Loyal Dog Pilka

15 Sep. 2006 Visatupa



Here we are at Visatupa. Oh well, there is nothing around. Forests, lakes, that is it. Only a few houses, no shops. This is a family owned youth hostel and they also have a dairy farm where you can try some farming work such as milking.

Visatupa is located about 80 km north of Rovaniemi. The nearest bus stop is 4 km away. If you ask them beforehand, they can pick you up at the bus stop, so you can get there even you don’t travel by car. The owner is living next to the hostel and they offer breakfast and dinner upon request at their house.



This is what we wanted, just to enjoy a lazy day in the beautiful Finnish nature. We asked Janne, the owner, about a nice walking course around.
‘Well, there aren’t really “trekking courses”…’ he goes.
‘but you can walk to the river through the forest. There, you can see nice autumn colors’
‘Sounds good. So You don’t walk around here often?’
‘No, no. I am not so interested in walking, because you know, I am here everyday’
True. This scenery is exceptional for us, but not for him.

So we went. Their dog, Pilka – I actually don’t know how to spell her name, but probably Pilka- followed us. She was a very friendly dog and seemed as if she should have been our guide. Sometimes she had gone too far, then waited for us saying like; ‘are you with me? I’ll be here for you’ . You are so lovely.



Picking up some berries, we were walking to the river. In winter, snow mobiles can go on this route.
‘I love these trees…I could find Moomin somewhere’
My friend took many pictures of trees. She was really fond of Tove Jansson’s The Moomins, which is very popular in Japan, because it was made into an anime television series. After about one our walk, we arrived at the riverside. The autumn colors over the river were so beautiful.




We didn’t see anybody while walking. The forest refreshed us a lot. When we were about to arrive at the hostel, a middle aged guy spoke to us on the main road. He didn’t speak English well, and we didn’t understood Finnish at all, but somehow we communicated. He tried to say that he was willing to take a picture of us, but not there. He seemed to know a nice place to take a photo, so he wanted to take us there. Well, we had plenty of time, he didn’t look weird and we were two of us, so we thought following him would be OK. He led us to the small path in the forest, and after a short walk, he said we were there. He pointed out something, it was….

To be continued.