Still
only recovering from the trip as I type, I returned home from Finland on
Wednesday afternoon.
I am a member of 5th
Wicklow Bray Sea Scouts and have been for the past 3 years. Each year we go
on
a large camp, usually lasting around 7 days. Every second year we have the
pleasure of going on a camp abroad. In 2012, we basked in the 40 degree heat of
central Germany, but this year, it was quite literally the polar opposite.
It was in
mid-November that we heard the exciting news that we would be heading to
Finland. The vast country at the edge of Europe is home to an array of
wildlife, a cold climate, and thousands upon thousands of lakes. It was only
then that we realised it would be no ordinary camp - the usual pleasures of .
The familiarities of not having to worry about lighting a fire, wearing shorts
and a t-shirt every day and sunbathing would be long forgotten on this Arctic
expedition. Nonetheless, it was a new challenge, a break from the norm and not
a type of camp that this scout troop had ever done
before. I was
extremely excited.
We left the den on
Thursday afternoon with Dublin Airport in our sights. The plan was to fly
directly from Dublin to Helsinki, and then hop on another flight which would
take us to Oulu, a city 500km north of the capital. But, there was an interval
of only 1 hour between our flight landing in Helsinki and our next flight
departing to Oulu. As we sat at the departure gate, listening to the air
hostess announce that the plane would be 20 minutes delayed, the thought of
spending the night in Helsinki Airport became all too much of a reality.
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| Sunset from the plane |
Luckily, mid-flight,
we were able to explain our situation to the team in Finnair, who ensured that
the plane wouldn't leave without us - How very nice of them!
We arrived in a cold
and dark Oulu at around 1am local time. You see, Finland is two hours ahead of
Ireland, which is actually quite a large difference.
We were
collected by Finnish scout leaders and brought to a local primary school
where we stayed the night. At 8am the next morning, we headed on the bus to the
camp, a further 150 km to the North!
As
we ascended into Lapland, there was snow everywhere. The ground covered in a
thick white layer.
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| Arriving at the campsite |
We
broke the journey by stopping at a petrol station half-way. It was then that I
realised that what I had been told about Finland was true - it is VERY
expensive. Quite a thrifty shopper myself, it came as a massive shock to see
that I had been charged a whopping €2.60 for a 500ml bottle of water! - Leaving
that aside, we ventured
forth toward the camp.
Tuisku, the camp, was held on a Finnish military base in a place called Taivalkosken
- a placename which to this day, I still cannot pronounce. Roughly 600
scouts attended, from Ireland, Britain and Finland.
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| That's 5 feet of snow right there! |
Snow ploughs had created the bulk of the arteries to get
around the camp. We required tents to be set-up. Prior to embarking on the
trip, we had been told that the task of digging ourselves into the camp lay
ahead of us. The snow in most places was about 1.5 metres deep, and when
you stepped into it, your foot would go straight down into the freezing liquid.
The tents couldn't be set-up on top of this surface as they would simply
collapse. Our job was to dig down into the layers of snow, slush and ice, to
create a hole that we could establish the tent in. Digging into the ice was
back-breaking work. You wouldn't realise how much of a sweat that you run up
even in the freezing cold.
After a couple of hours hard work, we retired to the eating
area for a well deserved lunch break. All 600 scouts ate in a communal area
outdoors. Over the three days, we were treated to a variety of traditional
Finnish dishes which included pastas, stews and the notorious raspberry porridge.
It was unlike other camps I had been to insofar as we did not cook our own
meals. For example in Fermanagh last summer we made everything that we ate. On
one hand this meant that we could choose everything we had to eat. But on the
other hand it required us to do the washing-up afterwards. In Finland, we were
spared the latter requirement, which was a great relief.
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| INKELI! |
All the boys in our group were split from the girls, and we
were mixed with Finnish scouts. Our sub-camp had about 50 people in it, made up
of both leaders and scouts. It was called 'Inkeli'
, which, it now appears, Google translate has no translation for. Anyway, in
our subcamp, there were four large tents. They each held roughly 10-15 people.
Each tent had a wood-burning stove in it - which I will get into more detail
about later.
Each night, between 10pm and 6am, we were required to burn
wood in our stove to keep the tent warm. Each scout was assigned a different
timeslot which changed night-by-night. The activity involved watching over the
stove, seeing that nothing in the tent had gone on fire!! - Maintaining the
heat, and making sure that nobody was too cold in the tent. On my first night, eager not to let the fire
go out, I set myself the goal of putting 1 log into the fire every 5 minutes. Tired
and bemused, I watched the stove gradually turn red. Within half an hour, the
scouts were awake, and the air was filled with Finnish insults being directed
at me.
It is Finnish
tradition to have a sauna. After our activities, we took a shower and went into
the sauna for some much-needed heat. For a bit of fun - we'd run outside, roll
around in the snow in our togs before heading back into the sauna.
The language barrier was something that had worried me. It
was an international camp, with scouts from Britain, Ireland, but the majority
of people were Finnish. It's safe to say that I didn't have a word of Finnish
before going on the camp, and I still don't have any. Luckily for our sake,
everyone - even the younger Finnish scouts - had a superb standard of English.
I had read about the Finnish education system being world-class, and one that
numerous countries base theirs on. But its only in a situation like this when
you see the true practical benefits of their education.
It was a great novelty seeing so much snow. In Ireland, an
inch of white powder covers the roads and the country goes into lockdown. In
Finland they have five feet of the stuff and everyone is expected to be in
school and at work.
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Still trying to figure out why they burned the witch in the cauldron -
one of the bizarre shows on camp |
Each night there was a show presented in both Finnish and English.
Full of music, gags and stories - Very bizarre in many ways, but nonetheless,
enjoyable to watch.
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| Easter Sunday mass |
On Easter Sunday at 11pm, we joined in a candle light
procession to celebrate Jesus' resurrection. We had mass in the dark, read in
English. Though the majority of Finland is Lutheran, it is still a Christian
religion and thus the service was similar to that of Easter Sunday back home.
There are no chocolate eggs in sight at Easter in Finland.
The secular traditions are discarded in place of a religious celebration.
One of the days we went cross-country skiing. It had been about
4 years since I have skied and I would have considered myself a decent skier.
But I was put to shame. All the finesse that I once had was gone! - I could
barely stand up wearing a pair of skis. The skis themselves were very long,
pointy and did not hold your heel down. I was told by one of the Finnish
leaders that they were suited to uphill and flat skiing, a type of skiing that
I had never done before. I was adamant that my skills had not deteriorated so
drastically, and determined to shift the blame from my lack of skills to the
variety of skis I was using.
We had a long journey through the Finnish countryside,
stopping for our lunch after about 3 hours. We cooked salmon and potatoes on a
fire. It's fair to say that none of us are future Gordon Ramsay's or have the
intention to be, so the fish remained largely underdone following 90 minutes on
the hot coals. Starving and cold, we ate up!
Another activity we did was fire building and fire safety. We
raced to see who could make their fire first and cook popcorn. Then we did a
fire safety quiz in the forest. Lastly, the Finnish scouts set a tent on fire
to show how easily the material can be engulfed by flames and how quickly it
can burn down. It was scary to think that a fire like that was not beyond the
bounds of possibility in our camp, where we had burning stoves alight every
evening.
Embarking on the trip, we were expecting temperatures of -25 degrees.
Luckily for our sake, it became clear to us that we would be having a far-less
Baltic experience. The weather was largely cold, ranging from -5 to 2 degrees.
Many times, I needed to remove my ski jacket as I was too hot.
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| Saying farewell and hoisting the Finnish flag |
After dismantling the campsite on Monday morning, we said our
farewells to the Finnish scouts, and attended a closing ceremony. We headed
back to Oulu at around midday.
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| Incredible sunset in Oulu |
We were dropped off at our hotel where we would stay two
nights before embarking back to Dublin. Oulu is a city roughly the size of
Cork. It seemed extremely dull, grim and quiet - almost reminding me of
something from the Soviet Block. Nonetheless, the hotel was quiet, clean and
modern - extremely good value. On Tuesday we headed around the town for a spot
of shopping and went to an excellent science museum - loads of fun and
interactive exhibits for children of all ages. On Tuesday night we all stayed
up and headed on the airport bus at 4am.
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| Tiredness hit us hard |
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| Oulu science museum |
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| Leaders selfie |
I want to thank our incredible leaders who put so much effort
into organising and planning a camp. They always show a huge amount of love, helpfulness
and are forever good humoured regardless of how little sleep they have had. I
want to extend my thanks to the organisers of the camp, who gave us a once in a
lifetime experience in a part of the world vary different to Ireland. And to my
fellow scouts, who I all love so much and with whom I have shared so many happy
memories.
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| Scouting family :-) |
