These photographs were taken on Sunday at Vaakkoi, walking there with the children, all the way to lake Saaren-Musta, eating blueberries, having picnic, and enjoying the mosquito-free scenery.
On Wednesday I went for a walk at Vaakkoi also, while it was raining. A couple of weeks ago I bought Nikwax Twinpack, which contains a cleaner for waterproof textiles, and a separate waterproofing chemical. The claim is that washing a Gore-Tex coat with Nikwax Tech Wash maintains breathability, and using TX.Direct Wash-In maintains original water-repellency. And so it seems, my old Gore-Tex coat kept the water outside, and breathed well enough that I wasn't soaked inside the coat. I guess there is no need to buy a new coat if the old one works this well. Well, the zipper is broken, but the buttons still work.
I went to Vaakkoi to try and find some cloudberries. First I walked to lake Tuhkuri, eating a lot of blueberries on the way. From Tuhkuri I walked north, towards lake Kalatoin, which is surrounded by a swamp. Here I found some cloudberries, eating a couple of dozen. They were ripe, just about perfect, and for me about the best thing to eat there is. Blueberries are fine, but cloudberries, there is just no comparison. However, someone had already picked most of the berries, and some were still raw.
In all I walked for about two hours in Vaakkoi. The rain ceased, but the cloud cover didn't let up. Nevertheless, this was a fine exploration of places I have never before visited. I visited two new lakes, as well, and returned via lake Saaren-Musta, finding a path which was not marked on the map but was much used nevertheless.
Update: The path which I found north of lake Saaren-Musta belongs to the so-called "Route 2000", which is a 110 km long walking trail, starting from Helsinki, going all the way to Salmi in the west, and returning back to Helsinki. The route is lasso-shaped, or maybe one can say that it resembles "9" turned sideways, so there is a circular part in the west, and a "tail" in the east. (See the map.)
I'm not interested in walking the "tail" part of the route, but walking the circular part, that could be something to do. How long this part of the route is? Maybe 40-45 km, so not too long, probably something one could walk in a day, with a light backback having water and something to eat. Hmmm...
(Posting title is from the poem Song of Myself by Walt Whitman.)
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