Karelia 2009, day 4, 16 June 2009 - "waterfalls and signs of the old war"
Today's story is all about world war two and... game of geocashing.
If you like to travel to some remote places and still want to find there some notable, historical or just beautiful places, you could use the help of geocaching community. Well, what is gecaching you wonder... well, that's easy. Do you read in your childhood some pirate stories about treasure islands, pirates, buried treasure? Some people just thinks it unfair all the treasure are long gone, and, frankly, in treasure hunting the result isn't as important as the hunt itself, the thrill, adventure, travel at some unknown locations. So, some romantic people decided - “let's make our own buried treasure . And, as we are living in hi tech era, let's use GPS coordinates instead old worn out maps with bloodstained cross at the corner”. And thats how the game of geocaching begins.
The rules is simple: you find some place (traditionally geocachers look for most interesting places) and hide there a cache - an waterproof container with some souvenirs, notepad and a few pens or pencils. Than you place the GPS coordinates on geocaching community website with description of the place, telling the story of why this place is notable or worth a visit and describing the exact location of the cache. Then other geocachers who like your description will come to visit the place you found, trying to find the cache.
If you found the cache, you should leave your mark at notepad (log of the cache), and you may take some of the stuff inside (except the notepad and pens), leaving something of equal value instead.
Well, to tell you the truth, the resulting game is fun. And you visit really interesting places with knowledge of a history of that place.
So, as you already understand, on a 4rth day of our little expedition we decided to go sightseeing and treasure hunting. And our first destination was “strawberry waterfall”, and our first geocache.
Total travel time: 3:25
Total travel distance: 156,07 km
Average speed: 48,5 km/h
Road types: asphalt (medium to bad condition)
Starting Point: shore of the Kongolz’yarvy
Finishing point: near the shore of the lake Ladoga
GPS Track: [ OneWay]
And our first cache is found!
We choose another waterfall as the second location. No, we won't find the actual cache this time, but the whole location and road (with a bit of hardcore offroading, yep) was well worth it.
Total travel time: 1:49
Total travel distance: 31,72 km
Average speed: 17,4 km/h
Road types: a bit of asphalt, "grader" road, soil forest road (medium to bad), rock road (medium/bad), a bit of medium offroad fun while we tried different paths
GPS Track: [ OneWay]
Waterfall “Jukankoski” (“White Bridges”), one of the most beautiful and magnificent waterfalls of Karelia Republic. The height of main fall - 19 meters.
As the last point we choose a place of historical value. The ruins of Mannerheim Line, pre-ww2 fortification build by Finland army near old border with Russia.
Total travel time: 1:02
Total travel distance: 15,45 km
Average speed: 15,7 km/h
Road types: "grader" road, soil forest road (medium to bad), rock road (medium/bad)
GPS Track: [ OneWay, OneWay]
Those shameless hungry furries. Eating strawberries grown on the old graves...
Well, what the cross marked wasn't an actual grave but a place where 60 years ago stood a church near fortification line. The church was utterly destroyed in the heavy fights between Soviet and Finland armies. And now it's but a small hill... and, well, a mark that lands here is one huge graveyard for both Russian and Finnish soldiers.
A remnants of antitank line
and proof of another geo cache found.
We found some other things there...
where time stood silent...
water was cold and still...
and the skies were painted gold.
P.S. No educational ps for today :P.
If you like to travel to some remote places and still want to find there some notable, historical or just beautiful places, you could use the help of geocaching community. Well, what is gecaching you wonder... well, that's easy. Do you read in your childhood some pirate stories about treasure islands, pirates, buried treasure? Some people just thinks it unfair all the treasure are long gone, and, frankly, in treasure hunting the result isn't as important as the hunt itself, the thrill, adventure, travel at some unknown locations. So, some romantic people decided - “let's make our own buried treasure . And, as we are living in hi tech era, let's use GPS coordinates instead old worn out maps with bloodstained cross at the corner”. And thats how the game of geocaching begins.
The rules is simple: you find some place (traditionally geocachers look for most interesting places) and hide there a cache - an waterproof container with some souvenirs, notepad and a few pens or pencils. Than you place the GPS coordinates on geocaching community website with description of the place, telling the story of why this place is notable or worth a visit and describing the exact location of the cache. Then other geocachers who like your description will come to visit the place you found, trying to find the cache.
If you found the cache, you should leave your mark at notepad (log of the cache), and you may take some of the stuff inside (except the notepad and pens), leaving something of equal value instead.
Well, to tell you the truth, the resulting game is fun. And you visit really interesting places with knowledge of a history of that place.
So, as you already understand, on a 4rth day of our little expedition we decided to go sightseeing and treasure hunting. And our first destination was “strawberry waterfall”, and our first geocache.
Total travel time: 3:25
Total travel distance: 156,07 km
Average speed: 48,5 km/h
Road types: asphalt (medium to bad condition)
Starting Point: shore of the Kongolz’yarvy
Finishing point: near the shore of the lake Ladoga
GPS Track: [ OneWay]
And our first cache is found!
We choose another waterfall as the second location. No, we won't find the actual cache this time, but the whole location and road (with a bit of hardcore offroading, yep) was well worth it.
Total travel time: 1:49
Total travel distance: 31,72 km
Average speed: 17,4 km/h
Road types: a bit of asphalt, "grader" road, soil forest road (medium to bad), rock road (medium/bad), a bit of medium offroad fun while we tried different paths
GPS Track: [ OneWay]
Waterfall “Jukankoski” (“White Bridges”), one of the most beautiful and magnificent waterfalls of Karelia Republic. The height of main fall - 19 meters.
As the last point we choose a place of historical value. The ruins of Mannerheim Line, pre-ww2 fortification build by Finland army near old border with Russia.
Total travel time: 1:02
Total travel distance: 15,45 km
Average speed: 15,7 km/h
Road types: "grader" road, soil forest road (medium to bad), rock road (medium/bad)
GPS Track: [ OneWay, OneWay]
Those shameless hungry furries. Eating strawberries grown on the old graves...
Well, what the cross marked wasn't an actual grave but a place where 60 years ago stood a church near fortification line. The church was utterly destroyed in the heavy fights between Soviet and Finland armies. And now it's but a small hill... and, well, a mark that lands here is one huge graveyard for both Russian and Finnish soldiers.
A remnants of antitank line
and proof of another geo cache found.
We found some other things there...
where time stood silent...
water was cold and still...
and the skies were painted gold.
P.S. No educational ps for today :P.