Palvajarvi 2018: Day 12 - Serenity and Peace

Friday 20 July 2018

Day 12 - Serenity and Peace

It's some feeling swimming in a lake that has been warmed for a week or more of temperatures of 30C plus. I can honestly say that it has never been as warm at Palvajarvi as it is now while we have been here. This evening, a few minutes ago at 9pm, Keith and I showered after literally hours in the water today. While the temperature of the air was 28C at 9pm, the water temperature is hovering at about 27.5C, which when you consider just how far north we are, is quite simply astonishing. And when you consider that only 12 weeks ago at Easter, the lake was frozen with around 60cm thickness of ice, these stats are even more mind boggling.
So, as I swam out for the umpteenth time to about 75m out from the jetty, just before retreating from the water for the day, I simply marvelled at this wonderful, wonderful place.

Some of the photos this evening are from a walk Anna and I took just after dinner to take a short break from swimming. We explored to the south of the cottage, at a part of the lake we haven't walked to much over the years. You'll see it's cloudier tonight as there is rain and thunderstorms forecast, though it's still very hot. Anna doesn't think the rain will come... We will see!

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2018 will be the 12th anniversary of our first trip to Finland in 2006, when we first ventured to, and fell in love with this wonderfully beautiful and tranquil Nordic country.

This will be our 11th summer visit to this hidden gem of a country in the far north of Europe.

We fell in love with Finland in 2006 when we stayed at Santalahti Holiday Resort in the southern town of Kotka. We were back in 2008, flying to Helsinki, then staying in both Kotka and Varkaus, around 300 kms north east of the capital city. This gave us our first taste of the lakeland areas inland, and we loved swimming in the beautiful warm lakes!
In 2010 we returned by car from Scotland in a heatwave to the areas close to Juva and Puumala, renting our first cottages by lakes that were incredibly warm to swim in. After such fantastic weather in 2010, we had high hopes of the same in 2011, and incredibly, we were again very lucky to have a real heatwave! We stayed in two cottages close to Juva again, and fell further in love with the tranquil solitude you experience in this spectacular lakeland area.
By 2012, we wanted to try some new areas and cottages, so we planned a 24 day holiday, staying for a week in three different cottages as well as staying in a beautiful Helsinki aparthotel for 3 nights. It was lovely to discover the eastern town of Parikkala, as well as the western town of Ruovesi, and in between, we stayed for a week in what has become our firm favourite cottage of all our trips, close to Jyväskylä. We loved our stay on Lake Palvajarvi so much in 2012, that we returned to the same cottage again in 2013 and 2014 for two weeks, as well as in 2015. In 2016, we were back for our 5th year at what was definitely a real home-from-home! Then in 2017 it was time for our 6th year in a row at this lovely property!

Now, it seems we'd hardly want to go anywhere else, as in 2018, we return here again for the 7th year in a row!

Heating a Smoke Sauna

We've usually spent our time in wood-burning saunas while in Finland, but there is a different type of sauna that requires many hours of preparation, but which provides the "Rolls Royce" of sauna experiences once it's ready! Yes, the Smoke Sauna - and this short film describes the process for heating one! This year, after 10 years of wood-burning and electric saunas, we are going to try a Smoke Sauna for the first time, at the beautiful Taulu Manor which is only a short drive from our cottage.