Wanha Witonen paddling trip

In case anyone is wondering, Nokia Lumia phones sink pretty fast when they jump into a lake. I have a new one now, but I wasn't going to risk it trying to escape as well while canoeing and kayaking. I kept it in a waterproof case and only took it out on dry land so I don't have many pictures from the paddling trip so this is going to be short.


It was a few weeks ago and I only now have time to post it up. We paddled the Wanha Witonen route from Petäjävesi to Jämsänkoski about 52km's. Not too far, but ok for a few days paddling.

I was on the planning team for this trip so I was one of the people responsible for making sure everything went as planned. Despite certain people moaning about getting up early we actually managed to get our kit loaded up and be on the road by 7am.

The week was broken up into 3 days of paddling and 2 days hiking. I had made a paddling rotation so that everyone got to paddle front and back of a canoe and in a kayak. First day I was paddling with Seishi and as you can see our canoe was full. On each paddling day there was at least one set of rapids to go down. Nothing crazy, but ok for the first time hitting rapids in a canoe. It was all good and we before the fist set of rapids we pulled up on the shore to check out the situation. I thought Seishi was going to be a good partner and we'd handle the rapid no problem.
Hmm... It started well. We passed the first obstacle and back paddled to line ourselves up to shoot between two rocks to go under a bridge where we had to immediately back paddle again and ferry ourselves to the left side of the rapids and continue dodging another set of rocks. So we passed the first two rocks came to the bridge and I started to back paddle. Seishi was paddling like a maniac, but FORWARDS! I shouted, but it was too late the current took us and we turned sideways and got stuck on two rocks. The water was trying to pull the canoe under, but we managed to keep it upright and push ourselves off of the rocks and going down the rest of the rapid backwards like a pair of nutters.

The weather was unreal. The week before we had been practising on a small river close to the school and it had been snowing. This week I got sun burnt on the first day of paddling, a few of the days the temperature hit 27 degrees!!

Iso Hiekka was our 2nd camp site, a nice place with a kitchen platform or whatever it is? and a little beach. It was a long day of paddling from the previous campsite to here and the sun finally went down at about 11pm.

On our second hiking day we visited an old growth forest a few km's from camp and came across a spring fed lake with ridiculously clear water which was handy cos I was in desperate need to refill my water bottle.

Yes still in Finland! Last day of paddling and surprisingly no one had capsized the entire trip. Like all of our previous trips the weather was perfect for the activity, but unlike the previous trips, this was like a real holiday! No stress, no fighting with the cold, no carrying heavy back packs or having to drive for days to get the location. The only disappointing thing is that we no longer get any sort of paddling proficiency on this course. Oh well.  

On another note. This never happens in Bristol. Just hanging out at home watching an idiot abroad when a message appears across the screen saying that there's a bear down town and police are warning people to stay away. On the screen 'karhu' is the word for bear. One of over 200 words in Finnish for bear, another joy of the Finnish Language.

Laters.

On the water

Didn't get to post anything during last week cos I was busy kayaking and canoeing during the day and being lazy at night. I've gotta try and keep this short, cos I have to pack my things for our Russian trip tomorrow and get the train back to Kuru soon.

I wasn't gonna risk capsizing with my camera in my pocket so I only got some pictures on the last day. Aras was the cameraman, he was sat on the shore for a while as he warmed up from a little swim he had in the morning.

The previous days we had been learning different paddling techniques in the kayaks and canoe's, but this day was all about rescuing. Trust me that water was cold.

Ready for Ralph to try an Eskimo rescue.

He is supposed to capsize himself, then I come along so he can grab hold of the end of my kayak and flip himself upright so he stays in the kayak.

Didn't quite work out. He let go or lost his grip of my kayak half way up and went back under so ripped his spray deck off and popped out. 

So began the other rescue.

 I have to take his kayak, drag it up over mine and flip it over to empty out the water. Then put it back into the water and hold to it so he can climb back in.

I had already been the victim. My rescue didn't go as planned, basically help took its bloody time. I don't know how long I was in the water but it felt like a long time so by now I was proper cold and couldn't feel my fingers.

I helped Ralph back into his kayak and made for the sauna. Warmed myself up and came back to do basically the same thing but in the canoe.

Ludo and Andy practising the Eskimo rescue.

 Some of the others doing the canoe rescue.

 Robin and Tim

Ludo

That's it for pics of last week. We had another orienteering practise on Thursday that took a bit longer than expected but that's what practising if for. 

I'm off to Russia in the morning for two weeks. Should be good, we have the first snowfall of the year forecast for next week so looks like it might get a little cold especially at night. Luckily my new sleeping bag was delivered last week so I'll get to test it out very soon.

I bought it from Wiggy's in the USA. Its a modular sleeping bag system, two bags together rated down to -40c. Hopefully that's enough for our winter expeditions. The outer bag is rated down to 0c and the inner bag is rated down to -20c. I'll be taking the inner bag with me to Russia cos the nights will be dipping below freezing, nowhere near -20 but I'm not getting cold this time.

Hope I have enough food packed for the whole trip. That weighs in at just over six kilo's, plus all my kit = one heavy back pack.

Gotta go get ready now. be back in two weeks.

Laters.