6 August 2014 (hot and sunny) 65km

There were only three groups at the freecamp last night.  One Finnish solo cyclist who was “different” as solo cyclists often are, the two kiwi cyclists who of course were completely normal in every way and the thirty odd year old male with his sixty odd year old female partner in the caravan next door.  We don’t speak their language but both felt something was “off” in this relationship by the tone of voice he used with her and the fact we only saw her once, briefly.  We only saw him a few times but Pete saw him several times in the night getting up and walking back and forth across the front of our tent.  It got to the stage where Pete got his ½ metre long crank spanner at the ready just in case. 

But we were still alive in the morning and what a beautiful morning it was.  Packed up the tent at 7am and went down to the beach for a refreshing early morning dip before heading off back up the dusty road to the main road of Snappertuna.  

Great spot for a quiet refreshing dip before hitting the hot, dusty roads.

The first hour was really enjoyable and we both felt really strong, but the more hills that were thrown at us, the more our legs began to tire and by 9am we were ready for breakfast.  

Our pre-breakfast spot this morning

We were wondering if we were ever going to find somewhere in the shade where we could sit down without being overrun by ants and with somewhere we could rest the bikes but eventually found a forestry gate we could lean them up against and a couple of ant free rocks to sit on while we ate our apples and some peanuts.

Then it was a continuously hilly slog into Inga, the biggest town in these parts.  It had not one, but two supermarkets which was our first port of call for breakfast supplies.  After purchasing these we shot across the road to a shady park area where we happily ate breakfast at 10.30am while drying the flysheet in the blazing sun.  Finland’s hottest summer for fifty years has now had 34 straight days over 25°C.  Today was a real stinker and just saps your energy.  We basically spent the next five hours avoiding the sun. 

Inga Church - they have some lovely Scandinavian touches like these sailing ships on window sills or dangling from the ceiling

This started with a look around the 13^th century church, which has been added onto five times since with the latest addition in the 1800’s.  We attempted filling our water bottles in what became our place of choice while in Sweden, the cemetery, but two local caretakers warned us you cannot drink this water.  They kindly showed us a tap that wouldn’t make us sick and we filled our bottles there.

Met this guy in Church the other day...
I said C'mon pal, you're looking a bit cross.
Come on down and get a haircut and get a real job.
And could you get me a drink of water?
Nah, never mind, change that to wine.

(No wonder it's been as hot as hell the last month!)

We then attempted to find the Tourist Info Office but had overestimated the size of Inga.  No Tourist office but you could ask at the library which was very small and hot but had accommodating staff.  They let us use their free wifi but it was so hot in there, we didn’t linger long.  Just uploaded the blog, paid wages and checked messages and then we were out of there, looking for a place to swim.  Apparently there is no place to swim in Inga, despite it being on the sea and you have to be careful where you swim in Finland because they have a toxic algae in the water that can make you very sick.  This knowledge has made us stick to recognised swimming places.  But to be honest, you wouldn’t want to swim anywhere else because they all look so murky and horrible.  So in desperation we doused our heads with our bottles of cold water and then refilled them with a tap behind the library – it worked a treat and cooled us off a lot.  The local Finns who apparently have no idea what to do with hot weather because they so seldom get it, were soon all following our example and this head dowsing soon erupted into a massive town wide water fight……no, they preferred to look cool instead of keep cool and calmly went about their business with their shirts sticking to their backs.

So began a trip then on the main road which luckily had a really wide hard shoulder so we made good progress without feeling our lives were in peril every second and soon got to Degerby which was actually just two houses fifty metres apart so apparently warranted a village name. 

Not far to go now......

Then we spied the turn-off to Kopparnas, the only camping ground in the vicinity.  It was supposed to be 5km down to Kapparnas but we soon discovered Kapparnos is actually the name of the whole peninsula and has several little roads to beaches that we had to check out to see if they were the campground as they seem to be on a strict budget with camping signs in Finland.  

Kopparnas Beach/Peninsula.....determined to make us linger in the area

The first beach was beautiful red rocks leading down into the Baltic Sea which was twinkling in the sunshine and inviting us to dive in.  However, there was this nasty green algae all the way around which made it incredibly slippery.  We could see the odd place where it looked ok to maybe dive in but we could see no place where you would be able to get back up the smoothly rounded rock, especially with all this algae.  We asked a couple of locals who told us where they swim but upon observing said swimming, it was the old Greek style of stand in the water up to your ankles and splash under your armpits.  Hey Kiwis may not be able to fly, but we sure know how to swim, and that’s not swimming!

We weren't the only ones who fancied a cool dip.

So we were humming and haaing about where to go in and then we saw the snake, in the water, swimming along to our intended entry point.  We thought ‘nah’ and headed off to find a different beach.  Well 21km of going down this track and that track and we finally found the “camping ground” although the locals tell us you can camp anywhere on this peninsula.  Really?  Oh yes, you can choose from all this bumpy ant infested forest floor, complete with mosquitoes, baby pine trees, weeds and branches.  

Spoilt for choice!

Yes, camp anywhere you like.  Such generosity, it was hard to know which spot to pick from so in the end we chose the flattest piece with three blades of grass.  As soon as we stopped at the camping ground, we went in for a well-earned dip but the water was disappointingly warm – must have been about 23° we reckon – they tell us some of the lakes are 25°C which is just unheard of here.  We then doused ourselves in insect repellent before setting up the tent and cooking dinner – good old baked beans, tuna and macaroni.

There are only two other camper vans here and we have met a couple of guys from one of them who so far seem quite normal and friendly.  The majority of Finnish people we have met have been very nice we must reiterate.

Not a bad outlook even though the floor could have been a bit softer!

Wrote the blog before enjoying a coffee and biscuits and wondering if the rumour we heard would turn out to be true and it would rain tomorrow.  We thought it might be when we saw some clouds building to the east and thought we'd better throw the flysheet on the tent which we were going to leave off in an effort to keep the tent cooler.  No sooner had we put it on than the rain started along with thunder and lightning.  The rain didn't last long but the thunder and lightning continued throughout the night, although off in the distance.