Kayaking around Lake Saimaa
Kirjoittanut Roberta Luotu 15.07.2016
Hi, I am back as I promised with another unique and amazing experience to share with you!
Kayaking around Lake Saimaa, that is what I do suggest trying to everyone. I will remember that weekend forever, that’s for sure!
The weekend trip was planned by Tommy, a member of ‘Ulvova Susi’ the hiking club of LUT. Few days before the trip we received an email with detailed plan! My attention was caught by this sentence:
“the space in kayaks is limited, so try to survive with only a few pieces of equipment”,
I needed to survive for two days with few things and with no electricity, challenge accepted!
It was on a Saturday morning at 8am when I left home with only a backpack filled with these few pieces I needed. The tent and a sleeping bag were provided by the club. The meeting point was at Myllysaari kayak's shed, where we rented the kayaks.
Before starting Tommi was explaining some techniques and facts about kayaks and kayaking. For some of us it was the first time, and excitement was shown with a lot of questions such “how do I get free if the kayak goes upside down?” This is very rare and in fact we were quite stable after few meters.
Once we got the technique, we started paddling well along. Our double kayak was always the last, for the first few kilometers at least... We were enjoying a lot and as we were so enthusiastic, the others stopped few time to wait for us.
After an hour (which meant 5 km) more or less, we reached a beach where we stopped for some snacks and to relaxation and got to share the first impressions.
Energy recovered it was time to go back paddling! A quick check to the map in order to check which island to reach next! I would have got easily lost, if not guided by Tommi! Oh yeah, I am not very good in orienteering!
There were amazing and relaxing scenes all around us and also very nice cottages by the shore with own lake sauna of course!
Meanwhile, we really improved in paddling and we were going as fast as most of the others!
After some distance and at around 1pm we reached another beach where we settled to have lunch.
Of course there was a fireplace, and we were just going around to collect some pieces of wood to burn them up!
We had a nice lunch time; there were sausages, some already prepared rice with some meat and also some biscuits fruits. We survived pretty well with food, I would say!
Once again we started paddling and few kilometers later reached the place where we would settle our tents down and spend the night.
We had a unique route paddling through a jungle, under some really tiny wooden bridges and some small waves making the paddling a bit harder...
We reached the other beach around 5pm! Preparing and fixing the tents was the first thing to do. Then set up fire in order to warm up a bit and prepare food on it! We played games, which made us laugh beside warmed us up. For dinner we had sausages cooked over fire and pasta cooked over gas camping stove. We also boiled some lake water to make some tea!
Amazing nature experience by Lake Saimaa
It was time to sleep with an amazing view, lighted even during night time! That is the beauty of Finnish summers! It rained a bit during the night, and it was even more a pleasure to sleep and dream :)
Our alarm was Tommy at 8 in the morning! There was an amazing morning view again! It was time to set up things for breakfast, remove the tents and ready ourselves to take the way back! A bad weather was almost there to hit us but we were lucky to only get a little shower when we were almost at the harbour!
Some group photos were taken on the way back and a bit of sadness for the end of the trip! We were all happy for this amazing experience with very nice people in the beautiful Saimaa Lake scenario!
We Love Lappeenranta!
Roberta de Crescenzo
A special thanks for the company and the photos shared to Luis Tommy, Ekaterina, Yelena, Alyona, Rahul, Behrooz, Zheng, Mihai, Pekka, Jouni, Ivan, Yücehan, Ashock :)
Rent kayaks at the Sandcastle
From the tourist information point at the Sandcastle, you can go paddling on the blue Lake Saimaa or rent a cycle to bike around it. You can purchase the Street Train and Sandcastle ride tickets and rent bicycles, canoes, kayaks, SUP boards or a rowing boat from the Sandcastle tourist information point. The information point serves visitors 11–26 June at 10.00–18.00, 27 June –31 July at 10.00–20.00 and 1–31 August at 10.00–18.00.
Welcome!
