The original plan was to have two days (from afternoon to next day’s morning) in the hide (Monday-Tuesday), a rest day and then another two days back in the hide finishing off with another rest day before returning home. While I was the only one who had signed up for the 8-day tour, with the exception of Thursday I was joined by others who had signed up for a single day trip to the hides.
When returning from the Tuesday outing I was told that people usually preferred a break at this point and spend a day doing something else instead which was why the schedule was what is was, but if I wanted I was free to go back to the hide on the Wednesday if I wanted. That was a very easy decision to make. It wouldn’t be possible to do the same on the last night (Saturday) as my hostess would be leaving and her replacement wouldn’t arrive soon enough on the Sunday to be able to pick me up at the hides. That was the plan – which I wasn’t unhappy about as I had already gotten an extra day compared to the schedule – but on the Saturday a pair of one-day hide tour French guys arrived in their own car (and therefore drove themselves back and forth to the hides) which meant that I could hitch a ride with them on the Sunday morning when leaving and therefore not having to depend on my hostess at that point. This meant that every single night after the night of arrival was spent in the hides – that was definitely felt like a big victory (and it was the hostess that offered, and no increase in payment, so I was definitely happy about that development).
The daily routine would be fairly simple; leave the house around 1430 for a 10-15 minute drive and short walk, get settled into the hides while lures are put out and around 1530 we are on our own until we are picked up again at around 0730, and around 0800-0830 I’m fast asleep. Lunch at 1300 or 1400 (depending on if the hostess need time to brief 1-day’ers who aren’t repeat guests), repeat daily. You were given a pack with sandwiches, snacks, hot water, tea/coffee/soup to keep you going for the night. You were allowed to bring your own if you wanted but there were (obviously) rules about smelliness and noise of food (so no crunchy chips!). The lunches were delicious; a hot meal with a small dessert. Some examples are Spaghetti Bolognaise (but instead of beef it was smoked elk), salmon/rainbow trout soup, meatballs, shredded potatoes & ham with small savory pancakes (or something similar).
There were 4 hides, all were more or less lined up next to each other; one larger for 3 people and the reaming for 2. I got to have my own hide which I was very appreciative about as the toilet facilities were very basic; two of them had a small chemical toilet hidden behind a curtain, while the third hide was a bit smaller and there was only room for a large bucket lined with a plastic bag with a toilet seat lid with a bit of dirt in the bottom (and a smaller bucket next to it with more dirt which I assume was to cover up your… product), and no small alcove and curtain to hide behind. I guess if you share the hide with someone; if you didn’t know them before you would definitely get to know them during the stay. There was also a “gentlemen’s toilet” which was a 5-liter water jug with a (large) screw cap which you’d empty outside when leaving in the morning. Other than that there was a bunk bed, two chairs, sleeping bags and pillows, a shelf for your stuff you’d need during the stay (food, snacks, etc.) and a desk with a flexible and very stable mounting system so you could mount a camera anywhere along the length of the hide and removing the need to use vibration reduction (which saves a lot of battery power). Above the table there were 6 square holes covered with a tarp with an adjustable hole through where you’d put your lens so you had nothing between you and your subject while not opening up and making you visible to the wildlife. Above those there was a narrow acrylic window spanning the length of the hide so you could always have a relatively good view of the surroundings. And there you’d be confined for 15-16 hours in silence, hoping something interesting would pass by.
While one should remember these are wild animals and you can’t decide where they should go I was a bit surprised at how little activity there actually was after the first 3-4 hours when the gulls reigned with a few guest appearances of wood peckers, ravens, a few crows and a black kite. After that the best odds were to see wolverines and a single bear popped up Monday and Tuesday. Thursday no mammals at all showed up which resulted in a very long night. There was also a chance of seeing wolves and lynxes though both are quite shy and therefore rarely show up. It’s worth mentioning my hostess in the last 1½ years had seen lynxes 3 times, and all times when she was driving and seeing them crossing the road. All the mammals are present in the area, the wolverines are the rarest (we ended up seeing maybe 1-2% of the total population in Finland) and there is app. double the number of wolves and almost 10 times as many lynxes and bears.
The weather – or rather the temperatures – varied quite a bit. There were a few evenings we had a few showers but it was otherwise dry. On the Thursday it was around 10 degrees when arriving at the hide and during the night it dipped below 0. Crawling out of the bed after my 1-2 hour’s nap I should have known immediately when I could see my own breath instead of some time later when I was wondering why I was feeling so much colder than previously and then realizing there was frost on the grass outside. On the other end of the scale on Saturday it was 20+ degrees on arrival and past 2000 I was still only wearing short sleeves. When getting there on the Monday there were still fairly large patches of snow in the area outside the hides, but when getting to the weekend it had all cleared up completely.
The last few days a couple of mosquitos got caught inside the hide. Easy to get rid of as there were only a few, but I can’t imagine how big a pain they’ll be getting further into the summer.
Being a bear tour it was a little disappointing to only see a single bear twice from the hide Monday and Tuesday (even if we did see the mother with 3 cubs from the car Monday morning!). The two French guys enabling my extra Saturday hide visit were going on their 3rd visit; they had done Wednesday and Friday, none of them giving much other than a few wolverine visits. They therefore had decided to go for one last chance to see bears before having to continue on their trip. Throughout the evening, night and early morning we had multiple visits from wolverines. I assume there were at least a few different but it could probably also just be the same one returning multiple times. Then, 1½ hours before leaving, a large male and female bear showed up. They wandered the area in front of the hides for maybe 15 minutes finding all the leftover lures before meandering off again. Running close to deadline they were very, very happy to finally get to see them. I was obviously also very happy with how the morning had developed, but not nearly as much as they were when seeing them exiting their hide having huge smiles on their faces.
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