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Sunday 27th July 2004
Lathi - Sysmä
Bike stats:
Trip: 74,0 km
Maximum speed: 66,3 km/h
Average speed: 20,20 km/h
Rather good roads, except for road 3132, unpaved, washboard and too many cars travelling at relative high speed
We left the campingsite at 11.00 and took the partly unpaved road 3132 to Kalkkinen. Just before a thunderstrom crossed our path the road (and we) took a steep dive reaching almost 70 km/h on our bikes. After the rain we shared road 3132 with some rallycrossing Finns. Refreshments in Kalkkinen were very welcome not to mention the terrace we shared with a (motor)biker and his family. We proceeded our journey to Sysmä under a heavy clouded sky.
Just before Pluvius finally expressed his ultimate anger to the Sysmä area we hopped into the canteen of local camping for our daily dosis of Lapin Kulta.
There were two Swiss cyclists on the camping site. They started their journey in Kirkeness (Norway) and planned to go all the way down to Helsinki.
We joined them in eating a pizza and grab a few bears on a local terrace.
Due to the weather there were no insect catches.
Monday 28th July 2004
Sysmä - Kangasniemi
Bike stats:
Trip: 90,65 km
Maximum speed: 54,7 km/h
Average speed: 22,98 km/h
Good biking terrain!!!
After saying goodbye to our collegues Kai and Raphael we left for Kangasniemi. The weather was nice and our first opportunity to catch insects was only 10 km east of Sysmä at Valittula-Postintie (UTM 35V 0438 6822) at the side of an unpaved road near a few houses and farms.
Some nice catches were Temnostoma apiforme, Hammerschmidtia ferruginea, Cheilosia illustrata, C. velutina and Xylota meigeniana.
Other non-syrphids that were quite special to us: Suillia laevifrons (Heleomyzidae), Laphria flava (Asilidae).
Between Joutsa and Kangasniemi at Kälä (UTM 35V 0464 6861) some woodland clearing sites near the main road got us Epistrophe flava, E. annulitarsis, our only specimens of Volucella bombylans and Bombylius minor (Bombyliidae).
The rest of the trip to Kangasniemi was made on quite easy roads.
Thuesday 29th July 2004
Kangasniemi - Leppävirta
Bike stats:
Trip: 140,21 km
Maximum speed: 63,4 km/h
Average speed: 21,35 km/h
Leaving Kangasniemi we cycled for an hour or so on the 447 to Pieksämäki and started catching at Halkokumpu (UTM 35V 0492-6893). The terrain was quite hilly and riding a packed bike meant old fashioned hard labour.
It again turned out to be a good place to catch: Epistrophe annulitarsis (again!!!) and a female Syrphus attenuatus.
After passing the town of Pieksämäki the next stop was at Tihusniemi (UTM 35V 0529-6893) where I caught the first Cheilosia pallipes of our trip!!
We ended our trip in Leppävirta with a wonderful dinner in the local restaurant.
The camping site was a noisy place to be. Just a few hunderd meters across the lake there was some heavy construction work going on in some caves. The noise of large ventilator fans accompanied us through the night and a load dynamite bang announced another day of cycling.
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Wednesday 30st July 2004
Leppävirta - Joensuu
Bike stats:
Trip: 99,70 km
Maximum speed: 58,4 km/h
Average speed: 21,11 km/h
The first kilometer of the trip consisted of climbing Mt. Leppävirta. A good warming up for the rest of the day. Just outside Leppävirta at UTM 35V 0547-6930 at Mustinmäki we caught Orthonevra nobilis and Cheilosia vernalis. Being a rather hot day we spent the day cycling to Joensuu via Heinävesi and Liperi including 2 kilometers along the very dangerous road 23.
Thursday 31st July 2004
Joensuu - Koli
Bike stats:
Trip: 101,06 km
Maximum speed: 57,6 km/h
Average speed: 21,14 km/h
This day turned out to be good day to catch insects. We explored three sites: Soltkuuma at UTM 35V 0628-6957, Sola at UTM 35V 0620-6966 and Martonvaara at UTM 35V 0370-6680.
The most hilarious event of the day was a drunken guy on a terrace in Polvijärvi sharing his wisdom to us in fluent Finnish. Even after explaining to him that we could not understand a word he continued with even more enthusiasm. Luckily there was someone around to translate.
The last part of the trip was the most difficult. A very hilly road took us to the camping in Koli. Indeed a wonderfull quiet camping at the Pielinen lake.
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