Avtor: jkregar

Now I (Venla) am back to home and I have had time to think about the elapsed two weeks. Before camp I was so excited and sure that the camp will be awesome and it was! Preparing for camp started the reservation of stuffs and to check that I have all the necessary. It was nice to spend time preparing for the camp because I knew that the front is a great experience.

The camp went very nice. During the camp was a lot of different situations both good and worse but we were able to manage them together. The camping place was Tievatupa in Ivalo. We got to enjoy really good food and it was one of the best things in whole camp. As typical for Finnish people we got to go to sauna for several evenings. We were also able to go swimming to river.

In the beginning of the camp we were divided into subgroups where we spent lot of time. The best in camp had new people and new friendships. We did hiking in subgroups. Before hiking we had different activities and games and the reason for that we would know each other better.

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Now I, Maiju, am going to tell my feelings concerning the time during and after our expedition. I agree everything Venla wrote. My own subgroup named Sopulit became close and tight: I felt that I could speak about anything with people in my subgroup. Subgroup was the most important motivator and helper during the expedition. We walked, cooked, slept, woke up and enjoyed our time between those together. We swam, crossed rivers and swamps, ate blueberries, used 3 rolls of toilet paper, sweat a lot, wet our shoes every day, dried them as many times and run the last 20 meters to finishing point! Our group had two cameras plus my pocket camera and Matej’s phone. We took many, many, many photos, only in Masa’s camera for example there were over 500 pics!

After long four days those four days didn’t seem as long as they felt during walking and sleeping in cold tent. I was happy to get a shower and clean clothes on. It was really important to fill all the forms that we had to, even though it wasn’t especially fun or inspiring to do them. I’m sorry Eliska, we were kind of awful to you, we were so done with explaining our routeplan to everyone and changing plans trying to fill leaders wishes. Luckily our group didn’t need any help from people outside but some other groups did. Important thing was also the  debriefing after the expedition. It helped us to handle all the experiences and feelings. Also sauna in the evening gave me time to think about all that had happened. Missing home, being tired, new friends, meeting people with different values, other people’s bad feelings, unbelievable landscapes, pain, sharing our deepest thoughts with each other…

In my opinion our expedition was definitely the best one I’ve ever had! Thank you all for that 🙂 During Tunturi 2016 I got to know people from other countries, other cultures and other environments. I also got to know Award –program which I found very useful to increase volunteering in different ways, to help youngsters to act goal-oriented and to improve youngsters’ possibilities to be more international. That all could help them to get work and make their own communities better. That is why I believe we should have more projects like this!

(Don’t be afraid to take some big jumps in your life :))

With love,
Venla & Maiju

 

Our group, The Speechless, consists of Laura Viktorija from Latvia, Dovile from Lithuania, Tom and Seline from the Netherlands, Barbara from Czech Republic and Živa from Slovenia, along with our leaders Vilma and Ligita and our Finnish assessor Timo. We were very excited about the expedition and were happy when the planning finally started.

Our starting point was Tievatupa, the camp site, and we decided to go eastward to Luirojarvi. At half past eight on the 4th of August we left, equipped with our 15 kg or more heavy backpacks. Our path first led us through forest to Niilanpaa, where we had our first break, from where on we continued uphill over a bare hill, where we encountered a herd of reindeer, including youg ones. As this was our first meeting with these animals, especially on such a small distance, we were really happy to see them. We carried on and at the next stop we met another group, which had almost the same route as us, so we were looking forward to seeing each other often many times. Also, Barbara and Tom were making marks on the path for the other group to know the path.  Soon later, we had our first larger river crossing, where we had to take our shoes, which proved to be a lot of fun. We arrived to our sleeping place, where there was a small shelter and a fireplace, at around 5 pm. We cooked our dinner and put up the tents and spend the rest of the evening chatting, especially when the other group  arrived to sleep at the same point.

Next day we continued our journey over some hills which gave us a nice view on the surrounding landscape. As the distance we had to walk was much shorter than the previous day, we had a lot of breaks, giving us the chance to sleep and enjoy the warm sun and nice weather. We reached Luirojarvi in the late afternoon, which was really beautiful and surrounded by hills. There we made use of an open hut where we also cooked our dinner. After the dinner, we enjoyed swimming in the lake, which was of a nice temperature. Some people also made use of the sauna, which was available close by.

Next morning we started our way back to Kiilopaa, which was our final point. That was the most tiring leg of our expedition, as we were first following a path that did not exist, then it was raining strongly for two hours and our paths turned into muddy streams and we were completely wet. At the end on the day we also had to cross another river, this time a really deep one with a strong current. Tired, we finally came to our campsite, where we were really grateful for a warm and dry hut,where we dried our clothes and ate dinner. The last day it was also raining in the morning, but later on the weather got better, even sunny, which made us more motivated for hiking. We were all also looking forward to getting back to Tievatupa, where a sauna, delicious dinner, soft beds and a shower awaited us. Therefore, we were walking quickly and at last arrived to Kiilopaa at half past four, all of us very happy that we succeeded at the expedition. The bus picked us up at five o’clock and a nice reception and a delightful dinner awaited us.

-Speechless

We started our adventurous journey on Thursday. Beforehand, of course, we prepared our backpacks and planned our route so we started our hike full of energy and motivation. First few clicks of walk were quite quiet because we needed some time to realize we were left of the chain after whole week of waiting. That spirit quickly turned to amazement and joy and we reached our first checking point chill and fresh as we just came from sauna. We ate baked, smoked expedition tuna and continued our trip unaware of future obstacles waiting to ruin our good mood. Soon we arrived to a huge swamp, bigger than anyone could imagine in their wildest dreams. We almost gave up trying to cross it when we excellent idea rushed through our mind. We rolled up our sleeves and built a magnificent bridge across the swamp. It resembled on Golden Gate Bridge in US. We were a little behind of our plan so we almost run to our camp. Then a great disaster occoured. Tabea’s shoes couldn’t follow our fast tempo so they were litteraly torn apart. At camp we cooked dinner which tasted as it was prepared by worlds best chefs. We learned how to throw knives and we set up a hammock.

We slept like in heaven and we woke up in even better mood as we went to sleep. We headed to the great lake of Rautulampi and even Tabeas shoes couldnt stop us to reach our destination. We ate a lunch there and continued our hike even quicker then before. We soon stumbled upon some really difficult terrain but our good physical preparation was paid out and we had no difficulties finishing our day two. At the camp we met our beloved friends, Anka’s angels. We had perfect evening together exchanging stories, singing songs and all that comes along.

Day three started well, we had good rest and leaved the camp at ten 30. Difficult path was in front of us, our navigation skills were on put on test. We dodged the swamp and picked the shortcut directly through the woods. We arrived to Rautulampi and took a nap for two hour because hail and rain started fall from the sky so we couldnt see two metres in front of us. Immediately after weather stabilazed we climbed the highest mountain we saw at the moment. There we saw tonns o reindeer and even more blueberries. We arrived at the camp just at the right time because few drops of rain fell again.

We started our last day in the early morning, at 6 oclock. In fog we climbed another huge mountain and quickly finished our journey at Kiilopaa. We there long before lunch at ten. By the way we jumped to the mountain of Kiilopää where we stumbled upon some really magnificent reindeer with horns bigger than our backpacks. When we came down the hill we realized that the whole trip was nothing so we didnt even waited for bus but just walked to our resorts. So we came back alive and healthy and it felt as we just finished a Sunday walk.

-VITEMS: Vid, Ieva,Tabea, Erkki, Mirna & Saulė