2013-11-02 63 28

Location

In Puukari, Valtimo. The point lies in a forested swamp.

Participants

Pastori
The Wife

Expedition

Snowy morning in Valtimo.

After returning home from their long European tour Pastori and The Wife were totally exhausted and fell to the bed, they had after all 40 days of travel and 10492 km behind them. The morning revealed a typical autumn scenery; low-hanging clouds, ground whitened by some sleet rain, temperature around zero Celsius. A wonderful morning?

Pastori and the hunter.

Today's hashpoint in our own graticule was, however, irritatingly close, so we needed to go there. As determined as he was in the Germany, Pastori dashed ahead. The area the point was on was familiar from the summer's berry-picking trips. A surprise was the hunters along the road. There is currently elk hunting season in Finland. The hashpoint was in vicinity of one hunter in his shooting position, so with his permission it was safe to wander 170 meters into the wet and miserable forest. The point was in a forested swamp, in a small cluster of young spruces. There was hardly any need for a geodance, a small swerve and some side-steps and there it was, 0,999 m accuracy. The air was obviously clean, because Pastori found some impressive beard lichen to serve as a moustache.

The congratulation handshake of Pastori and The Wife.

Pastori and The wife congratulated themselves and each other for the successful expedition and for every search they had performed in different countries, successfully reached points and also the interesting failures. The journey together in life continues, so does geohashing. Finally we can conclude this report by citing a verse from a children's book about cats that is perfectly suitable for the Finnish autumn weather: harmaa, harmaa, harmaa, harmaa – se on ainakin varmaa (grey, grey, grey, grey – that is most certainly sure).

Additional photos

Pastori with a lichen beard.
The terrain the hashpoint was on.
The clouds were hanging really low.
The roads in Northern Karelia look a little different than those in Spain and Portugal.
The gps proof.