run for your life

As I watched memory lane disappear in my rearview mirror, I felt excited to now be venturing into completely new and uncharted territory. I had an approximately 150km drive to reach the Päijänne National Park. The park was established in 1993, has an area of 14 square kilometres and consists of 50 unbuilt, inhabited islands. It’s located at the southern end of the Päijänne Lake, which stretches from Jyväskylä in the north to the city of Lahti in the south. Given its size, I had to choose to explore just a small area of it on this first short visit. So, I decided on the Niemisjärvi area, which is very close to the main park base at Evo. The area is centered around three  key lakes, the upper and lower Niemisjärvi, as well as the Vähä-Koukkujärvi. It offers great facilities for either a single or multi-day visit, and as I was staying overnight, I set up my van in a specially designated, and secluded site for travel vans, and I very much appreciated the convenience of the dry, compost-based toilets.

After a quick snack and chill, I headed off to explore, which would include circumnavigating the three lakes along the trails and over the network of duckboards. There was also an initial section, all the way from the start to Vähä-koukkujärvi, which was built to accommodate the use of wheelchairs, to make it accessible for visitors with physical impairments. Vähä-Koukkujärvi is the smallest of the 3 lakes, and the environment there has been specially set-up to offer nature and fishing experiences for young people.

Staying overnight at this national park was just so much nicer than at the ABC service centres on previous days. Not that they were bad, but spending time in solitude, in the deep peacefulness of nature, was on a whole new level as far as experiences go, and it certainly made me even hungrier for more of the same!

After taking a moment to soak in the rays of the early morning sun through the trees, I fired up the van and got an early start on the next leg of my journey, to Torronsuo National Park. As it would be just a relatively short drive of some 120km, there was absolutely no rush. So, I stopped halfway at a roadside rest area to make myself a cup-a-soup and coffee. At the same time, it was a good opportunity to practise my roadside water-boiling skills in the presence of a fairly strong breeze. I think I put my IKEA exercise mat to great use!

It was rather hot upon my arrival at Torronsuo around lunch time, with the midday sun blazing down strongly from high in the sky. In other words, it was an absolutely glorious day to go for a relaxed 2 hour long stroll over the Suotaival loop. In the next video, I will show you all of the best parts from that hike. So I’ll catch up with you again in that one. Thanks and be blessed.

Jyväskylä is the main city in Central Finland and is located 270km north of Helsinki, the capital. Elias Lönnrot, the compiler of the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, gave the city the nickname, the ‘Athens of Finland, which refers to the major role of Jyväskylä as an educational centre. And so it is. Much of the life in Jyväskylä revolves around its university, which includes the very large campus and student village areas. I myself was a student there in the mid nineties.

One of the main reasons for visiting Jyväskylä after a 25 year absence was purely for the sake of nostalgia. However, I must admit that walking around the campus and the various parts of the city also elicited a wide range of emotions. Like with anything from our past there were both good and bad times, but all of them were certainly learning experiences. Now, with a much wider and clearer perspective, I could much better understand that the education I got from living life in this place was a lot more than just a masters degree in health and sports sciences.

The university campus is connected to the city centre via a long gently sloping road, which becomes a pedestrian mall at its ends. And when you see the massive number of bars, cafes and eateries, it’s pretty obvious this central area has developed as a place for students to party. Personally, despite having occasionally gone out to some of those places, my main life interests were elsewhere. The bar and party culture never actually sat well with me, and seeing it all essentially deserted on a very quiet Sunday morning, just reminded me of how little I cared for it. Still, with a regularly changing student population, as the graduates leave to make room for a new bunch of freshmen at the start of the fall, running a bar or café catering for the young and fancy free seems to be good for business. I saw a number of the same places still in existence after a quarter of a century, and no doubt good for the same again going forward. I then headed towards the Jyväsjärvi harbour precinct, itself situated at the northern end of Päijänne, the second largest lake in Finland. From here, it’s actually possible to take a cruise all the way to the city of Lahti, which is some 165km away, and connected to the Päijänne via Lake Vesijärvi and the Vääksy canal.

Crossing back over the railway tracks, I passed the new Transportation Centre on my way up to the ‘Harju’, the ridge overlooking the city and Jyväsjärvi. This park area is very popular with dog walkers and fitness buffs, as well as students armed with plastic bags filled with cans of beer and cider. For me, though, this area holds a particularly special memory. The city’s athletics field is located here, and it’s where I completed my last sub 3hr marathon, way back in the day when I used to be a very fit young fella. Then, there’s the crown of the Harju, the Vesilinna observation tower, and close to it, the long picturesque stairway back down to the city centre.

After my two or so hour walking tour of Jyväskylä, I headed south towards my next destination, the Päijänne National Park, the second of the three that I would visit on this maiden vanlife tour. On the way, I stopped at a rest area by a lake just outside the small town of Kuhmoinen to make myself some lunch, and just chill for a bill while marinating in the sounds and smells of nature. Immediately upon arrival at the Niemisjärvi area of the Päijänne National Park, I headed off to do some exploration before setting up camp for the night in a secluded spot. In the next video, I’ll be sharing what I saw while traversing the trails. So, I’ll catch you again in that one. Until then, be blessed.

Pyhä-Häkki National Park covers an area of 1,300 hectares, and it’s located only about 20km from Saarijärvi. It was officially established in 1956 along with six other National Parks, and it has remained well preserved, with the old-growth forest dominating the area, including a tree over 400 years old. I had been here once before, some 30 years ago, though now it felt like a literal blink of an eye. I could barely remember any of it, but it did feel fantastic to get the chance to experience it once again. Ahead of me was the classic 6.5km long Kotajärvi circuit, which would take me through the old growth forests, the navigation of swamps over wooden duckboards, and, of course, reaching the shoreline of Kotajärvi.

Being in nature is such an amazing antidote to all the craziness and chaos of the modern world. These few hours that I spent here, walking in solitude, blessed me with a much needed, and immediate reset of my psyche, back to a state that I plan on caring for, and holding on to, for the rest of my life.

After leaving Pyhä-Häkki, my next point of call was Jyväskylä, the main city in Central Finland; and it’s a university town where I lived and studied in the 1990s. I’ve still held on to some very strong memories from that time, both good and not so good, and returning to rewalk down this memory lane in the student village had them all flooding back in an instant. If I’m to be totally open about the experience, just seeing the old student housing tower blocks actually made me feel kinda sad, maybe even some regret as well, for some of the decisions I’d had made at the time. However, since none of that can obviously be changed, this revisiting of the old stomping grounds of my mid to late 20s was an extremely cathartic experience.

I headed to the 24hr ABC Service Centre in Vaajakoski to once again spend the night in a carpark. I had a good meal and a great sleep, with plans to return to Jyväskylä the next morning, to continue my walk down memory lane. I’ll catch you then in the next one, when I visit the university precinct, the town centre and adjacent Harju park, as well as the Jyväsjärvi harbour area.