Blogging at 21:30 on Wednesday 14th August from intended overnighting spot N 63.60455°, E 24.68937° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:63.60455%2C24.68937
A tentative slight improvement in health today, though Emma's now troubled by a sore throat and is not feeling quite on top of things. We both hope she doesn't follow my path.
The camp last night was, as mentioned, well below the kind of place we'd ordinarily settle for. Just as I was really flagging (physically shaking with the perception of being desperately cold, in spite of it being about 25°C in the cab) we unsuspectingly found ourselves in the midst of huge tracts of agricultural land where every bit of land was either housing, farms or crops. This is very atypical of Finland, where big-country, lakes and forests - and loads of interesting small roads and tracks though them - are the regular fodder. It was probably the worst camp we've had in several years.
Today's been another day of driving a bit then resting a bit but, once again, it's been on quiet (sometimes empty) roads through some splendid boreal-forest landscapes where cranberry season is now in full swing. Finland really does convey a genuine sense of wilderness and untrammeled wide-open spaces. There's room to breathe here and there's hardly any sense of the selfish, egocentric, antagonist hustle-and-bustle so often nowadays encountered in the world's more 'civilised' countries. Even the larger towns and cities we've passed through seem at peace with themselves.
Civic pride is still abundantly evident and everything seems really clean and well maintained. Even buildings are kept obviously clean and things like agricultural tractors are polished; there's just a sense of professionalism about the whole country. It's evident there's been little obvious change since we were last here and that the country is plotting a thoughtful course. The decay we sense in neighbouring Sweden these days is not evident here, yet.
More general cultural observations to follow; when I'm back on full form.
In spite of not devoting any effort to look for wildlife since falling ill we've nonetheless had some good sightings. One such was a huge circling flock of common cranes. There must have been 60 or more individuals and most, if not all, were calling as they sorted out whatever it is circling cranes have to sort out. We stopped to watch and listen for a few minutes. Worth it.
Butterflies and dragonflies have been a big feature down forest rides for the last couple of days. I'm not sure of the dragonfly species but Camberwell beauty, white admiral, red admiral and one (maybe two) of the larger fritillary species have been prolific (I struggle with fritillaries).
Bird sightings have been unexpectedly decent with rough-legged buzzard, sparrowhawk, yellow wagtails, waxwings and a handful of flypast-waders (possibly dunlin).
Tonight's intended overnighting spot is a cracker and I'm thankfully able to engage and spend a bit of time watching the world.
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