Dear all,
Autumn is on our doorstep! The photographic energy is starting to run through our veins as the coming weeks are one of the most photogenic period of the year. I'd like to complete the coverage of our summer holiday with this episode. After spending more than a week on the Varanger peninsula (see previous post), we visited Martinselkonen Wilds Center in the neighbourhood of Suomussalmi Finland. This place is well-known for its large brown bear population. We came for bears, and we indeed got plenty of them. Sometimes I had the feeling that the whole setting and ambiance wasn't very wild and natural. On one occasion, I even counted 10 individual bears eating in front of my hide in an area that wasn't much larger than 100 by 100 meters. The counterside of such conditions is that it causes a lot of interactions between the bears. Excellent conditions for action photography! There are three photographic opportunities at Martinselkonen Wilds Center: forest hides, swamp hides, and hides next to a pond. The choice wasn't very difficult as we had booked three nights at the lodge.
The first night was spend in one of the three swamp hides. There had been heavy rains during the previous days and the swamp was really a swamp. Luckely, the Wellington boots were with me! Luck was on my side as I saw my first brown bear cubs. Lovely, cute animals with a softening, innocent look in their eyes. They were constantly alert for the large males resulting in some 'hide and seek' and 'run for your life'-type of photos.
The second night was spend in one of the two forest hides. My first impression was not very positive. The small hide wasn't hygienic. It smelled horrible like a bad mixture of moulds and urine. Time to open the small windows! I had to choose between several bad options. Mosquitos, hungry bears within a meter from the hide, or that irritating smell. While I was awake I preferred the open windows. The forest hide was situated in an area that obviously suffered by the dense bear population. The ground vegetation was demolished and mainly gone. I was pleased to get out of the hide the next morning, luckily with some interesting pictures.
The last night in the pond hide more than compensated for my disappointing forest experience. That evening, the weather and light conditions were excellent. The temperature was about 20-25 degrees Celcius, which turned the brown bears into enthusiastic swimmers. After 6 hours of continuous concentration, excellent wildlife photography, and 16 GB of CF cards, I decided to call it the day. Sweet dreams about an unforgetable summer holiday in Finland and Norway!
I hope you enjoyed the stories and, of course, the pictures. Let the autumn colours come!
Cheers,
Dirk-Jan
