Driving from Norway through Sweden in a continuous pine forest landscape for 500km, we got quite used to Freedom to Roam: being allowed and encouraged, almost everywhere, to turn off down a forest track, park the home for the night and make a fire. The bases of tree trunks sunk into a thick carpet of berries; wild blueberries, crowberries and ripening lingons. Jella snuffled around with us like a truffle-hunting pig, eating berries off the bush like she did on Fejø with the strawberries. Purple mouthes and hands.
Hypnotised by the never-ending carpet, filling bags and pockets, Angus had to drag me from a constant, berry-possessed crawling in the forest undergrowth: we made batches of berry jams in a berry big pot on the campfire.
By a river somewhere between nature and more nature we spent Angus's buffday. On the fire cooked the last of our Norwegian mackerel, while we swam and lolled about in the sunshine hoping to spot an elk.
In Norway we'd sold some of our creations, and when we reached Oulu we changed our Norwegian Krone earnings into Euros (used in Finland) and straight away rewarded ourselves with a jar of pickled herring / roll mops. (You know you've been in Scandinavia too long when…). We found more joy in a half-full bucket of pick 'n' mix on a wall, and in the discovery that flour + baking powder + water, twisted around skewers and heated on the campfire = soft, hot bread. And in bins near fire-pits we were guaranteed a discarded sausage or two for Jella.
Seitseminen National Park was a place of magic we somehow walked pretty much in its entirety, 25km through marshes and forests, down canyons and alongside lakes and rivers, at one point thinking someone had gone awol with a chainsaw, before we realised the beavers had been at it. In the evenings we got properly acquainted with Finnish lap huts, equipped with cooking stoves, wood stores, compost toilets and bins with sausages.
An old Finnish man whilst out on his morning walk around the village, met his neighbour, greeted him and spoke a few words… The two neighbours stood there together for some time, before his friend responded, greeting him, and saying a few words back.
When later asked what they spoke about, the old men could recount a vibrant conversation full of detail.
When we reached Angelniemi, we volunteered at Norpas art and music festival, putting up a yurt and installing artwork. We got to know and have a really good time with, some other Finnish volunteers, but it took us some time to adjust to what seemed like a lot of silences wrapped around not a lot of words. We wondered if it was us being weird…
But their long pauses weren't fidgety with awkwardness. The silence wasn't crammed with meaningless small-talk. Words with careful consideration.
A lot can be said without speaking.
And anyway, silence is not only golden, but it's good for you.
