Tag Archives: discoverfinland

Collaboration with our first post: Örö

Week 40, 2020
Turku, Finland

NEWS!  for first time in my life, I start to collaborate in writing articles for a more established blog. The name of the blog is:  Out in the Nature and their URL is this one: https://www.outinthenature.com/

A brief story behind this milestone.  I discovered Out in the Nature’s blog last year, when doing some research for umaze.  We were preparing ourselves to visit the labyrinth in Nagu, and the team behind Out in the Nature, had some information about this location in their post: Troy Town rock maze in Nauvo archipelago.

After reading more of their blog, I thought to myself: maybe if I start collaborating with them it will allow me to share some of my discoveries, from my Finnish adventures outdoors. I have this good intention of sharing since long, as you can see in some of my posts as this one in paddling or this one in Koli. However, I confess, it is mainly a good intention. Many times I start to write, but “n” things happen and either I do not start or I leave a post in the middle.  Only few adventures are able to pass the publication’s challenges threshold. Actually, my life, I could say is so similar to the following cartoon of developers….

My reality

I believe a collaboration with Out in the Nature might benefit us both. To me, it will help me to actually finalize articles and share things to an audience, and I will do quality content for the site.  After some emails, we agree to give it a try.  Then I start to write my  first post for them.

Then, guess what?  Yes, the post was al: most ready and my chaos hit my desk, leaving my article in hold. The only aspects  missing were address, some tags, and to activate a plugin needed to activate an interactive story, I made with ubium’s MINE editor. Yes, there were small details, but of those that require time.

Then the collaboration started to bring fruits, as a colleague from  Out in the Nature reach to me, and helping to fine tune the details that were missing. Then voilà the article is out for the public to enjoy. The title is: Örö – Military history and a fragiel ecosystem. You can fin d it in following this link: https://www.outinthenature.com/oro-military-history-and-a-fragile-ecosystem/ Feel free to visit the post and let your comment.

I am so happy.

In my agreement with Out on the Nature is that the interactive stories that I produced can be also share in other blogs. Hence, here is the story I did about Örö

I truly believe this collaboration will be positive for both parties. We will find synergies due to common interests. And most importantly I start to feel it will also allow us to build friendships. Now to move forward in this share journey!

Arrival - Örö

This photo is  our arrival to Örö. First marina of this new collaborative journey!

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Paddling at Kuuskoski

Week 21, 2020
Turku, Finland

Even in pandemic times, there are many things happening during one day. Furthermore, the days continue passing by quickly. I believe if one day I am able to harness the challenge to cope with time, I can say I succeed in one of the biggest quests in life. Anyway, this post is not about time, but about paddling at Kuuskoski.

Thursday May 21 was a public holiday in Finland, the Ascension day.  In this day, Mikko and I decided to go paddling as the weather was perfect: sunny and “warm” (note: warm can be a relative to interpretations depending the context). I didn’t review how warm was it, however for this post I researched this information and according to the Finnish Meteorological Institute and should have been around 13C, as we left late in the afternoon

Weather in Turku on May 21, 2020

 

The follow up question after taking the decision to go paddling was:  where to go? . To give answer to this question, Mikko shared with me a map  (Side note: this map is well done by the  the Foundation of the river Aura). The selection was: Kuuskoski.

Map Aura river

 

We reached our destination, approx 40km from Turku center. The first sign we saw was the placate from http://koskipirtti.com/

Kuuskoski, Finland

Due to the current regulations for covi-19,  we were not able to visit the the museum (behind the yellow house of the photo above) as it was closed. Next time we will visit it. What called my attention was the private home next to the museum, which is BEAUTIFUL.

Kuuskoski, Finland

At first I thought it was a church. However, a sign down a road (next photo) indicated that it is a private property. Nevertheless, I got many questions about this unique construction.

Kuuskoski, Finland

 

The next decision was: which direction to paddle ? We had two options up stream or down stream.  Down stream was a family already enjoying the water, as you can perceive in the photo below. With this photo serves as evidence that in Finland to keep a distance between people to avoid covid-19 transmission is relatively easy 😉

Kuuskoski, Finland

While searching for our start point for paddling, we got a closer view to the rapids” . Note the following photo with my shadow 🙂

Kuuskoski, Finland

We decided to paddle upstream. Thus, a large rock was our departure spot.

Kuuskoski, Finland

 

In total we paddled approx 10km. I can’t believe it!

The following screenshot indicates the point where we return from our paddling.  Where the Jalkalanjoki intersects the Aura river.

returning point

That was approx 5kms in one direction and 5 kms back.  The river was calm and beautiful.

Kuuskoski, Finland

For the human eyes and ears, it is undeniably we are in the middle of spring. Many trees still do not have leafs, at the same time the “lemon-green” starts to be noticeable in the landscape, and one can listen birds singing. This is, unquestionably, a beautiful time.

Kuuskoski, Finland

As we advance paddling the landscape changes.  The naked tree photographed below was magnificent. The photo does not transmit its grandeur.

Kuuskoski, Finland

Suddenly, one could see more  spruce trees as we can observe below (I think those are spruces, I need to ask).

Kuuskoski, Finland

Of course Risen Bear was present all the time 🙂

Kuuskoski, Finland

In the next photo has the purpose to show a bird house hanging from a pole, which in my opinion was a big bird house with a large hole. Wondering who could be the tenants of such a house? (my knowledge of birds is literally nonexistent).

Kuuskoski, Finland

The following  bridge also call my attention. Wondering if I can find information about it. Apparently is a wooden bridge, and with all the calmness of the water look alluring to my eyes.

Kuuskoski, Finland

A closer view to the bridge.

Kuuskoski, Finland

A photo after we just cross it, underneath in our way back.

Kuuskoski, Finland

In this trip I called my mom, who has been inside her flat since mid-march, with the intention  to bring her along and let her see the beauty and calmness of nature.  Also I attempted that she listened to the birds.  However the build-in mic of a mobile phone does not have the quality to capture the birds’ signing. Something to look for: a good mic.  I hope she was able to enjoy some of the landscape.

Kuuskoski, Finland

In our way back the calmness was more evident and the birds were louder, maybe indicating us that it was time to go to sleep.

Kuuskoski, Finland

Getting close to our departure spot.

Kuuskoski, Finland

It was a wonderful and recharging time. No wonder Finns are happy, quality time in nature is unbeatable.

— Yop!