Central and southern Finland, on the way to Helsinki 2019

After a few beautiful walks in Oulanka NP, the journey continues south. For the first time in a long time we come across a real town, Kuusamo. Not that there is much to experience here, but it is a huge difference with the many natural landscapes that we have experienced in recent weeks. Kuusamo, just a place where we have slept, and do not even bother to visit it. The next day we drive quietly further south and do this while flirting with the Russian border where we sometimes really drive next to the no man’s land zone. The entire border, or rather the no man’s land zone between Russia and Finland, is marked with yellow marked poles and trees, and yellow warning signs. Here you can not do anything unsuspectingly crossing the border, that is simply not possible and I think that you actually do not want that either. We do a very nice afternoon walk in Hossa NP where the oldest rock drawings of Finland can be seen, beautiful. The drawings are between 3500 and 7000 years old, just beautiful to see. But it soon becomes clear that we have left behind the best in Finland. There will still be beautiful places, but the pure, the untouched, the immeasurable, that wilderness. Yes that is now north of us. We visit a few national parks for walking, visit Joensuu and continue to go further and further south to Helsinki. Helsinki is the last thing we are going to visit in Finland. Now we have to wait and see whether our e-visa for Russia will be approved. If all goes well, the course will head east towards the border to visit St Petersburg, otherwise it will take the boat to Estonia.