Flatland Route - retkipyöräilyn rengasreitti Pohjois-Pohjanmaalla
Now let's go cycling on a flat route, that is, let's get to know the Flatland Route. This video was sponsored by Visit Raahe and Visit Liminka. Hello from Liminka! We just left the Old Liminka.
Coastal cities and river marshes in general have long traditions. Water system was a common transportation route in ancient times. Let's talk soon a little more about this route but for me, Liminka reminds me of Liminganlahti bay. It is a popular location for bird watchers.
At a time when I was more into nature photography I planned to visit there to watch migratory birds, but it never happened. I was thinking of leaving the official route for a while and visit the Liminganlahti bay area. There is an actual bird tower on that beach, but you can watch birds pretty well with this kind of optics too. Well, we're back on track.
Liminganlahti visit was 5-7 km extra ride. There were actually road signs to Liminganlahti. Someone must have planned it just like this, so that you can deviate there. Speaking of this route, the Flatland Route is a 320 km long circular route here in North Ostrobothnia. You can go ride the route in either direction. The official starting point is in Liminka but nothing prevents you from entering the route from anywhere.
In this video, we'll drive half of the route. So today first to Siikajoki, then the next day to Raahe and on the third day to Pyhäjoki, which is about in the middle of the route. The route guidance is only in digital format that is, there are no signs outdoors. So you have to download the route, I've noticed that already at this stage of the route there have been quite many turns. As you can see, the easiest route has not been selected, like the highways but some smaller roads, like this, have been included also.
The digital route is available on the Outdooractive platform. Flatland Route website has the route link, and some additional information. It's worth looking there first. For example, the site lists the attractions on the route and also typical day trip recommendations.
The whole route is designed to be ridden in 5-6 days. I will follow that pace and ride one half of the route in three days. I have accommodations booked, which is actually quite good since there is the possibility for rain, so you can even get wet.
Then I'll have a place to dry my clothes. The route report lists also many lean-tos by the route. So, if you want some overnight extreme, it's possible. You don't meet many hills here, so as the name suggests, this is a flatland route one meter of elevation per kilometer. There are no uphills, but there are no downhills either.
Roughly half of the route, or maybe a little more, is gravel. In contrast to missing elevation meters you can really feel the wind in these open areas. Would it be time for a coffee break? Let's check the rain radar. At the start it looked like I'll get wet right away. I haven't gotten wet yet, but there are repeated rain showers on the radar. I've been lucky to avoid them, so far. The sea is pretty calm too, it's not a bad weather to ride at all.
Then just heading towards Siikajoenkylä. That's where I'll be staying, but during the next leg there are several lean-tos if you want to stay overnight in one. Of course, they are also suitable for having a break or making some food etc. Varessäikkä sounds familiar, I remember seeing some beach photos from there.
This time we won't go to the sandy beach. That's Törmälän tila, we'll stay overnight there. Yes, the sauna was good again! I feel like a new man - at least almost. It was a good and clean place to stay, right along the route. This kind moist weather continues. In the night there was heavy rain. According to the rain radar, the biggest clouds have already passed by now.
We'll see if we'll be as lucky as yesterday. Here we're crossing the Siikajoki river. If you want to spend more time in these regions the Siikajoki Helminauha route goes here upstream the river. It is listed in Outdooractive as an own route. There route goes from village to village
and you can go upstream on one side and downstream on the other side. There are a few options for crossing the river. We're going along the river in this direction. However, it started to rain so much that I put my raincoat on. And light on the bike.
Rain gear in cycling is always a bit of a double-edged sword. The main thing is to get the heat stay in the body. If it starts to get cold, then it's worth to put rain gear on. However, then you'll easily get wet by sweating.
A couple of words still about the Jokivarsi route. The route goes up to Siikajoki Ruukki where you'll find a train station. It's not a very busy station, but passenger trains also stop there as well as in Vihanti. A bit more busier train station is in Oulainen which is also by this cycling route, a little more further inland.
So, these routes can also be reached by train. I'll take these off as soon as I can. They make me sweat. But they are really good, when the temperature starts to drop.
We could also visit Tauvo, even though it's in the end of a seven kilometers long dead-end road. You can easily ride past this but let's go and see what kind of place it is. There's a viewing platform over there.
A real beach! Today's coffee and rain radar update. Same as yesterday. Rain showers, there is a bigger rain area coming from there.
I hope I could get to Raahe before that. It's a great place, there's lots of potential there. Of course, the road here is boring, straight and flat, but the place itself is great.
With the right weather, there is a really good beach. Then just heading to Raahe. This Raahentie road seems to be the biggest road on the route so far. I was just thinking that I haven't been much around here, at least not by bike.
But have I at all...? I've been here in one wedding party, but that was already in the last millennium, so the memories are a bit hazy. Probably it was Raahe's church. At least I haven't been here too often anyway. In that sense it is very interesting to get to know the region. That must be Pattijoki flowing there? That seems to be Per Brahe The Younger.
Yes, this church I've visited once. So I've been in Raahe before. Old Raahe is surprisingly big, it's not just a couple of blocks. Here is our accommodation, guesthouse Wanhakulma. This is, as the name suggests, an old corner house.
The older wing is from 1812 and this "new" side is from somewhere in the middle of the 19th century. Test group appreciates the possibility of washing clothes. It was a really nice and peaceful place to stay. And affordable, even though it's right here in the middle of the old town.
This is one of the best-preserved old wooden towns. I thought we'd still stop by the city before continuing the ride, the sky also brightened up nicely. It was a nice coffee place, as I recall, there is also a hotel here. So this is called Langin Kauppahuone, a really traditional place not only looking traditional. Museum.
This building is an old customs house a.k.a. Pakkahuone, which also served as a sailors' room, where the sailors were recruited to the ships. This is interesting.
Decorative sculptures from the 17th century, made for the old church of Raahe. They miraculously survived the church fire at the beginning of the 20th century. Not everyone liked the style of these sculptures, so these were no more in the church during the fire, but in the belltower, which avoided the fire. I would say that these are more normal museum exhibits.
There were things brought by sailors from faraway lands. Those church interior sculptures were indeed impressive. Here, in front of Raahe, there is an entire archipelago. Some years ago it was even chosen as the outdoor recreation location of the year. Then we're heading towards Pyhäjoki. Lots of turns before you get out of the town.
As I said, you can't drive this route just from memory. The tracks vary a lot all over this route. Would there be time for a short break for rest and a small snack? We are now approximately halfway on the route between Raahe and Pyhäjoki. So the next accommodation is in Pyhäjoki.
Soft looking sand. It's easy to get stuck into such fine sand, where there is no grass and other plants backing up the sand. Someone else has got stuck also here. They are quite structures! Gosh! I don't think I'll take a risk and ride through that. Of course it would create some good content.
Let's leave it this time and walk the bike. We're gradually arriving at Pyhäjoki. Somewhere here is located the Annala homestead museum.
I thought visiting there before arriving at Pyhäjoki as it is on this side of Pyhäjoki. The museum is also listed in the route guide. At one time, it was Pyhäjoki's largest farm which later became as a museum area. The boats are also slightly bigger than boats in our inland lakes. We also had this kind of feeding table in our cowshed. There're the water bowls.
I remember being on my father's lap in such a horse-drawn rake machine and I was able to press the pedal, which released the windrow. We also had such a mower. How old am I really? SOK model bike.
Based on the rear fork structure, I would say that it is pre-WW2 bike. A Soviet-made bicycle with an auxiliary motor. That's a pretty rugged device, a handwheel. Imagine, how heavy it must be to crank, it probably weighs a good 50 kg. The trees have grown a little too close to the windmill. You don't dare to run it anymore.
Well, now we're on the road again. Historical bridge from 1837. I'm not any bridge engineer, but as far as I understand this is the only existing, so old, four-arch double-strut bridge in Finland. Now we are on the Saaren penkkatie road. So the Pyhäjoki divides in two here. This island is surrounded by the southern and the northern river branches.
We are now riding the bank around the island. So this is the northern branch, we came here just along the river bank. We have now arrived at Koskipuisto, even though we're not in Tampere.
We'll continue via that big road to the other side of the river. There are good places to take a break, as well as on this side of the river too. There is a tipi-like hut for having a fire. The route continues along similar river bank roads to the inland to the direction of Oulainen and then turns slowly towards the north.
Oulainen actually has the best train connection for passenger traffic. There you can jump directly from the train onto the route with your bike. But we're going to look for my accommodation, the old parsonage in Pyhäjoki. Pappilantie street here. Here it's, close to the church, so to speak, as you might have guessed.
Villihanhi Cultural Center operates also in the same premises. There are many kinds of buildings here. Here is my apartment for the next night. A central place, like all the old
parsonages back in the day, when there wasn't much else in the village. Many famous people have visited here too, Lars Levi Laestadius at least. And maybe one of the Russian emperors also? Today, this place offers personalized accommodation and cultural experiences. Let's go take a look. This room has been made as a movie theater with screens and everything. The old church pews have been given a new life. I think this is a servant room.
Today this is some kind of performance room as well. So here was a little taste of the Flatland Route, however, my trip ends here. It's worth checking out the route's website, which actually lists many destinations to visit, also worth checking out in advance. There are many places to visit, and not just pedal forward. Thank you for watching this video! See you again, bye bye! Special thanks to Juulia and Mikael, whose help was very valuable in the making of this video. They found my fallen camera in Siikajoki and returned it to me. Great job!
2024-08-16 13:06
