Wednesday 25th July

At the top of Helvetinkolu ridge this morning.

Olivia leaps off the diving board in the afternoon.

Down in Ruovesi, Sandy surprised us all by leaping from the much higher diving board there!

Then, it was Olivia's turn! (Click on these to see a much better and bigger version of the picture)

After the children, I felt I had to do it too!

With some of the local lads, who were impressed with our leaps. Mind you, they were all crazy!
This morning, we set off from the cottage for a 4km walk into the national park here, to reach Helvetinkolu- and it proved to be a very interesting walk! Click the link I provided, and there is a very detailed description of the walk- along with a photo of the kiosk at the start of the walk- our cottage belongs to the lady who runs this kiosk! It took us most of the morning, and was truly mosquito-ridden, but it was definitely worth it!

Back here, very sweaty from having been well covered for the walk, we took saunas and showers in the afternoon. This was quite eventful, as the method of taking a shower involved heating water from the lake in a wood-fired furnace that sits right next to the sauna itself, then pouring it out into a huge bucket, and then mixing it with cold water that is pumped from the lake, and then pouring the lot over your head, having covered your body in a lather of shower-gel first! All this takes place in the tiled room adjacent to the sauna. It was certainly effective, as we felt very clean afterwards!

Later, we headed down to Ruovesi to the supermarket. There, by chance, I suggested we take a look at the harbour area of the village, and it was here that we discovered by the lakeside, a huge set of diving boards. Both Olivia and Sandy were desperate to jump from them (I was sure that Olivia might do it, but not Sandy, as he has never jumped from the diving board at Eyemouth) so we agreed to come back to the house, get the swimming gear and run back down there. What a surprise- they both jumped from the boards and impressed a few of the local lads there too, I think! It seems we might have to return there tomorrow!

It has been much warmer today, and is even now 19C at 11.20pm! I think the changing position of the jet-stream is beginning to improve the weather here too!