We had a trip planned for Dom's angling writing, to make a feature about the Kuusamo factory where they produce fishing 'spoons'. Everything had been arranged with the Director of the company and a rude awakening of 5am greeted me as we had to be on the road for 6am. The journey was mainly uneventful until the further North we went, the more vast and beautiful the scenery became.
Every time we visit Finland, we hope to see an elk or moose. Sadly this has not happened so far, but we saw the next best thing; a raindeer wandering around the road like a village drunk! We tried to get some pictures, but obviously the Finns are used to this sort of thing and beeped their horns at it. On the return journey, I saw a single raindeer laying down in a ditch by the side of the road. I hope it had not been hit by a car....
The lakes in the area are HUGE and clear and clean looking. The weather was so calm, the water looked like a mirror.
On arrival at the factory, we were greeted by the director, who took us over to meet his partner who ran the shop. Both of these people gave us such a warm and friendly welcome and had offered their home for us to stay at whilst we were there. Annukka and I got along extremely well and they prepared us a fine feast of smoked trout and risotto. Their home was beautiful and they also took us for a little tour around the town itself and showed us the sauna cottage they were building beside a lake.
The next day, Dom and I went fishing with Kimmo (the director) in his boat, that he had arranged at an old traditional Sami village. The chap who ran the place, Tuomo; was a softly spoken, friendly and gentle man. His wife prepared a superb lunch for us which consisted of locally caught whitefish, vendace and pike. I can honestly say it was the best fish we have ever tasted. Over dinner, we were told about the history of the place, which was very interesting.
I was very sad to leave Kuusamo and our new friends. Everyone had been so hospitable, kind and proud of what they had achieved and their roots within Finnish culture. We have been invited back next year, which we probably will do!
On the journey up, we were driving quite quickly and we sped past an art installation that I had been aware of from Finnish friends photographs. We promised ourselves that we would stop on the way back, which we did. As you can see from the picture, it is called 'The Silent People' () and was constructed by artist and dancer, Reijo Kela. These are wooden crosses which are clothed and have peat cuttings for heads. There are nearly 1000 of these in a field beside the road. It is quite an eerie sight. We were told by the people who maintain the installation that it was also like a big second hand clothes store and that we could change something if we wanted. There was rather a nice Vihti biker gang t-shirt, which I swapped with the one I was wearing; a band that I know very well. They are going to love it when they see the pictures!
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