Our first Finnish breakfast was buffet style and we got to try lots of dishes, some better than others. Andrew tried the buckthorn and carrot shot and it came back to haunt him. On the 5 hour drive we had to pull over multiple times for him to pee, apparently when his body doesn't like a new juice he has to pee frequently until he flushes it all out. The frequent stops allowed us to admire the multiplicity of lakes, bilberries (blueberries) growing everywhere and fireweed reminiscent of Alaska.
As we talked on the drive we realized we knew very little about Finland. Turning to the internet we started watching animated histories and learned a lot about Scandinavia.
Our drive took us right next to the Russian boarder and being so close made us curious just how close we could get...so we took some side roads trying to get to the boarder. This farmer blocked the road by piling his hay bails right in our path.
That is Russia on the other side of that field and fence.
Our second attempt led us here, where the signage made it very clear that we should get any closer. Russia is just on the other side of that lake...so close, yet so far.
We than started debating how many countries boarder Russia. We made our list of options and ended with somewhere around 19 or 20 knowing we had too many we looked up the official list. We had too many but had only left out one, so we felt pretty good. Fourteen countries boarder Russia: Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea.
For lunch we dropped the kids off at the first McDonalds of the trip and Greg and I went across the street to Lidl for snacks in the hide and our own lunch. I bought some candy to try, couldn't pass on the cat candy and finally got to try the salmiakki, salty black licorice famous in Scandinavia. The bag had several kinds of licorice and not one liked it. I could tolerate one kind but the others were too intense. Guess I really only like sweet black licorice.
We arrived at Era Eero and picked some berries while we waited for our experience to begin.
We entered the lodge where there was very little electricity being used. They had no lights on, just using the rays of the sun. Simi, the translator, cook, maid, meat placer, pretty much the lady who does the behind the scenes work, talked us through what the next 17 hours would look like. We learned that sometimes the wolverines sleep under the hide and occasionally sleep behind the door.
She told us that a caribou carcass, visible from the hide, had been brought in by a documentary filming crew; they needed video of a wolverine pulling the hair off a caribou. Unfortunately, caribou don't live in that area of Finland so they had one brought in, placed near the hide, and they waited. the wolverines didn't go near it. After a few failed attempts with the wolverines they cut into the carcass on the side opposite the hides and stuffed salmon into the cut. The wolverines took the bate and the film crew got the shots of what looked like a wolverine digging into a caribou. This story has tainted by perspective on all documentaries.
Around 3:30pm we entered the hide and got comfortable while we watched Simi and Eero place the meat for the animals.
The two huge picture windows made watching easy.
Sea gulls started to go at the meat and the girls took naps so they'd be ready for action later. The hide was quite hot due to the fact that Finland was having a heat wave with temperatures up to 85 degrees, 15 degrees hotter than average.
Emily woke up 20 minutes before the first wolverine made her appearance around 8:30pm. She came out from under the hide and grabbed some meat from under a rock.
It climbed up a few trees, filling up on meat, then disappeared. Everyone was wide awake now.
Andrew's forehead continued to be painful, with the swelling pushing right into his forehead rather than his eyes and face. Slow improvment.
Just after 10 Lily spotted another wolverine across the pond. We watched it meander and cross the log to our side and run around looking for snacks. The unique weasel run and the strange tail entertained us for 20 minutes. A third sighting near 11 was too dark for any pictures but he came right near the window and paced back and forth for a while.
By 12 it was dark enough that I couldn't enjoy an animal if I did see it so I got some sleep. The early morning hours didn't bring any sightings but the night had been pretty great and we left the hide at 8:00am happy, hungry, and sleepy.
The hide entrance.
We enjoyed our delicious breakfast of porridge and went on a walk to see the forest hides.
The kids and I decided we wanted to stay in our observation hide again. The photography hides weren't as easy viewing or as comfy.
Due to a shortage of rain their showers weren't available but they got us set up in the sauna with all the things we'd need to get clean. We got plenty hot and enjoyed the cold plunge in the creek when we were done.
Well the sauna worked magic on Andrew's infection; while he was exiting the stream Kate pointed out that his forehead was oozing. With a little pressure the thing erupted and we all watched in horrid fascination as he squeezed piles of goo from his forehead. Thankfully, this cleaning out also reduced the pressure and pain, but it did continue to ooze occasionally for the next few days. Our bodies are amazingly gross.
While Greg and I napped in a day use room Andrew made friends with Eero's grandsons; they played Clash Royal and Brawl Stars which we learned are Finnish created games. Andrew loved learning about the Finnish things in the game.
Soon a delicious stew was served for lunch followed by a berry cake while it started raining. Simi chatted with us and shared that when there is road kill they bring it to Eero and they leave it out for the animals. As the roadkill rots it gets covered in maggots: ducks come eat the maggots on carcass so it looks like they are eating the meat- fascinating.
We gathered our stuff and headed back to the hide for the night. We had to say goodbye to the boys because they were headed home to start school, and bye to Greg because he was spending the night in the photography hide in our same valley but we would only be able to communicate through text.
We took pictures with our new friends with the hide behind us.
When Greg left us I turned on my service, which I had only done a handful of times thus far. I was enjoying texts from Natali about her travels in Eastern Europe and took these pics so she could see what the hide looked like.
Both nights in the hide we enjoyed this little box of dinner with a sandwich, yogurt and the most delicious letter crackers.
Kate and Emily laid down to nap while Andrew and Lily played Polytopia, a game they had played regularly on the trip. Since they had to take turns on the phone they would watch for animals when they weren't building their little community in the game. I was listening to my audiobook when Lily spotted a wolf around 6:15pm. I texted Greg to make sure he could see it. Everyone got to enjoy it for a few minutes before it disappeared back up the mountain.
Not too much later a wolverine crossed the log and found some food before heading out of sight.
In the middle of that viewing I started getting concerning texts from Natali. She was on a 3 hour bus ride to Budapest. At a stop she got off the bus to use the bathroom carrying only her phone with her and nothing else. Apparently, it wasn't a long enough stop to use the bathroom and she chased after the bus screaming as it drove away with all of her stuff: passport, credit card, phone charger... Mercifully, a couple saw her distress and offered to drive her to Budapest, but they had to get gas first, a seemingly simple task that took ages due to lines. I gathered the kids and we all prayed for her miracles and her safety. My mama heart was so worried for her and running through all the possibilities for what the rest of her vacation could look like; the difficulty of getting home among other things. Meanwhile, a wolf has started poking out now and then right next to Greg's hide. It seemed nervous- it could possible sense us or the wolverine that hadn't gone too far away. We watched him for over an hour, just poking in and out, never staying visible for long. While watching him we could hear the wolverine moving in the walkway between the observation hide and the next building. The claws on the wood were distinct and the breathing noise on the other side of the door unmistakable.
During this hour long sighting I am texting Natali for updates and communicating with Greg. My heart was just overwhelmed with concern. I finally knelt down on my own and poured my heart out to my Father. I plead with Him to watch over her. I called upon the power of the priesthood to provide comfort, safety and solutions. With teary eyes I ended my prayer with a measure of peace.
Natali was on her way to Budapest but her phone was dying. I told her to communicate with dad as needed and I'd get updates from him.
Another wolf was spotted across the pond, or so we thought, after are descriptions didn't match we realized there were two wolves. One pretty white compared to the other wolf we had seem, these two also looked much healthier. Sadly, they didn't stay long and Greg wasn't able to get them both in the same shot but it was pretty cool to see so many wolves in one night.
Dark was starting to fall so most of the kids went to sleep. I volunteered to stay up for a while because I couldn't sleep until I knew Natali was okay.
A bit around 12am I got the update from Natali: The kind couple got Natali to the bus station in Budapest but the bus was no longer there, lost and found was also closed. Devastated, she had the couple take her to her hostel, which thankfully she could stay at because they accepted Apple Pay and a photo copy of her passport which Dad had asked Mack to send her from his computer at home. While at the hostel more people came to her rescue, letting her borrow a charging cord and offering ideas of what to do next. An inspired idea to check the location of her AirPods helped her discover that her bag was at a bus parking lot, probably there for the night. Worried that the bus would leave early the next morning with her bag she let her phone charge for a bit before taking an Uber to the bus. Thankfully, 3 kind guys from the hostel volunteered to go with her, since I was pretty uncomfortable with her going alone at 11:00 at night. They arrived and the place was surrounded by a high fence, no entry. They were trying to figure if they could climb the fence when a bus arrived and the gate opened. They ran in and tried to communicate with the bus driver. His English wasn't very good and no one in the group spoke Hungarian, but he seemed to get the gist of the situation and he walked over to the offices. He was gone awhile but eventually emerged with Natali's backpack. Miraculously, she got her stuff back, nothing missing. I thanked my Heavenly Father for protecting her, sending angels to watch over her, and for providing a way for her things to be returned to her - way more miracles than I had hoped for. I figured he stuff was long gone and I was just worried about how she would get through the weekend and still get home. God is good.
I went to bed in peace with a wolverine heavily breathing on the doorstep.
The next morning I was up early and found Emily watching, she had been up since 3, we sat in comfortable silence but didn't see anything more interesting that ducks eating maggots off of the caribou carcass- yes, it looked like they were eating the meat.
Around 8 we gathered up our stuff and waited for Greg to come over and make sure the wolverine was not still asleep on the door mat. We made a safe exit and headed to the lodge for breakfast - goodbye wolverines.
Steps: didn't record because it was so few - lots of quietly sitting.
Interesting Facts:
Finland didn't gain independence til 1917.
Finnish is one of the hardest languages to learn.
The Russian boarder is not easy to cross.
