Kruunupuisto swims

I'm at a health rehab this week, in chose the place so that I could enjoy the nature at the same time. I'm in Hotel Kruunupuisto, on the national landscape of Punkaharju where thin sandy ridges cross lakes. The Finnish "road of the century" runs along the ridges, lined up with pine trees and the water. Wonderful place. I also tested the hotel spa, the hotel beach, and biked around the the area.

They had an excellent program, doctors, nurses, nutritionists, exercise specialists, etc. Hopefully this will improve my health...

More information about the hotel and spa can be found here, and the road here. The hotel is at N 61.785278 E 29.313380 and their swimming beach at N 61.784710 E 29.309063.

Hotel and spa photos:

Beach photos:

Biking photos:

Also, how many shoes do you need on a rehab trip? 

Apparently seven: pool flip-flops, lake shoes, light sports shoes, indoor sports shoes, hiking boots, and ski boots. See the other article (alt. link) for why the last two were needed.

This article has also been published here. For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! And of course the Planetcaver, and Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot! The photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. Spa photos are taken with permission and when the facility was closed.

Ruokolahden Safari

Safari in Ruokolahti. Sadly, I did not see a lion. But I managed to ski snow on second half of May, that's something. Well, ice. But still, quite nice views over the lake, not too bad! I also checked a cave, the Lassilan Linnavuoren luola (Lassila's Castle Mountain Cave). This was a total surprise, an excellent cave by Finnish standards. A through cave from one hole up on a cliff face to another hole on the same face. Wonderful!

There are steep (very) steps leading to the entrance to the cave. There are no exit stairs from the other end (exit pictured above), so come back the same way, and don't fall.

There were also side caves that in any other place would have been nice caves, but here were just listed as "fire pits" or not noted at all. Well done, Ruokolahti.

The skiing was done at Ruokolahti Freeski, a great community ski hill. I've skied there before, though there's no article about it... it was on my day trip to the east.

But back to the cave. It has been reported in the book Finnish Caves (Suomen Luolat), Wikipedia, as well as on the Ruokolahti page, Lomavinkint page, and Retkipaikka.

The coordinates of the cave are N 61.21908 E 29.02517. I measured it as being 14.5 meters from one entrance to another. I also scanned it and made a 3D model and a map. Here's a link to the model, map, and a rotate-on-your-browser version of the model. Here's a snapshot of vertical cuts in the map, showing how tight and high the cave is:

Other pictures from the main cave:

The other notable caves are under boulders in front of the cliff. There's actually a few, plus a few holes in the cliff itself. But the maybe I'll just list the two biggest ones:

The fire pit is cave at N 61.218986 E 29.024933. This must be at least 10 meters (a total estimate, I could be wrong). Here is what it looks like:

The big boulder is cave at N 61.218739 E 29.025239. I think it is at least 5 meters, maybe even 10. Again, a complete estimate. Here is what it looks like:

Pictures from the skiing:

This article has also been published at Planetcaver.net here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

Chamber mountain cave (Kammiovuoren Luola)

On the same ski trip to Himos (article, alt. link), I also stopped near Kuhmoinen to look at the Kammiovuori caves (Kammiovuori is Chamber Mountain). I was unable to find anything from the Internet about this, but the book about Finnish caves lists it, so I went to see it. It was a bit sketchy road to drive, but I managed to get to a close-by location. And found the cave, worth a visit!

I parked the car roughly at these coordinates: N 61.6382 E 25.3557, there's a small extension to turn the car around and put it by the road. But the road is just a forestry road, no one drives it, there's plenty of rocks, can be fallen trees on the road, etc. From this spot there's a very thick forest to go through but once you get to the cleared/logged area you can walk much easier. 

The cave is at the bottom of the small canyon, or maybe it is a valley between two hills. Looks like this:

There's also a small lake to the left of the canyon:

There's the main cave but also a few small other holes:

• Kammiovuoren pikkukolo (small hole, a bit over a meter maybe). Coordinates N 61.638504 E 25.359516.
• Kammiovuoren pikkuhalkema (small crack, maybe 5 meters). Coordinates N 61.638477 E 25.359720.
• Kammiovuoren luola. This is the actual cave, length according to my 3D model is 17 meters, as also noted in the book of Finnish caves. The coordinates are N 61.638320 E 25.359638. The 3D model can be downloaded here, the map here, and the model can be rotated on your browser screen here. A couple of excerpts from the map are below.

Main cave photos (also the one at the top of the article):

Small crack:

Small hole:

This article has also been published at Planetcaver.net here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

Searching for the Mullikkarotti cave (Mullikkarotin luola)

Mullikkarotti ("bull rat"?) is an interesting canyon near Jämsä. I was here to ski (article, alt. link), but stopped on the way to look at caves. However, I was unable to find the actual cave. Later reading the book of Finnish caves ("Suomen Luolat") I realize that the cave was a 7m vertical crack on the cliff face. But I didn't actually see such a crack. And moving around was a bit challenging in the still ice-filled water pools at the bottom and falling snow. Maybe next time I'll find it. But I did find several other smaller holes.

The one hole that I found that I could perhaps classify as cave was this under-the-boulder path at N 61.809008 E 25.040267. A photo:

But there were several others, for instance:

• Another (but smaller) through hole under a boulder at coordinates N 61.808997 E 25.040267. Just next to the above one. Photo:

• A third through hole, but small at coordinates N 61.808853 E 25.040153. Photo:

• A small hole at N 61.808872 E 25.039958. Photo:

• A deep hole closer to the bottom of the canyon, might lead somewhere at N 61.809392 E 25.040233.

• A long crack that forms a (shallow, maybe 1 m x 10 m) shelter cave: N 61.809139 E 25.039964. Photo:

Also at these coordinates there were smaller holes: N 61.809417 E 25.040278 (possibly some paths leading under boulders), N 61.808994 E 25.040225 (boulder on top of another provides some space underneath, maybe 1.5 x 1.5 m), and N 61.808631 E 25.040072 (tiny space between two boulders).

More pictures of the canyon and the weather:

This article has also been published at Planetcaver.net here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.