The Special K journey

Kauhajoki, Kitee, Kannus and Kempele … five days, one game and three photoshoots, so that’s why I call it the Special K’s roadtrip.

First proper little spell of few teams back-to-back to shoot for Superpesis/Ykköspesis, as my journey took me across Finland. To start with, it was the drive from home (sorry, that place does NOT start with a K) to Kauhajoki to shoot the last round of Korisliiga as KarhuBasket took on Seagulls – then via a short stop on Thursday, I continued to the eastern boarder of Finland to Kitee to shoot Kiteen Pallo – the first Superpesis team of the season for me.

These days it is kind of strange to drive to the east of Finland, and think that… hmm, 20 kilometres to the east of here.. there is a country that is in war..

Anyways, back to the photoshoot – arrived early to Kitee and had one of those days when just lifting a foot felt like the hardest thing physically that you could do. But as always, once I get the photoshoot set-up ready … I feel like I’m ready for a marathon (which the photoshoot sometimes feels like 😉 ). Great place to shoot – even if there was some kids practicing on the other side of the curtains – so no music of my own to play during the photoshoot. This photoshoot was in the evening, so it was around 21.15 when the car was packed and I was ready to head onwards towards Kannus (more west and central/north) for the next days photoshoot.

Drive over there was gonna take a good 6-7 hours – and starting at 21.15, it was a question of how far can I go before getting too tired?? Night drives are sometimes the best, not much traffic, calm roads.. good podcasts or music… so I kept on going until about 2.45am .. when I found an ABC station that had some other campers parked there.. so parked my car next to them.. brushed my teeth, had a cup of water and pulled the duvet over my head..

No rest for the wicked though, as 7am it was time to get back on the road again and drive the rest of the way to Kannus – arriving there in beautiful late winter sunshine and headed to the local K-Market for some ingredients for lunch – as well as a little walk around the town. Park in front of the sports center and do some editing (yes – the photos from last night needed to be edited before the next photoshoot). Pretty much after getting them ready.. it was time to go and set-up the set again.

Carry things in – do the photoshoot… and back on the road! Only about 3 hours away from the next photoshoot – but last night weighed heavy on me.. so managed only 30minutes before finding a BestPark campsite by a river in … Ylivieska (I think???). Anyways.. I’ll be back in this place in few weeks .. as they also have a team I am going to shoot 🙂

Night spent editing another set of photos, walking on the frozen river… where I meet a Finnish Lapinkoira (same kind as we have a home…) – with clear night ahead, check the Aurora Forecast… looks kinda promising.. but at 21.30.. just can’t keep my eyes open, and tomorrow I need to be ready to set-up at 7am.. AND the clocks turn forward an hour.. so better get some sleep!!!

Up at 4am – breakfast.. check outside temperature.. -25 celsius, OK, it’s a bit chilly – head out at 4.30am. Kinda clad that I was only one in this camp, not sure it would have been nice to wake up to someone leaving at that time of the morning.

Get to Kempele at 6.45am .. even if body tells me it is 5.45am!!

Carry things in, at least the nice thing about it being below -20, is that you definitely do wake-up!! No worries there.

First women’s Superpesis team today in front of the cameras – and the great thing is that they have actually set aside almost on hour for little group photos and photos the players want to take… of course this will mean a WHOLE LOT MORE editing for myself later in the day, but it is also fun for the players to have a chance to have photos like this to be taken. And the whole hour pretty much whizzes by as there are group photos, twosome photos, single photos… good fun! And what is always great – is that there is no strict deadline that we need to be done by.. when the players say they are done.. then we are done.

After the shoot – pack the gear back into the camper – head out about 40minutes to Varesärkkä (or something like that) – a BestPark camp-area right by the sea. Most likely a place that is PACKED in the summer, as there is swimming beach right next to it. But on a March day when the wind is quite strong, temperatures are closer to -30 celsius .. and wind-chill making it feel REALLY cold.. I was the only one there.

And – I got to really give credit to the person running this BestPark area – I got a call about an hour after arriving there, and the person running the place explains they have some issues with the drainage, so water/shower might not be possible. It was no biggy for me – might have had one, but not a must. But he explains that as I am there and all the services are not available, he will send me a code that I can use the park for free some other time!! That was really great – and I mean, I do have fair few trips still this way.. so definitely will be used in the coming weeks!! Great customer service!!!

After editing the photos – I take my ‘snow glide skis’ from the back of the camper – get dressed warmly and head out to the ice to glide over the snow as the sun sets into the horizon… should really have a had a warm snood with me… my face still feels a bit raw after this skiing.

Back to the camper to warm-up – chicken pasta for dinner… then at 22.00 head back to the ice as some weak northern lights are dancing low on the northern horizon…

Temperatures dropping to -26 when switch off the lights and get to sleep… tomorrow heading down south to do a laundry trip at home.. before heading out for another week on the road!

Now that was longer than expected.. well done if you lasted all the way until the end … oh, and sorry for the poor quality of images.. they are iPhone photos..