Finland 🇫🇮 - a cabin in the middle of nowhere

Sven Walther

July 21, 2026

A detour north

When planning our trip through Finland, Sven had hoped to visit a colleague and friend in Helsinki. Unfortunately he was on holiday at exactly that time - at his remote cabin by a lake in the middle of Lapland.

So the sat nav is reprogrammed on the spot and we head north once more, back towards the Arctic Circle. The lake is called Ala-Suolijärvi, lies once again in the municipality of Posio and is, after all, the seventy-second largest lake in Finland - which, in a country with more than one hundred and eighty thousand lakes, is a remarkably precise figure.

The last kilometres are then quite something: gravel tracks getting narrower and narrower, into the forest and at some point into the middle of nowhere. This is exactly how we had imagined Lapland.

Mammothon seen head-on on a narrow gravel track between the trees — It does not get any wider than this

Once we arrive we are welcomed incredibly warmly. And since Mammothon is of course topic number one at a place like this, there is a thorough tour first.

Mammothon parked at the edge of the forest with its door open, visitors looking at the truck — Room tour in the forest

The jetty

And Sven gets to make himself useful straight away: together with the whole family he helps build a new jetty. The old one does not reach far enough out into the lake, so it gets extended - in wellies, standing in the water, with boards, screws and the usual amount of discussion about the correct order of operations.

Three men kneeling on a jetty screwing down boards, Sven in the foreground — The work begins

A man in wellies standing in the lake setting a new support at the end of the jetty — The jetty grows out into the lake

In the end it stands, considerably longer than before, and that moment deserves a celebration.

Two men cheering at the end of the finished jetty out in the lake — Done

The finished jetty reaching far out into the blue lake with two men at the end — And this is what the result looks like from further away

Lake and berries

While Sven works, Saskia and Lou explore the surroundings their own way: with a boat trip on the lake. That afternoon it lies so still that the horizon is nothing but a thin green line between two skies.

Mirror-smooth lake with clouds reflected in the water and a line of forest on the horizon — Above and below look rather similar

Saskia sitting in a yellow rowing boat on the lake with Lou on her lap — A boat trip for two

On land we carry on on foot. The paths here are narrow sandy tracks through heather and low pine forest, and now and then you briefly wonder whether this is still a path or just a spot where nothing happens to grow.

Narrow sandy path leading through low forest and flowering heather towards the horizon — Hiking in the middle of nowhere

And along the way there is picking to be done: bilberries and crowberries grow everywhere here among the heather. Lou has a clear methodological advantage in this: she is already at eye level with the berries anyway.

Lou with her head deep in the berry bushes, the lake in the background — Lou harvests her own way

Close-up of flowering pink heather — Heather, as far as you can see

Lou standing in the middle of flowering heather under a blue sky with clouds — Her territory for the day

An unplanned detour that was definitely worth it.

Group photo with Saskia, Lou and the host family on the jetty by the lake — Thank you for the hospitality