If I Were Live Tweeting My Hike
Day 1.
10.00 – We’re at the Arctic Circle!
10.04 – Only 80kms to go! Gulp.
10.05 – Okay, off we go. Wish us luck!
10.30 – Urgh. The trail is so wet. Spending more time side stepping puddles than walking
12.00 – 6km done. Stopping for lunch. Not convinced my boots are very dry. Gorgeous place for lunch though, right on the river bank.
14.00 – Weird to think that the top of this rock used to be the bottom of the river bed.
15.00 – Done in. 13km walked so far and we are knackered. Stopping to sleep.
16.00 – just had a swim in the river, feeling much better. Time for dinner. Yum yum.
18.00 – night night all.
Day 2.
08.00 – spent the night dreaming I was sitting on the motorway. That’s what you get for sleeping next to a river. Just lucky I didn’t wet myself, I guess!
08.01 – we spent the night sleeping in this lean to shelter. Very nice.
08.00 – Seems to have stopped raining. Time for breakfast.
08.30 – have discovered that if you put enough sugar in your porridge, it’s quite palatable. Not too bad at all.
08.45 – Shit shitty shit. Just dropped the little bottle of washing up liquid in the river. bys bye bottle. shit. Wasn’t mine. God I hope they’re not mad.
09.50 – okay, they say they’re not mad but I have a feeling…bugger. Way to make friends Heather!
08.55 – on scale of 1 – 10, enjoyablility of putting wet boots on? -587.
09.00 – okay, the 2nd day of walking starts. We have about 16kms to do today.
09.30 – oh crap. The dog has gone missing! He let him off lead so he could go down steep bit without being pulled to his death and it took off!
09.45 – Dog came back! 
Minus it’s clever little rucksack thing so dog now has no food! 
He and dog gone to look for it.
10:00 – waiting in cute little wooden cabin for him and dog. We’re trying to decide if we are going to make short trip to Oulanka Canyon. It’s only 1.5km away. but that’s 3km more added on to day.
10:03 – Cute little cabin has nice lying down and resting area…ummm…..
10.04 – Decided not to go to Canyon.
10.15 – It’s raining. Blurgh. He and dog arrived minus doggy rucksack. Off we go again into the rain.
10.16 – Cool bridge.
11.20 – Am back in Kuusamo! Feels good to be home. Lol! Strange to think that at any point on this trail I’m never more than 25kms as the crow flies from my house. Told you I live in the middle of nowhere!
11.25. uphill. no-one said anything about there being uphill bits! Argh!
11.30 – am sweating my ass off! Stupid uphills, stupid trail, stupid weather.
11.31 – The climb was worth is for this view though!
11.33 – OMG! I’m so hot and sweaty it’s like being in a bloody rainforest! Lunch! I need lunch! And wine, who brought the wine?
11.37 – Yeay I spy a cabin! Lunch time! You’ve got the wine right??
11.38 – no wine
12.00 – Trying to find the will to leave the nice warm cabin and step back out into the drizzle and sweaty humid soup out there.
12.10 – Still trying.
12.13 – alright, alright already. I’m up and moving.
12.14 – I’m so sticky that jumping in here feels like a good idea.
12.18 – Ooh, huge ant hill. there is something about ants that fascinates me.
12.19 – Look this ant is waving to us! how sweet.
13.30 – They are up ahead, they walk much faster than old slow coach here. Weird creepy stretch of forest. Totaly silent and empty feeling.
13.32 – feeling weirded out. Half excepting to turn the next corner and come across their bodies having been eaten by bears.
13.40 – Blister! I can feel a blister. Boo
14.00 – Have caught them up at the campfire! We are all standing around the fire trying to dry out. Not sure what is from sweat and what from rain.
14.03 – Why is it when I take my backpack off I can’t walk properly? My hips don’t work anymore!
14.15 – Considering taking my boots off to have a look at my blister. Not sure I’ll really want to know. Ignorance is bliss afterall.
14.27 – Why is it the blister feels huge and yet when you look at it, it’s tiny? Have stuck a blister plaster on it. Feel much better.
15.30 – Have taken way too many pictures of odd looking mushrooms. More than could possibly be of interest to anyone else in the world. Why have I developped this weird mushroom fasciniation.
15.31 – nearly wrote fettish. wonder what a mushroom fetish would be?
15.32 – Eeeewww, can’t stop thinking about mushroom fetishists now!
15.40 – There a shop coming up very soon. Have been day dreaming of ice-cream and sausage, not at same time, to take my mind of mushroom fetishists.
16.00 – Yeay! I can see the shop! Woop woop!
16.05 – Ahh Ice-cream how I love thee, let me count the ways…
16.05 – Also have a pack of sausages so we can cook them on the fire later tonight
16.07 – They are not sharing my enthusiasm for ice-cream or sausages. They’re extremely restrained sitting outside a shop full of yummy goodies and not buying anything!
16.07 – makes me feel a bit greedy really. I mean, it has only been 1.5 days.
17.00 – Standing on top of the Kiutaköongäs falls. Very noisey and lovely.
17.30 – We’ve arrived at camping spot. Sandy beach looking out at the foot of the Kiutaköngäs falls. Have to put tent up now.
18.00 – Stupid fucking tent
18.10 – why can’t they just invent a tent where you pull a strong and it put’s itself up?
18.15 – I hate my tent. Might sleep outside.
18.17 – what are all these strings for?
18.20 – sleeping outside wouldn’t be so bad, would it?
18.25 – Yeay! I did it, I got my tent up!
18.30 – View from my tent.
18.31 – I love my tent!
18.32 – Now it’s time for sausages!!
18.35 – no-one else wants any sausages. Oh well, more for me then!
Day 3
08.00 – woken up by industrious sounds of people chopping wood. should probably get up and help.
08.10 – Feel great this morning, great nights sleep in my lovely tent, nice soft sand to sleep on
09.30 – Packed up and on the move. The trail is good here, nice and flat, high above the river with lovely views.
10.30 – Famous last words huh? We’ve left river bank now and plunged into forest. Trail is really hard work. Wet and slippery.
11.00 – All I’ve looked at for the last half hour is my feet. So many tree roots and puddles you can’t look up whilst walking or you’ll fall on your ass.
12.00 – my hips are really starting to ache today. and my poor feet too.
14.00 – Stopped for lunch at nice little camp. it’s amazing that all these little camps have toilets. Longdrop ones, but at least you get a nice little hut and a proper seat over the longdrop.
14.20 – Had to leave them at the fireplace, my hips are seizing up so badly when I’m not moving. It takes about 1km of walking for them to loosen up again.
15.30 – another hour spent staring at my own feet. it’s been drizzling for a while now.
16.10 – Argh! Am soaked! Started raining and by the time I got my ponch on I was already so wet it hardly mattered!
16.20 – Am boiling under my poncho. But you know full well, if I take it off it’s going to rain again!
16.30 – raining! Hard! All the water is dripping off my poncho and onto my trousers. they are soaking wet and clinging to my legs. nice.
16.40 – pants now so wet water is rolling down them and into my boots
17.00 – A hut! I can see a hut!
18.00 – We’ve decided to stay here at the hut tonight. We should have done another 5km but our things are too wet.
19.00 – Hut is filling up with people. A couple of Finnish guys arrived and now a French school group have just come in!
19.30 – Going to try to get some sleep. Have another 5km to add onto tomorrows hike now.
02.00 – If that boy does not stop snoring I am going to kill him!
02.03 – Why does no-one shut him up?
02.04 – If i had a pillow I’d smother the fucker myself!
02.10 – seriously, can no-one else hear this? He sounds like a chainsaw!
03.00 – for fucksake! Shut up, shut up shut up!!!!!
Day 4
07.00 – I think I’m going to kill that little French guy. Just want to get packed up and get away fom here and them before I lose my cool and stab him to death with my plastic knife/fork/spoon thingy!
07.10 – Gorgeous view from the cabin this morning!
07.50 – Urgh. My boots are still really really wet. So wet if I put my hand inside them it comes out actually wet! This is not good!
08.10 – right, we are on our way. Boots don’t feel so bad on.
08.30 – this trail sucks, I’m so fecking tired I can’t see straight and the trail is full of puddles and roots.
10.30 – Oooh, the river, we’ve made it to the river, this is where we should have stayed last night. and the sun has come out! Bliss!
10.32 – the trail should get a bit easier now it’s next to the river, less up and downs. 5km gone, another 15km still to go.
11.00 – Either they are really moving today or I am much slower than normal. They are just specks in the distance now.
11.15 – It’s so beautiful here!
11.20 – wow, the trail is really rough here. About 30cms wide next to the river going over boulders and fallen trees. Loads of rocks and roots.
11.22 – This may look like a random pile of rocks around a tree, but this is actually the trail! Hard going with a heavy backpack!
11.45 – ouch ouch ouch! Just twisted my fecking knee climbing over a big fuck off rock!
11.50. Shit this hurts. I don’t think it’s too bad, doesn’t seem to be swelling, Can still walk, just slower.
12.00 – Bollocks. A really steep uphill bit!
12.20 – Made it! Well, the first section anway, still another uphill bit above me. Lovely section of forest, really fariytale-esq. Knee quite painfull going uphill.
13.00 – More uphill? You’ve got to be kidding. Want to sit down but am sure if I do I’ll never get up again. Can’t be far till the lunch place now. Could kill for a cuppa.
13.02. Had to sit down and rest. Everything hurts. I’m starting to get a bit worried now. Got a long way to go today and I still haven’t caught up with them.
13.03 – I know I have a mushroom fascination (not fetish – just to be clear) but look at these. Aren’t they odd?
13.20 – Made it to the campfire!! No sign or them though. Should I have lunch or push on to the next one? What if they are waiting at the next one?
13.20 – going to keep walking. they must be at the next place. Don’t want to keep them waiting.
13.25. Shit, as if it could get worse. Feet feel like they are on fire, blisters rubbing, knees aching, twisted knee really bad pain on any up or downhill bit, hips getting worse and now knicker elastic is rubbing against the inside of my thighs! Fuck!:(
13.27 – Called them. No answer. I hope they look at their phone soon.
14.00 – Limping far too fast, really hurts but I need to get to get to the next place. I can’t believe how much my legs hurt!
14.05 – Am at next resting point. they are not Crying now. Fuck I feel so stupid.
14.07 – Tried calling them again but no answer. Don’t know what to do. The next resting point is another 4kms and we were hoping to go another 3km after that to final sleeping point.
14.08 – if my stupid thighs would just stop hurting. And my knee. Shit.
14.09 – I can’t do it. There is no way I am going to be able to finish the hike. Great, am crying again. Get a grip woman!
14.12 – I have to keep going though. Even if I go home I have another 3km to walk to the road. 3km to road or 4 to resting point? What should I do?
14.20 – Tried to phone hubby but he’s not answering. I don’t know what the best thing is? Am I giving up? Feel like shit
14.25 – limping along now, it’s pretty bad, can’t walk fast at all. No way I can make it another 7km to sleeping place. will have to go home.
14.30 feeling pissed off now. Just sent them a message saying I’m going home. Stupid legs! Feeling alternatily angry at them for not waiting and guilty for leaving them. And I’ve got the map! Shit!
15.00 – Phoned hubby and started crying again. God I’m so pathetic. Really angry at myself for not finishing.
18.00 – Home. Feeling better in myself but my legs feel like shit. insides of my thighs rubbed raw. Ouch!
Day 5.
10.00 – I’m so glad I didn’t go on yesterday now. I can hardly walk this morning! Don’t know what i’d have done if I was waking up hours from the road on the hike. Still feeling disapointed that i didn’t finish it though. Will do the last 20kms another time
Although it finished badly it was a brilliant hike. The Oulanka National Park is gorgeous, beautiful scenery and really well equipped camping places and wilderness cabins all free to use. Although I’m still limping, mentally and physically, I am already looking forward to walking that last 20kms (I managed 60km out of 80km) and also planning other trips in my mind to places I want to visit.
You can find out more about hiking in Ruka and Kuusamo on my Travel Guide to Ruka and Kuusamo
I'm Heather, an ex expat, now back in blighty and living in Lancashire. Which is just like Lapland only less snowy...and stuff.
Really enjoyed this–the writing and the photos. Amazing how text or tweet style can really be effective at telling a story!
And what an experience! I'd like to walk Hadrian's Wall. Not quite the same thing, I suspect…
Too funny, I'm allowed to laugh right? Tried to look up mushroom fetish for you but only came up with 'jelly beaning'. Do yourself a favour and don't look that up, I'm still gagging.
It's funny how you get a sense of being there when it's short tweet style writing, isn't it? Even included the spelling mistakes and everything, on purpose of course, ahem. I've walked a little of Hadrians wall and it is gorgeous. would love to do the whole thing one day.
jelly beaning? Now half of me really really wants to know…the other half would rather not have another foul image seared across my eyeballs.
It's still searing mine, leave well enough alone.
Sounds like an amazing experience – so sorry it had to end on a down note. I think four days is a pretty mammoth achievement anyway.
Oh hun that does sound awful. Hope hubby is being kind and helping to soothe your aches and pains. Think it was a bit rank that Anne and Jan raced on without you, I have to say. Isn't the first rule of tramping that you walk as fast as the slowest member of the group?
Loved this! Sounds fab despite a few hiccups along the way!
You should feel proud of yourself. Even the great Ray Mears would have found some of that hard going. Well, OK, he wouldn't but he'd still be proud of your achievement. Good for you, adventurer!!
Having had a French school party behind me on the plane to Delhi, I feel (some of) your pain.
OMG! I bow down to you!! Seriously hun what an amazing achievement!! It was hardcore – more, more, more!! Now dose up on the nurofen!! You shoud be so proud!! xx
Long post, but as if I could tear myself away! Fantastic stuff.
Don't be disappointed that you didn't make it. You did an amazing thing anyway. Those 20kms will just be something to look forward to next time. x
Now that i'm home and everything I'm proud of doing it and can't wait to do the last bit. Should be a nice overnight trip.
Well i thought so, i mean I don't mind if they want to go on ahead and wait for me, no-one wants to walk staring at the back of someone else rather than the views afterall, but waiting every few kms would have been good. But when I told them I was angry they didn't wait they gave me a rather blank and confused look so perhaps it's not something everyone thinks.
It was lovely, such a great place to be
ha ha ha, yeah that trail would have totally wiped Ray Mears' butt, ahem.
The rest of them were fine, not too noisy or anything but that guy with the big konk who snored all night? I'd run him over if I saw him again!
Aww, thak you my dear. It was good fun, a really beautiful place to be.
Why thank you very much, very kind of you to say so
We think we explained very well to you what happend. It's sad to see that you need comments from people who haven't been there to boost your ego. We kindly ask you not to spread lies about us and remove any pictures from your blog showing us.
Oh please, we both know there are no lies here. Yes, you told me what happened and it doesn't answer the question, 'why did you leave me alone?'
After 5km of rough, difficult trail and having not seen your single hiking partner who you both knew to be in pain and tired before we left the hut that morning, you both reached a point where the trail split in two for a further 5km. It was possible to take either option and still be 'on the trail'. Did you
a. think, 'hey we haven't seen Heather for a few hours, and the trail splits here, maybe we should wait for her and all go on together'?
b. Think 'it's nearly lunch time and we have the stove. Perhaps we should wait for Heather so we can all go the same direction and lunch together'?
c. Carry on without waiting for me?
And then, knowing you were well ahead of me and that i was walking very slowly, you reached the point where the trails joined back together into one. Did you
a. Wait for me to catch you up since you hadn't seen me for around 10km.
b. Go on without me?
What you did was leave a member of your hiking party behind, this is both irresponsible and dangerous as well as just not a very nice thing to do.
As it happens, about 2km after you left me I fell over a rock on the trail and twisted my knee. It hurt like hell, the things I have written in this blog post don't go anyway to describing how painful it was, how hard it was to keep going and how alone and frightened I felt knowing I still had at least 8km to get to the road alone. I didn't talk about sitting down every few minutes and crying, about almost leaving my backpack behind because i just couldn't see how i was going to get to a road whilst carrying it, or about how frightened and alone I felt and how much just having someone to talk to and help me mentally would have made things so much better. The only lies here are ones of omission in not mentioning these things because I was trying to tell a story not drown in pity.
What I answered to Vegemitevix is also true. After you gave me your reasons -taking a different section of the split trail to me and not having the right phone with you- I told you again that shouldn't have left me and you both simply looked at me confused and blank and then you left my house and drove away.
However, I wasn't going to add all that to my post because I wasn't trying to make you look bad, simply tell the true story of what happened on my hike. Photos of you duly removed as are any and all mentions as to who you are in this blog.