Country: Finland
Distance travelled:
Weather: Sunny, about 22 deg

The sounds of cars and trucks pulling briefly into the rest stop and then departing woke us this morning. With a mission today, we got up earlier than normal, ate our breakfast and decided to pay for an internet connection to check for results of yesterday’s’ online purchases. Fortunately we received confirmation of both our accommodation and ferry bookings. Now all we needed was to find somewhere to leave the van for a week.

Once the caravan that had been parked nearby had left, I snuck out with our full cassette to empty it into the pit toilet. We had been careful not to use any loo chemicals while in Finland in case of this very situation to avoid upsetting the biology happening down there but I wanted to get the process over with anyway. Pit toilets stink but this one needed some extra care and maintenance. Or maybe it just needed to be bulldozed.

With four hours driving still to go before we reached Helsinki we set off at 11am. There was a brief pause at a service station for fuel and lunch (we splashed out on a serve of hot chips to go with our sandwiches) and then onward. Mark had rung a camp site in Helsinki, Rastila Camping, earlier in the week to ask if they had a spot for five nights but they were unable to accommodate us. On a whim, I rang them again while we drove to see if they had a spot for us at least for tonight. They did, so we reprogrammed the GPS and headed their way.

Upon our arrival and check-in, noting they did caravan storage, Mark asked if they had anywhere we could store the van for the four nights we would be away in St Petersburg. Wonderfully they could also supply this need. We parked the van, threw the urgent washing into the site washing machine (at €5 per load for washing and for drying, my little portable machine has definitely paid for itself) and headed to the local beach for a swim.

After over an hour in the water, a cool temperature punctuated by incredibly cold patches, we headed back. We had watched the children splashing each other and squealing and throwing sand and in one case coating themselves in mud but the most entertainment came from the group of people who kept coming down from the campsite sauna to plunge into the cold river and then head back to steam themselves again. The Fins really love their sauna.

Back at the van, Mark set up the BBQ and fried some meat and mystery sausage we had bought at Lidl earlier in the week while I rustled up a salad from the last of our fresh food. The rest of the evening was spent preparing for our holiday away from our holiday.

Helsinki Night 1