Author: Raffaello Tesi

Watch the route up to day 18 Watch the route from day 19 to 28 Best night I've spent in the forest. Soft soil, nice sleep. That's the best rule. The second best rule: put on all your waterproof equipment you have with you, even if it's +30 degrees. That's the only way to get mosquitoes at a safe distance. […]

Watch the route up to day 18 Watch the route from day 19 to 27 The last night has been quite rainy. Actually it started to rain soon after I posted the report about yesterday's trip, and it didn't stop until the morning. I had to pack the tent while it was still wet but right now I'm once again […]

Watch the route up to day 18 Watch the route from day 19 to 26 Yesterday I had a stroll around Joensuu, which was very very full of people for the Ilosaarirock  Festival. I really felt I was the only one not going to it! I've enjoyed the city anyway, especially as I was given the hint to eat some […]

Watch the route up to day 18 Watch the route from day 19 to 25 Yesterday evening I had a nice swim in the warm waters of Lake Pielinen, before finding out that my cycling t-shirt and shorts I put to dry after washing vanished. I even asked to the owner of the hostel who didn't know where they could […]

Watch the route up to day 18 Watch the route from day 19 to 24 Today it was a very relaxing day. Even because most of the job was done by a ferry. Yesterday I went to sleep in the woods close to the harbour to be on time to catch the morning ferryboat from Koli to Lieksa. It's a […]

And another very hot day. This morning I woke up around 7, as the sun was making of my tent a sauna, first time it happened during this journey. Well, in time for a new cycling day, I'd say! I left the woods getting on road 6 towards Juuka, which wasn't far away, as yesterday I managed to get farther […]

I guess with today I have spanned all the possible temperatures of this journey. If it hasn't been over +30, it's been close to it. It seems ages ago that I was freezing in the tent. And it was just a month ago that I had to sleep with 4 degrees outside. Miracles of the north. I left Kuhmo by […]

This was a perfect cycling day. Despite the fact I didn't sleep that comfortably the last night in the tent, and that I had ran out of water, and that I had to go to a gas station to refill, just to find out that they had an automatic tap in the toilet that mixes cold and hot water by […]

Wait a moment: it's dark here! For the first time in this journey I miss some light in the tent. Really, as soon as you get south from the Arctic Circle, you start to miss the midnight sun. There's light outside of course 24/7 at this latitude as well also in July, but the difference in intensity is huge, believe […]

And today the journey restarted, this time heading from Oulu towards south-east. Road 22 gets the name of Tervan tie, the Tar Route, as it goes along the Oulujoki river, which has been intensively used for transporting tar to the port of Oulu, especially in the last part of the 19th century. As a matter of fact, this part of […]