The first adventure: Pälkäne off-road!

First of all, sorry for the really, really, unacceptalbly long break in the blog!

We'll be catching up now, because I conveniently caught a cold yesterday and I finally have some time on my hands.

Speaking of yesterday... we went offroading for the first time with the truck. It was really good to test the truck in some forest conditions, now we know what we can handle and what not :)

We left for Pälkäne near Tampere, 150 km from here, early in the morning. We caught up with four other trucks at a gas station and after some coke and coffee, drove with them to Pälkäne.

The place was pretty amazing (also from a historians perspective :)) and it was pretty cool of them to welcome us there. The host's help was also very valuable!

 

The king of the event, in our opinion :) Finnish army SISU

We almost got stuck in the first curve, and after that a few times in the most unexpected places, that didn't look so bad. Summa summarum, we desperately need new tires!

 

Here we go!

I guess our son was right in saying, that when you brake something, it's a sign of a good offroading :) We got in a bad jam nearing the end of the day in the middle of some birches. The condensation valve in the air tank got loose and the air pressure escaped. But, with the help of the host and some guy we hadn't even met, we got a spare part and the help to fix it. And everything was great again!

 We didn't get to see much of the birch forest...

As with all outdoor hobbies, you should never forget your snacks. We had some breakfast and lunch sandwiches packed, with smoothies and coke. We also barbecued sausages, as is custom in Finland in almost all outdoor activities. There was a wonderful "kota", or barbecue hut in use on the grounds. There was a bigger off-road event for smaller cars on the grounds as well, so we had lots of company in the hut. Leo also found a playmate from one of the trucks, a girl only 9 moths older than him.

The crowd is gathering to cheer a truck and an ATV across a puddle and up a hill

After some final difficulties on the last drive, we got out of the forest just in time before dark (at 3.30 PM).

Almost there!

In the episodes to follow: what have we been doing after last spring? Stay tuned...