This was the greatest Aurora Borealis show in 20 years!
All pictures by Esko Koivula
In the very south parts of Finland it was cloudy so we didn’t see anything!
winter
The winter motorcycling is quite challenging! First you’re collecting the best and warmest clothes to put on you. You get dressed up for 1 hour (or something) and then you go out without even knowing if the bike will start?
I was really waiting this kind of weather! The frozen ground makes the gravel roads little bit slippery (Or too slippery like you will see later in this post!) and the riding is more challenging! I took this kind of route yesterday:
I wanted to ride the forest roads near that Iso-Kisko lake and I wanted to see the swimming place and fire place of that lake. I only saw that place once and that was in the middle of the winter -at least now it would be little bit earlier!
Here was the first crossroads where I found the road that I didn’t ride before.
That road had some beautiful views right under the powerline that has no electric current! The line comes from Inkoo Powerplant that was demolished few years ago.
Then I was in another city (Salo) and district (Varsinais-Suomi). That road was just maintained and plowed so there was loose gravel and stones on the surface and right under this loose surface there was frozen layer… It was very slippery! And even I said to myself many times “Be careful, It’s very slippery!” This happened:
For a second I was little bit frightened that I was hurt! I was winded and it felt like there’s something wrong. But it lasted only few seconds and then I pulled myself up and started to my move my hands and shoulders. It felt like everything was ok! I had to ride to the gas station because I needed to fix the foot peg that was stuck on the “Up position”.
This picture I took little bit later when I was already riding back home.
The whole adventure video you can see here:
This I’ve been dreaming quite long time. Now I have it!
If you compare the size of the camera to any other action camera it’s not big! And it shoots pictures or video all the time to every direction! Then when you’re editing the video you can choose which direction comes to the final video!
Or you can make a 360° video where the person who’s watching the video can choose himself to what direction he’s watching -like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0t3UUaQci4
The editing is a little bit different because you have to think all the time which direction of the video is the best. For example when I’m going to make motorcycling videos with this there can be things happening in many directions! But luckily you can make many cuts where you’re using the different POV of the same file.
Me and my friends were skiing!! For me it was the first time in more than 10 years! Ahh it was fun! So I was testing what kind of picture this camera takes and how it is to edit the video… I didn’t know the the lights in the hill can have that bothering effect to the video that everything is flickering!! Unfortunately in this video it bothers… Next time I will use some other fps (frames per second).
Week after our very nice November ride we got the first snow! And soon there was more and more coming all the time… At the best there was more than half of meter of snow on the ground. And it was also very cold all the time.
-Until Christmas!
In Christmas week it was over zero temperatures and even little bit of rain every now and then so almost all snow melted.
And then again the last 2 days of the year it was very warm. On NewYears Eve we had +5° So I decided to go riding!
And while I was riding little bit of TET route I was hoping I could find a spot where there was no ICE. And I found…
I don’t have spikes in my tires so I can only ride on tarmac or in soft snow. I’m not that big fan of winter riding… But ofcourse if the weather is ok I can go.
Next ride in 2023!
This winter we didn’t have snow until 3d of January. It didn’t even feel very strange because last winter we didn’t have snow at all! But then around 10th of january started the “crazy winter” -we cot half of meter of snow in only 2 days and then crazy cold weather!
In the beginning of January we visited Imatra and we got to enjoy the real winter before it started here in South Finland.
When the very cold temperatures started my working car’s heater didn’t want to operate anymore so it was impossible to work until I found what was wrong and it was fixed!
At the moment it seems that I have stop my business because Covid-19 and return to do ordinary work -but we’ll see what happens.
17th of January we got to see a rare halo in the sky! It was a cloudbow. I’ve never seen it before and now I got quite many pictures of it!
Now the sun is shining brighly in the sky, the day lasts more than 9 hours and spring is getting closer! 3 days ago it was still crazy cold when the sun was setting (-16°).
LUX Helsinki is every year in the beginning of January. This year there was amazing “Fire Tornado” Made by Dutch artist Ivo Schoofs.
Spring arrived slowly. Already in the beginning of march it was possible to hear these sounds in the forest. During the month the sounds became stronger and stronger and now finally almost all snow is gone! (You can still find it from the shadowplaces…)
Soon there will be motorcycle stuff again! I did start riding anyway…
In january I sold my KTM. Now I Have new bike that I will use in gravel and dirtroads:
This Triumph Street Twin is going to be also a bike that my wife can (or will) use if she ever will have the licence. We tried quite many bikes and this was the best bike for her.
I thought I can use this same bike in my endurorides if I only will change the tyres.
Now I’m only hoping that the spring will come soon… Now we still have snow on the ground and temperature below zero…
By the way, motocaching.net is growing fast! We have now 3000 caches (rides) to be found. All over the world, all continents, 72 countries and more is coming all the time!
It’s been quite many years since we had a real winter here in south Finland. Now we have! The snow came finally in the end of January… and now we have about 30-40 cm’s of snow. You can do cross-country skiing almost anywhere and the lakes and the sea has a thick layer of ice.
First picture from Hirsala (Väransby) is taken in 31st of January
Here I also made quite nice Droneflight:
8th of february we visited on the ice in the near lake. Took this picture:
And this video:
It was a long time when temperature was around -5° centigrade and when it was sunny it felt quite nice!
This picture is taken in 18th of february. So is this next one:
Video was taken in 17th of february:
Last week the temperature went down! -24° centigrade was the lowest we had. But it was very nice that we had better weather in the weekend… So again I got some very cool pictures:
On sunday we took a walk around the lake nearby (Meiko lake). It wasn’t totally sunny day but quite nice anyway. My wife was shooting a video in many places… Now we can enjoy these snowy landscapes:
It was just after the october ended and november started… Suddenly there was snow everywhere! At the moment it seems that this snow is here to stay but if I had to bet I would say that it’s gonna melt away before december starts (I hope I’m wrong!)
GoZa Mite 