a CAKE and coffee at a roadside service after an hour or so and rejoined the fray for more....

As we toiled South, the weather improved and that yellow UFO returned for an encore which lifted our spirits.

We seemed to be Billy Whizzing the miles away today, probably in anticipation of a decent meal and a rest in Helsinki.

Arrived at the outskirts of Helsinki after 60 miles at around 14:00 to be somewhat frustrated by the myriad of poorly signed bikepaths heading into the City centre.

After what seemed like an interminable period of going around in circles (and quite a lot of voluble vented frustration....), we popped up in what appeared to be an industrial estate and luckily, found the main road into town

Arrived at the main tourist info point in the town centre, booked accommodation for the night and a ferry ticket to Tallinn, Estonia for tomorrow night.

Apparently, Helsinki is all booked out tomorrow as 'The Boss' (AKA Bruce Springsteen) is giving a concert to the poor folk of Finland.

Booked into our digs, showered, changed and prepared to eat 'magic Thai' for dinner. We also took the opportunity to book ahead to ensure we have digs in Tallinn when we arrived on the last ferry tomorrow night.

Our plan for the next couple of days is to spend tomorrow grockling in Helsinki then take the 21:40 ferry over to Estonia followed by more grockling in Tallinn on Saturday.

For the eagle eyed, that is two days of REST! Shurley not Miss Moneypenny.... Never fear dear reader, we will back in the saddle on Sunday.

Good to have arrived at our last point in Finland after what seems like weeks of biking. It's taken us 19 cycling days to dispatch the 1100 miles from North Cape, Norway to Helsinki, Finland. At times, we've found the scenery and biking a bit samey so here's to a bit more variety as we say 'Goodbye' to the Nordics and 'Hello' to the Baltic's.

Finland is our single biggest country of the tour and it is a relief to have successfully completed this leg particularly with our limited (and somewhat unusual in Miles' case) preparation.

Total today a very pleasant 70 miles and 500m of ascent. Total trip 1123 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

09 July 2008

Wednesday 09 July 2008

Today we have planned to cycle from Orivesi to a campsite just South of Hattula, Finland. 50 ish of your English miles.

Made our usual start and headed off at 09:15 first picking up a lovely Route 58 into Kangasala. Fantastic cycling, traffic free and lovely surroundings though we had a repeat of the nasty little saw tooth, quad knackering hills. However, the descents were decent enough and gave us a little respite to clear the lactates from our abused legs.

A significant milestone was passed within the first 8 miles when we knocked off our first 1000 miles of the trip! Only another 3000 to go then.....

Romped through Kangasala, heads down, bums up and legs thrashing. Joined route 12 shortly afterwards and traffic volumes increased to yesterday's unpleasant levels. Fortunately 12 has a decent shoulder therefore we were able to cycle more comfortably and much more safely than recently experienced.

Stopped for a mid morning CAKE and coffee at a roadside Kioski shortly before Palkane where we picked up route 57 for our run into Hattula.

Our short time with route 57 was sheer bliss, very light traffic, a lovely shoulder, benign gradients and pretty scenery had us enjoying the moment.

Shortly before Hattula, eagle eyes were deployed for imminent campsite signage but to no avail. Our anticipated stop for the day was AWOL so we continued on to the next town of Hameenlinna hoping to find a suitable motel/hotel etc.

Stopped at a major services in Hameenlinna for a celebratory liquorice ice-cream (?) and picked up a town map for what proved to be a significant sized small city.

Fortunately our liquorice fuelled eagle eyes spotted a campground on the other side of the city and Tracey expertly (and with minimal drama)navigated our way across town to find it.

Dinner was had in the campground bar, followed by gonking and a duet of z's........

One more cycling day to Helsinki. Hip, hip, double bloomin hurrah!

Total today a pleasant though leg burning 60 miles and 515m of ascent. Total trip 1053 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

08 July 2008

Tuesday 08 July 2008

Today's schedule sees us cycling approx. 50 miles to Orivesi, Finland. This but two days cycling from Helsinki, let the countdown begin!

Packed and away at a slightly tardy 09:30. Temperatures still low though better than of late. Overcast again with a following wind. The day improved as it unfolded and we ended with WARMTH and a strange yellow/orange UFO made a guest appearance.

Cycling pretty straight forward. Good roads, pretty and open scenery, reasonable hills followed by delightful descents.

However, the local commercial vehicle drivers appear to have escaped en masse from the Finnish equivalent of Broadmoor. It's fair to say, we've had more close calls today than our entire prior tandeming career put together. Ho bloody hum.

Nice morning CAKE and coffee stop at a Transport café in the town of Mantta a couple of clicks off our route.

Rolled into Orivesi town at around 14:00 for essential supplies and more CAKE and a nice cup of Earl Grey.

Booked into the campsite 5 miles or so South of the town and enjoyed the company of a quad from Nottingham tucking into their supper of Pike. Seems, Pike and Pikey's go together quite well :-) (Snobs? Us?)

Total today a reasonable though scary 54 miles and 475m of ascent. Total trip 992 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

05/06/07 July 2008

Saturday 05 July 2008

Rest Day, yippee!!! Spent the morning catching up on admin (trip notes and Blog) and ablutions (laundry and servicing Disharmony II).

All Tracey's prayers were answered when she 'ran into' (read pursued relentlessly across the campsite) the 'Finnish Naked Man' all comers cup. This consisted of at least 20 blokes mitt choppers swinging in the breeze.
Now a double take of such events would normally be considered sufficient, however Tracey managed to get into triple figures.....just to make sure you know!

In the afternoon, we taxied into Viitasaari town for groceries and a skulk around. Well the skulking was severely limited by Saturday being early closing in these 'ere parts. This proved a novelty for us, having last occurred in the UK in 1952!

We scuttled around our favourite supermarket for a 'British is Best' themed dinner. Egg, bacon, beans, toast and fried snooker ball (tomato) washed down with lashings of Monkey Tea smuggled in by the Goff's. Ahhh, bliss.

Now we know a fry up is not Haute Cuisine, but compared to the shi....errrm stuff available here it is heavenly. Don't come to Finland for the cuisine, you will most certainly be disappointed.

More Scrabble followed the belly buster, resulting in Tracey taking advantage of Miles' replete condition stealing another game to make the score 2-2.

Back in the saddle tomorrow.

Sunday 06 July 2008

Today we have a planned 55 miler taking us to a small campsite near Paajarvi in the middle of nowhere, Finland.

Up and away at our usual time of 09:15 after briefly chatting to another (nutty) cycle touring Brit travelling North.

He set off 5 weeks ago from his home in Zurich (oooooeee!) and was a couple of weeks from North Cape, Norway. Good luck to him, he was 'doing it' to celebrate his retirement!

Weather forecast was dire, very cold and wet all day. We largely managed to dodge the wet bit only being caught in the first shower of the day. The cold bit stayed throughout and in a Northerly wind was blimmin cold!

We bashed out 56 miles on pretty, quiet roads though there were a large number of small, horrible, leg knackering ups followed by reasonable matching descents.

We both got that sinking feeling as we got closer to our destination due to the paucity of campsite roadside signage. In Finland, we have come to expect this to mean the campsite in question was deleted from the world several years previously. We were not disappointed....

Having given up on our intended destination and engaged in looking for a 'natural spot' to camp in, we ran (almost literally) into a sign declaring 'camping'.

We followed the direction of the sign down an increasingly unlikely dirt track to a site that looked to have been abandoned since 1963. In the absence of anything welcoming, we pitched our tent and made ourselves at home.

The evening followed fairly uneventfully though Miles was increasingly uneasy due to the presence of a couple of dossers who showed up and pretended to be staying there for the fishing.

Miles eased his unease (wow, see what I did there, almost poetry) by pretending to be Rambo and carrying a kitchen knife around ready to leap into action at the slightest provocation. Errrrm....maybe not.

The campsite owner also showed her face and relieved us of €15 for the privilege of staying at her closed down site.

The day was completed by the good news that Hamilton had, against all odds, overcome the two Finns in front of him to win the British F1 GP.

Total today a hard 56 miles and 495m of ascent. Total trip 895 miles.

Monday 07 July 2008

After a very good nights sleep despite the knife shaped bump in Miles' pillow) we were up, at em and away by 09:30.

Today we have a planned 45 miles to a campsite in Keuruu, still Finland.

Weather similar to yesterday, very, very cold, overcast but dry.

More gnarly hillocks bashed the bejesus out of our quads for the first 25 miles or so.

Our ride started with a bit of trick cycling that had us performing a 'tactical dismount' when the front wheel washed out in loose gravel. Fortunately, this was at low speed and had us rolling in the road unhurt but somewhat embarrassed.

Stopped at a nice (and now unexpected cafe) for lunch and a coffee 12 or so miles before our ultimate destination. The café owner was most interested in Disharmony II (who seems to get ALL the attention BTW) and he sniffed around her taking illicit photos for his bike porn collection. Dirty boy!

We rocked up at Keuruu at around 15:00 knowing we'd been for a ride even though the computer only read 46 miles.

Very nice site and back in our favourite cabins, we got unpacked then rode back into the town for the nights goodies.

For the record, Keuruu looks to be a genuinely nice place, with both history and character. Go there young man.

Total today a paltry though quad burning 46 miles and 405m of ascent. Total trip 938 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

04 July 2008

Friday 04 July 2008

Independence Day, Yee haw!

After forming a two person escape committee, we made our break at the usual (and rather repetitive) time of 09:15.

Our cabin was immediately opposite the campsite owners house and he took every opportunity to come over and offer his helpful 'guidance'.

We had the last laugh though. The cabin was not equipped with the usual hotplate so we sparked up 'Big Thunder' our temperamental (and frankly downright dangerous) petrol stove instead.

Now we're no authority on the causes and circumstances of domestic blazes but a recalcitrant flame thrower and a tinder dry wooden cabin is probably not a preferred combination... We even had to silence the smoke alarms as they were putting us off our brewing!

Post script to this event was Tracey finding oily black smuts all over the cabin and our stuff so maybe we won't be sparking up again inside anytime soon.....

Anyway, back to the plot..... We set off back on the E75-4, our destination today approximately 70 miles away though, shhhh, Tracey doesn't know....

Hot dry weather, favourable winds and helpful gradual ups followed by yippeee downs had us in Phyasalmi, Finland in very short order. 20 plus miles knocked off before our first CAKE stop in the mother of all Service Stations just outside the town.

We stopped briefly at the bell themed (?) competition on the opposite side of the road. We had a play on the big bells despite the warning signs to leave well alone and Tracey took the opportunity to swing some big knockers to play her favourite tune(s).

Onwards....down the E75-4 playing chicken with the juggernaughts and enjoying every flavour of diesel particulate known to man. The riding at least was swift and we pulled into Pihtipudas for lunch.

There followed the worst pizza in Christendom though we dodged a couple of very heavy showers whilst we considered keeping or throwing.....

We arrived into Viitasaari, 4 miles from our campsite at around 16:30. Had a celebratory ice cream and purchased the days groceries from the supermarket.

After a short interlude, we knocked out the final few K's into Jurvansalo for the night. The joker who thought it would be amusing to put in some evil little stinkers (hills) in between these two place should be taken outside and shot. Bit extreme maybe but really....

We rolled into the campsite with the bike computer reading 80 miles for the day. This makes our tally 170 miles in two days or 3 days riding in two. Time for a rest methinks.

Tomorrow....REST after which we have 5 more cycling days to Helsinki. Hurrah!

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

03 July 2008

Thursday 03 July 2008

Following a delicious breakfast of bacon and scrambled eggs, away again by 09:15. Loaded up and set off....up a 1:3 muddy ravine to get out of the campsite. We soon had our heart rates bouncing as we span furiously from rest.

Planned mileage today around 55 miles ending at a campground at Pyhanta, Finland.

Headed off Southish on route 879 following the shore of Lake Oulujarvi. We kept getting tantalising glimpses of the lake through the trees as the road was separated from the water edge by a thin ribbon of woodland.

Eagle eyed Tracey was credited with our first Bear siting of the trip when she spied one amongst the trees. I stopped to take a photo and grew increasingly suspicious when it failed to move for five minutes. Perhaps it was in training to be one of those statues you see along the Champs Elysee....?

Stopped at a supermarket in Vuolojoki for morning snacks, 30 or so miles into the ride. This is definitely a 'One Whore Town' and even she had been abducted by Space Aliens....

Back on the bike to intersect Route 28 and then turned West for Pyhanta 25 or so miles away.

Good cycling conditions, warm, sunny, light traffic, few real hills and a cross wind from the North that we were sheltered from for much of the time.

Arrived into Pyhanta on schedule at 15:30. Shopped for groceries and left town looking for our evenings campsite. Oh dear.... Well, we looked and we looked and we couldn't find it. Possibly as the little tinker was no longer where it should have been. Another Michelin faux pas methinks...

We spent a good hour rummaging around in the woods looking for a suitable wild campsite until we decided to press on to the next marked site 20 or so miles away.

We fuelled up on some of the goodies we had purchased, to avoid carrying more than strictly necessary and made a bid for freedom.

Despite temperatures that continued to climb and flagging legs, we bashed out the last 20 miles in just over an hour arriving into our alternate campsite at 18:30 with just over 90 miles on the bike computer for the day!

A very quick, monosyllabic dinner was had before an early night and impending unconsciousness took over...

Total today an unexpected and hard 91 miles and 290m of ascent. Total trip 758 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

02 July 2008

Wednesday 02 July 2008

Packed up and away by 09:15. Planned 45 miles today via route 800 to Kangaskyla campsite, Finland.

Point to note, Kangaskyla is next to the mahoosive lake Oulujarvi which may be Finland's largest inland, freshwater lake. If it aint, it blummin well should be...it's so big it looks like the sea.

Very overcast and a little cooler than yesterday. Day started with lots of little sharp ups followed by rolling descents. Wind buggered off somewhere beside/behind us so no problems there.

Lower temps meant Tracey's friends (the Hornets) were asleep today as was any other potential wildlife sightings as we saw zilch.

Route 800 much smaller than 78, very scenic with sparse traffic. Single numbers of vehicles per hour. Downside; no cafes or other rest stops available