Skiing the Planet

Monday, August 31, 2026

Karjalankallio swim

Karjalankallion laavu (the lean-to of Karelia Cliffs) is a nice, easy to reach fire-pit and viewing point near the Punkaharju Arboretum. The arboretum hosts among other things Finland's tallest tree.

While there was no beach, it was possible to go the water quite easily, at least if you have good swimming shoes to keep your feet stable on the smooth rock face sloping down to the water. A bit further on there are rocks under the water, but still walkable if you are careful.

Water was wonderful and clear, as always in this area. Very soft, too, having been used to swimming pool water.

The coordinates of my swimming spot were N 61.817097 E 29.332400. and the lean-to itself is at N 61.816699 E 29.332082. You can drive to a near-by parking lot, maybe 500 meters from the lean-to. The location and more information about the arboretum can be found here.

The shoreline:

The view from the lean-to:

I was in Punkaharju for a health rehabilitation course. This included heavy exercise, like taking a nap under a sleeping bag on a terrace:

The tallest tree:

This article has also been published at Planetswimmer.com here. Read the full series of sauna and swimming stories from planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Punkaharju beach swim

What a sunset! And how incredibly clear water there is! And no one around. Granted, it is late in the evening on a Thursday night, but still.

I am at the official beach of the Punkaharju city. It is a bit away from the center, but such a nice spot. There's a pier, a jumping platform, boat harbor, parking lot, toilets and changing rooms...

The coordinates are N 61.751637 E 29.385698.

Read more from Tony Hagerlund's blog article.

Photos:

Kruunupuisto beach sauna

Kruunupuisto is a hotel and a spa in the classic Finnish lakeside area of Punkaharju. The hotel has a spa with easy and affordable access. They also have a beach with free access. (See previous article here, alt. link). However, until now I had not realized they also had a spectacular sauna by the beach. Sadly, it has been available for rent for 320 euros, but has this year become available on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings for a mere 5€ per person.

That's a remarkably good deal, even if you end up sharing the sauna with others. They do limit the number of people joining, however. And there's a women's and men's time to do this, and the times aren't that long. But if you can do, it is certainly worth it!

A wonderful sandy beach, a wonderful park around you, a great cabin with sofas, dressing rooms, bathroom, showers. And the sauna room, very, very nice, as you can see above!

Beach:

The cafeteria (left) and sauna (right) buildings:

The famous "100 year road in Punkaharju":

Ammersee swim

A wonderful German beach, Freizeitanlage St.Alban, in the town of Dießen am Ammersee. Wasn't particularly overcrowded as lakes go in Germany, either. There's a grass, trees, places to sit, restaurant/kiosk, bathrooms, playgrounds, several piers, a floating platform a bit further out, boating, etc.

Very nice.

The beach is at N 47.96237 E 11.10814. More information here.

The town of Dießen was also celebrating their 700 year history of having been granted the rights to hold markets. This is not a new place!

Photos:

Late night swim at Kruunupuisto's beach

I'm on a health rehab course at Kruunupuisto, in beautiful Punkaharju. But I arrived late due to stopping at friends and caves... it was dark, almost closing time of the hotel reception. But I was on a mission: have to swim every day. Hence I headed to the by now dark beach at Kruunupuisto.

It was a tad cold, but water was still summer-warm (maybe 19C, warm for Finland). And it was SO refreshing to wash the cave dirt and sweat of the drive away.

Wonderful!

See previous article about Kruunupuisto's beach and spa here, alt. link.

Garaško jezero swim

Garaško jezero is an artificial, dammed lake in Garaši, Serbia. This is near Aranđelovac.

The lake is very beautiful, nestled between green forest hills rising from the lake shores. But it has a bit of clay-based shores and lake bottom, though with ample (mostly round) rocks that you're not exactly sinking into the clay as you step on the lake. The water can be very warm, at least in the heat of the summer.

There are people supping, fishing, kayaking, and swimming all over the lake. Parking is challenging, but there are several ways to enter, e.g., there are small dirt roads on both sides of the bridge crossing the lake.

There are no services, bring all you need.

Coordinates for one swimming place are N 44.290584 E 20.479841. More information is available here.

Dogs enjoy the lake, too:

The shores are a bit muddy (clay):

The road to the lakeside is short (200m) but very rough. And parking can be a challenge:

If you visit Aranđelovac, I can recommend the restaurant Pojedem Popijem:

Sunday, August 30, 2026

Naisvuoren uimahalli (Swimming hall of the Women's Mountain)

After another sweaty cave exploration, I had to get the sweat off. I was returning from Punkaharja back home to Kauniainen, but splitting the drive to two days by stopping for the night in Mikkeli. I always love the underground swimming halls (like those in Itäkeskus or Tampere), so now it was time for another one: the Naisvuoren uimahalli in Mikkeli. Deep inside the rocky hill in the middle of the city, home to gyms, swimming hall, and WWII-era command centers. Interesting place, must be like Swiss cheese inside that hill!

The swimming hall has one 25-meter pool with four lanes, a children's pool, a cold plunge pool, and a jacuzzi. Managed to swim 900 meters in the pool, it wasn't too busy in the main pool but the jacuzzi was packed.

Risovača Pećina

The Risovača Pećina is a show cave in Aranđelovac, Serbia. In local language the name of the cave is Пећина Рисовача.

Risovača Cave sits at the edge of Aranđelovac in central Serbia, the coordinates for the cave are N 44.302018 E 20.582440.

The cave is situated on the Risovača Hill few tens of meters above the Kubršnica river valley. It was formed millions of years ago by mineral-rich waters that left behind marble onyx deposits and unusual aragonite "flowers of iron" on the ceiling. The site was first uncovered by accident in 1938 during quarrying, and again in 1950 when marble extraction resumed — though that second round of quarrying destroyed about 20 meters of the entrance passage before anyone realized what was there. Proper scientific excavation began in 1953, led by archaeologist Branko Gavela together with speleologist Radenko Lazarević, who would continue studying the cave system for decades afterward.

What they found turned Risovača into one of Serbia's most important Paleolithic sites. At depths of 1–1.75 meters, excavators recovered worked flint and bone tools — hatchets, chisels, bradawls, daggers, and scrapers for hide and fur processing — left behind by Neanderthals who used the cave an estimated 35,000 to 50,000 years ago. No human skeletal remains turned up, but the tool assemblage was enough to reconstruct a picture of daily life, now presented in the cave's "Hall of Risovača Man" as a family gathered around a fire. Alongside the tools, fossils from more than 20 Ice Age mammal species were recovered, including cave bear, cave hyena, cave lion, woolly mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, and steppe bison — animals that once shared this stretch of the Balkans with its Neanderthal inhabitants.

There are differing numbers regarding the size of the cave, many sources cite 187 meters as the length, but that appears to me to be roughly the length of the show cave part. Other sources list the length as being 400-500 meters or 450 meters (ShowCaves.org), and Serbian Wikipedia lists the length as 800 meters. That seems to me most likely number, given the length of the show cave part and the various tunnels going side ways and underneath from the tourist path.

The cave is decorated with stalactites, stalagmites, and flowstone. Lazarević's speleological surveys, begun in 1975, extended well beyond the archaeological trenches to map the full cave. Declared a protected archaeological site in 1983, Risovača opened to the public as a show cave in 1987, and has since become one of the most visited caves in Serbia, more than 40,000 visitors in 2023.

More information from Wikipedia, Serbia Travel site, ShowCaves.org, and Nmar.rs. The entrance is a couple of hundred meters from the ticket booth, and looks like this:

Here's a map of the cave:

From inside:

Surroundings:

History:

Ticket booth:

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.