Trekking and photographing in Urho Kekkonen National Park can be demanding, but giving. It´s the biggest forest-wilderness in Finland, close Russian border. Korvatunturi, the place where Santa, Father Christmas lives in, is also inside this National Park. So You can say the photos from this trekking is Santas backyard.
This time of year Lapland is on daytime mainly quite dark. Up north, northen of polar circel, the night is lasting more than 24 h. Sun dos not come over the horizon. But nights, if it´s fullmoon, can be bright. Bright nights means normally also very cold. We had litle of bouth, and mainly cold. The temperature under this trekking was between 10 an 40 minus Celsius (14 to -40 Fahrenheit). So it´s more or less the coldest as it can be in Finland.
In Northern Finland in National Park we have open wilderness huts, where anyone can come and sleep a night or to without any fees. And there is firewoods. Some huts have also sauna, where it´s possible to clean yourself.
Under our trekking we did ski more than 100 km. I had 10 kg cameragears with me plus 30 kg other things, food, etc. In wilderness You need a bit more than on a daytrip to closest forest. We did see a lot of reindeers and moonlight, and moonlight can be brighter than the light in daytime. Did see the best a Finnish wilderness can give - this time of the Year.
Here is how I look like after skiing in 5 h and 20 km in -35 Celsius.
To see a gallery of photos from this trip, se here: www.kettunen.1g.fi/kuvat/kaamosvaellus/. To give comments is more than welcome.
