Murraisia enjoying the sun
The good weather last week led to what was, with hindsight, an over-enthusiastic start to my cycling season. (No not there, my back actually). After several tours around the off-road tracks of Mustavuori before Vappu (including up and down what I like to call Roskismäki - the hill on the old landfill site overlooking the new harbour), we took a trip out to Mustikkamaa at the weekend to meet up with Bore and Persika, and to have a Vappu-left-overs picnic whilst sunning ourselves on the rocks. Even though the temperature was only in the low teens I still managed to get sunburn, although as Konna said I could sunburn from a 20W bulb; and if I will wear cycling shorts...
As well as bringing out the koivu (birch) leaves, flowers, confused woodpeckers drumming on (metal) lamp-posts, ants (muurahaisia), fat bumble bees (if you hit one while cycling you'd think a rock had pinged of your helmet), the sun also brought out photographers toting tripods lurking round corners and kyykärme (adders). While avoiding one of the former, I swerved towards a suspiciously serpentine 'stick' on the trail, narrowly missed it and turned back to see it weave rapidly off into the under-growth beside the track. Not something that is often a hazard around London...
Another problem is that I keep believing Konna when she says she knows the way (despite not having lived here for 10 years), this has led to a few 'scenic routes' (or usually un-scenic routes next to main roads instead of along one of the gravelled off-road track that Helsinki is well endowed with. Luckily I'm not foolish enough not to take a map and compass with me. Even better YTV (Helsinki's public transport body) provides a cycle route planner that not only is available in English but lets you choose the type of cycle path (tarmac, gravel, road) and set way-points. All I need now is a way to integrate that with GPS on my iPhone. And an iPhone. Of course even good route planning doesn't stop people going the wrong way, or digging up half of Myllypuro which put a spanner to our previous long trip (by cutting off several cycle and pedestrian paths), and did again as we tried to get home and was inexorably pulled back there.
We're on a road to nowhere... well Myllypuro actually
Despite all that, last week I only totted up another 100km, and am now suffering for it (mainly as Hiiri keeps trying to get me to use horse linament on my back) - 140km in six or seven hours is starting to seem a big task.
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