Day 5: Liukonpellon Luomutila

marmalade & cheese sandwich - mmmm

It was a grey day that greeted us this morning.  Grey being – no breakfast offered and no coffee or tea in the room as well as the grey skies.  So we ate up some of the rye bread buns & cheese (with orange marmalade!) that we had bought for lunch and shared an apple.


this is our load - all together not each!

Cafe closed, not open till 10am

It was cold and raining lightly, so all the wet weather gear was dragged out: covers for the panniers and bags, jackets and waterproof pants and waterproof booties as well!  Fashionable!! Thermals were very much appreciated but our faces soon began to feel really cold too.  Shades of Estonia for sure!  We zinked down to the shop and stocked up our lunch supplies and then hit the road.

Karina - rugged up against the bitter cold wind & rain

Early on, we hopped on a little ferry (for free) and punted across a lake and just on the other side was a small local supermarket, where we went in for a little look and bought some milk.  Helped an elderly lady struggle out the door with a carton of beer and a big handbag!  No English spoken here, but it wasn’t necessary.  

It wasn’t too long before we detoured onto the short cut and unsealed road.  The rain had eased off but there was no sign of sunshine or warmth.  The first half of the sealed road was OK, firm and not gravelly, but plenty of hills to really try our patience – damn those Finnish Hills!  The forest was alive with bird sounds – but no sign of wildlife, no elk, no bears and no wolves… thankfully – tho a squirrel or 2 would have been nice – maybe a badger or hedgehog??  But nothing and no road kills either.

The little ferry heading back across the lake

The drains on each side of the road make it hard to get off and find a nice spot for lunch, so we turned down a small road for pit stop and lunch.  I walked along a bit trying to find a place over the drain, but nothing.  I was just hitching up my shirt, when I heard Karina call out and I looked back and there was a local lady cycling towards me with a big grin on her face.  What are the odds on that!!  So I waited awhile before I eventually relieved my bladder!

We spotted a few smultron growing alongside the road, but they are still not quite ripe – red on one side but not on the other.  Still give a bit of an idea of the intense flavour, but not quite…  later!

Not long after this we turned onto another unsealed road and things became decidedly worse.  Loose sharp gravel made riding hell and we got a bit cranky all round.  The hills added a little drama, not because of the puff up, but the hairy riding down on brakes and loose surface.  We had about 13km of this before getting onto Route 23 and riding with fairly constant traffic before the turnoff to Liukonpellan.  Another dirt road, but not topped with loose gravel.  Still plenty of sharp hills, but more farmland here. 

See the criss-cross bras straps & fish net cups? they were shy
& wouldn't come any closer

And Cows with Bras!  We saw this mob of black & white dairy cows and we could see they had leather straps around their bodies and on closer inspection realised they were bras!  We called out, so a couple came over a bit closer to see us.  We have since seen other herds with bras too!

And so to Liukonpellan – what I thought were cabins, turned out to be a home-stay set up.   Tarja was having a massage when we arrived, so we waited until that was finished.  Her English was very good and this made it really easy to sit and talk.  First Tarja offered us tea – made with fresh mint and this wonderful strawberry cake – Erik (Tarja’s son) was turning 20 the next day and they were having a family party for him.  Her mother had baked the cake (shades of midsommar cake), but Tarja had decorated it.  Cut into 2 layers with cream and banana in between, then covered with cream, sprinkled with grated chocolate and topped with huge chunks of strawberries – mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm  yummo!!

We unpacked and showered and then went upstairs again.  We were a little embarrassed as I had imagined there would be somewhere to buy a meal (doh!!) so we just had left over bread and cheese again.  But we were invited to share their evening birthday meal – typical Finnish simple meal, according to Tarja.  But very different for us!  Boiled new potatoes – to cover, spring onions in cream.  Also green salad, cherry tomatoes, pickled herring, fried zucchini in sundried tomato oil sprinkled with mozzarella cheese, broccoli plus breads – rye & crispbreads – I am sure Eero would have approved.  And I even tried the herring and am ashamed to say, it was quite nice, sweet and not too pickled tasting. 

Here comes the potatoes!

We helped pack up the evening meal, then stood around in the kitchen, talking about Finland and Australia – politics and social stuff.  It was really interesting to compare but it would seem in many ways that Australia and Finland are very similar.  It was a really great cultural sharing experience, but we were very tired after a really hard day of riding, so at 10:30 we struggled off to bed!

(OK so I whinged about the road and didn't photograph it for evidence?  Well I do have video of it, but it was too cold and wet to get out the SLR - sorry!)