run for your life

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.

My first ever overnight stop in my van was at the ABC Service Centre just outside the town of Orivesi. These larger service centres are great places to stay, particularly if you need to buy more supplies, grab a pizza, or drop a deuce. Not to mention, you can conveniently fill up on water and fuel before heading out the next day. Just make sure to ask the manager if it’s ok to stay there overnight. Depending on the place, it’ll be ok, or it’ll be ok for a small fee, something like 10€. Anyway, it ended up being a good first experience. Apart from some teens on their motorbikes popping in for a few midnight burnouts in the massive carpark, the place was super quiet and I got in a very restful night’s sleep.

Early the next morning, I headed off to Central Finland. I arrived at the beginning of my visit down memory lane when I reached Summassari, the location of a spa and rehabilitation centre where I’d worked for a while as a physiotherapist way back in 1991; and to say it felt super weird to now see it totally uninhabited after it had, I think, become bankrupt at some point, was an understatement. Seeing all the same places, the spa centre, the main building and restaurant area, and all the lakeside holiday cottages, now completely empty, I imagined being in Pripyat, the town outside of Chernobyl, which was completely evacuated after the nuclear disaster there. Being in this place again after some 30 years, especially in its current state, gave me a strong sense of melancholy, but it felt like it was very important for me to walk over this ground again once, as if I was getting the chance to put some old ghosts to rest.

Prior to moving on from Summassaari, I quickly popped into the Stone-age Village area. It wasn’t open yet for the day, but I could still see some of it. I could also see how it seemed to be existing on life support. It just felt worn out, but somehow still clinging on to making a few euros from the few tourists bothering to now visit there after the demise of the spa centre. It just felt kinda sad.

As I continued on to my main destination of the day, Pyhä-Häkki National Park, I dropped by the country town of Saarijärvi, where I’d lived while working at the spa centre. It was crazy the parts that I remembered with crystal clarity, such as the athletics field and adjacent churches, while other areas were barely a familiar, but hazy blur in my memories. Still, I think it was good, just like with Summassaari, to also tread over the same old turf here.

And then I arrived at Pyhä-Häkki National Park to walk the Kotajärvi circuit, a 6.5km walk through some of the most amazing flora in all of Finland. In my next blog and video, I’ll be sharing lots of that hike with you, so I guess I’ll catch you again in that one.

Jyri

This is the beginning of my Van Life on the Run project. As I get started, I have no definitive idea where it’s all going to go, or for how long. However, I am approaching this new project with an open mind and a strong curiosity to simply get out there and see what I can see, and to share those experiences with you. Please enjoy this initial Van Life on the Run video where I introduce my old, new home on wheels, a 1997 VW Transporter Caravelle. 

I hope that you’ll come along with me on this journey, and support my efforts. The best way that you can do that is to simply subscribe to my Life on the Run YouTube channel, and, of course, to view, like and share the active lifestyle videos on it, be they about these new vanlife adventures, my long distance cycling, camino and running exploration videos, or any other more random ones that I might occasionally throw into the mix. Thanks, and I’ll catch you again in the next one.

Jyri

P.S. If you’re interested, you can find out some more details about the Murole Canal, where this video was shot, via the following link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murole_Canal