Would You Like Fries With That?

Saariselkä feels worlds away, almost like the Urho Kekkonen National Park could be found by stepping through a wardrobe. The subarctic landscape of rolling fells, towering pines and malting birch paint an autumn scene the likes I have only ever read about. The falling leaves, the changing colours, the bright sun with the cool breeze and the expansive sky are simply stunning.

The four seasons, and each transition, brings distinct changes to the natural environment. Now, in September temperatures are dropping and days are getting shorter. The birch is turning orange, and the rabbits are turning white. Reindeer are growing their beards and soon will be coming into the fences. The forests are home to mushrooms and berries, babbling brooks and wolverines (yep, they’re real). Foxes and squirrels filter through the trees and everywhere you look seems completely surreal.

The National Park is abundant with walking trails and sled trails leading through the forest, but a true Finn will most likely take you off trail, bush bashing through the spongy undergrowth or scrambling down a rocky hillside guided only by a compass. Afterall, the best mushrooms are not found by the roadside. Foraging is something the Finns are passionate about, and almost all the locals routinely pick cloudberries, blueberries, lingenberries, cranberries and nothing berries (filler berries) to make jams, syrups, pies, slices, ice-cream or to just eat on their walk. Some collect the junipers to make gin.

The landscape is diverse with swamps and marshes, interspersed by streams and inlets, birch, curly birch and dwarf birch cover the hillsides – their annual malt creating rich compost and fertile grounds for all kinds of mushrooms and fungi. As an Aussie, I did assure everyone that beef wellington was not in my skillset. The moss covers trunks and fallen branches cushioning everything underfoot. Above the tree line, rocks and boulders dominate the paths along the kuru where snow and ice have carved channels through the land.

Every day I could I hiked for a couple of hours in the park, sometimes foraging, sometimes walking a husky, sometimes chasing the auroras.