Note From Lapland

We’re Going On A Bear Hunt

I slowed the car down to a stop and peered up the road.  Is it really this turning?  I looked around and back down at my hand drawn map and then laughed at myself.  Like that was going to be of any use, it was just 5 or 6 hand drawn lines on a piece of blank paper, the dog had chewed through my printer cable, it was the best I could manage in a rush.

Although I’m not sure how much help a real map would have been since the proposed meeting point, which I’d cheerfully agreed to before thinking it through, was somewhere to the left of the road I was now looking for, the little red dot sitting in a bit of map that was void of anything, about 2km from the Russian border.

Did he mean meet him in the forest?  I really hoped not given that this was a bear watching trip we were going on.

I put it out of my mind and concentrated on finding the right road.  I knew I was close to the Russian border, but I didn’t know how close.  Would there be signs if I went too far?  Would there be men with guns questioning me in a scary language?  Would I accidentily drive into Russia and then get arrested and spend the next 20 years in a Russian gulag?

That bloody dog!

I took another look around, I’d already driven for 30 minutes out into the middle of nowhere, there wasn’t a soul around.  It must be this road.  Cleverly I hadn’t actually written any of the road names on my hand drawn pathetic excuse for a map.  It could have been a map to anywhere.  Or a child’s scribbling.  Still, I clung to it as though it would stop me from getting inexplicably lost or would somehow save me from being carted off to Russian prison, as though simply waving a drawing of seemingly random lines on a piece of paper at a bunch of Russian soldiers would explain my illegal presence in their country.

Oh God, I hope they don’t think it’s some sort of secret code for something.  I looked at the map and briefly considered eating it, and then I remembered that as pointless as a map as it may be, it was the only one I had.

Right, it’s got to be this road.  I turned onto, what clearly used to be, a tarmacked road, slowly trying to avoid the potholes.  Right, so it’s just up here then.  Somewhere.

The road climbed, the views stunning, even passing a few homes and buildings but no sign leapt out at me for bear watching meeting point.  He would have a sign, right?

The further the road went, the slower I drove, unsure.  Have I passed it?  How far have I gone?  I slowed to stop a couple of times, wondering whether to turn around, it can’t be any further.  Can it?  I pulled up outside a house, the last one I would pass as it turned out, and considered knocking on the door to ask.  But what would I say?  Have you seen any bears?  Do you know where I am on this hand sketched excuse of a map with no points of reference, road names or reliable scale.

I pushed on.  I’ll just see what’s at the top of the next rise, what’s round the next bend, each landmark passing and be replaced with the next to ‘just see what’s passed.’  The road had gone from occasional pot holes to occaisional bits of road around potholes, narrow and windy.  I felt more and more uneasy.

Where in the hell am I?

And then something unexpected happened. Something that wasn’t on my map.  A warning sign of some sort that I didn’t understand and then the road split in two.  One going straight on, one going to the right.

Shit.

It should be a simple decision, I hadn’t drawn any right hand turns on my map and so it couldn’t be that one.  But the straight on option stopped having any pretence at being an actual road.  It was a one car width, gravel track and it didn’t look like it was used very often.

No matter how long I sat, car stopped in the middle of the road, staring at the options and then down at my scribblings, no answer presented itself to me.  With a sinking feeling in my stomach I eventually pushed the car on, straight ahead.  This has to be the wrong way.  It can’t be up here.  The track twisted and curved and went passed what seemed to be a gravel pit.  I was sure at the top of the next hill the road was going to come to an end and I was going to plunge to my death into a pit.  Or that I’d unwittingly entered the no-mans land between Russia and Finland and was about to be gunned down or crushed by a tank.

I drove up a steep bit, gunning it a bit to keep going and came to a skidding stop, another car, a 4X4, appeared at the top of the rise the same time as I did.  Relief and fear swept over me.

Maybe it is the right place!

Maybe I’m about to be murdered!

We stopped side by side.  He was young, good looking and seemed unfazed by out meeting.  He wound his window down and I hesitently did the same, practising phrases protesting my innocence in Finnish in my head.

‘Are you Heather?’

‘Yes’

‘Hi, I’m Tuomo.  I have to go and meet some people at the road, I’ll be back in a few minutes.  Just drive to the next junction and wait there, I’ll be back in a few minutes.’

And with that he drive off in a cloud of  gravel dust.

Relief.  Sweet relief.  I was in the right place!

That was my first journey to the bear watching hide.  A couple of days ago I went again, so much easier to do when you know where you are going, and had a wonderful time.  We saw 4 bears and a golden eagle, and at one point 3 bears were all out in the feeding area at the same time.

This is the shortened version of the bear watching video but you can see the longer, 10 minute video and story about my recent bear watching trip at The Ruka and Kuusamo Travel Guide.

And information on prices and the bear watching season as well as videos, pictures can be found here.

If you turn your sound up, at 2:13 you’ll hear one of them growling.

Thank you KarhuKuusamo for yet another wonderful night in the forest bear watching, I believe I may well by forever in your debt.