Vaakkoi lakes

 

Not just one, but two nice experiences: nature swim on the "Wrong-Black" (Väärä-Musta) lake and the beach swim at the Island Lake (Saarijärvi). Both are in the Vaakkoi outdoors area.

Väärä-Musta lake water is difficult to get into, due mud. At coordinates N 60.334911 E 24.615667 there is a sloping rock face that makes it easy to get to the water, however. But warning: it turned out to also be difficult to get out of. The slope is not hard at all, but under the water the rock is very slippery. I had to cling to the small cracks in the rock. And I was alone! 

(Presumably if I could have swam to the sides where there's either the muddy bottom but also some fallen trees, and gotten out an alternative way. But beware!)

The picture about the Väärä-Musta is at the top of this article. More information about the lake here.

The Saarijärvi beach is easy, however, and an official beach. What makes this place very nice is that the beach area is quite long, and all places have the same nice shallow sand bottom. Plenty of room to play in the water, for everyone, even at corona times and distancing rules.

The coordinates for the beach are N 60.331428 E 24.610719. There's ample parking on the other side of the road. The walking paths to Väärä-Musta and other lakes in the same direction start from the parking lot.

More information about the Saarijärvi beach here.

Photo from the beach:

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 and TGR! The photos and text (c) 2021 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take photos of other swimmers on a beach, and try to visit at times where there is simply no one else around.

Swim in front of the swimming hall

There is of course a swimming hall. But it was closed due to the pandemic. Fortunately there's a beach right in front. And we are in Hämeenlinna, the lake is Vanajavesi.

Coordinates are N 60.990930 E 24.466255. More information here and 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 and TGR! The photos and text (c) 2021 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take photos of other swimmers on a beach, and try to visit at times where there is simply no one else around.

My lake only

Kurkijärvi in Espoo, near Luukki and Serena. A lone lake in the middle of the forest. Yet, with a pier and a very tranquil swimming experience.

Just me and the mosquitoes.

Coordinates for the pier: N 60.320248 E 24.740853. Wikipedia article 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 and TGR! The photos and text (c) 2021 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take photos of other swimmers on a beach, and try to visit at times where there is simply no one else around.

Catalonia caves I

After working several weeks straight with not even weekends free, I thought I would be completely free today and can just leisurely drive around the Pyrenees and look for interesting stuff. Well, it turned out that I still had  to listen to some conference calls while driving. But it was an interesting drive in the canyons leading towards the northern border. And I was hunting some caves. Turned out I didn't really properly find the caves that I was looking for but did find some other interesting ones :-)

Plus a very interesting canyon/dam area, man-made tunnels and small natural holes.

Let's go through my findings in chronological order of the day:

Cova de l'Arena in La Maçana. The coordinates are supposed to be N 41.905245 E 0.8905533. But I didn't find a cave matching that description here or anywhere nearby, though I found exactly at the right place a smaller hole, or possibly the advertised cave was filled with some rock material by someone. Anyway, the area is steep, full of impenetrable bushes, so I am not sure if I looked hard enough. But in the claimed coordinates there is a small hole, maybe just enough for one person to go fully inside.

Photos:

Cova de l'Arena tunnel. The coordinates are N 41.903612 E 0.888949. This is a man-made tunnel, peeked inside for a bit... but this is likely a tunnel related to the dam upstream, so ... at any time there could be a massive flood of water coming down. Not recommended!

Photos:

Cova de l'Arena mini cave. This is a side cave of the above. Coordinates: N 41.903164 E 0.888772. A tiny hole, but still. And yes, with toilet paper inside ... sigh.

Photos: 

Central hidroelèctrica d'Alòs de Balaguer in Riu Segre. This is the dam. The coordinates are N 41.906208 E 0.893146. You can walk on a walking platforms a bit forward on the sides of the dam, to get a view. Wonderful views. This is a smaller dam and power station, and next to the much bigger built right across the river, the Camarasa dam and power station. There appears to be also longer walking routes on both sides of the gorge, would have been interesting to take them, but did not have time of that during my day. More information here and here.

Photos:

Cova de la Figuera in La Maçana. The coordinates are N 41.916889 E 0.867899. Read more here. This was my surprise find, just something that stared me from road. Literally, it is two eye-shaped openings looking down on the road from the cliff side. Very interesting cave.

I tried to do a 3D scan, but my phone run out of space and battery... sigh.

Photos:

Forat de l'Or in Camarasa. The coordinates are N 42.0391572 E 0.8849846. Read more here. This is something that I had researched about, easy to find, but turned out to be challenging at first to get in. The main entrance was not easy to enter due to a concrete water basin construction. I was sure I could get in but I wasn't quite sure I would have been able to get out. Fortunately I had to take a leak behind the bushes and realized that behind those bushes was actually also a second, side entrance to the cave. The cave is long, 2213 meters. But only part of it is actually accessible by on foot, as it sumps fairly quickly. I also didn't have my cave suit on, so ended up going as far as I could by walking, didn't resort to crawling through mud pools, as tempting as it would have been :-) 

Photos, first the canyon bridge next to the cave, then the main entrance, and then the side entrance:

See also my follow-up caving efforts here (alt. link).

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. 

Catalonia Caves II

It was a hard days night, a long day of skiing but I was NOT satisfied. I also wanted to visit a cave. Grottocenter gave me multiple hits within a half an hour's dive from the hotel and fairly close to the road, but ... it was a challenge. I couldn't be sure I had found the first one, or maybe I did but then it didn't match the description. And the second one I did find but it was an easy but unnerving and unsecured climb away, 4-5 meters up on a cliff face.

The first cave, Balma de la Paret in El Compte, was supposed to be right by the road. Close to the designated coordinates there was a small but intriguing hole too high to reach, another unnerving climb and also blocked by thick and sharp bushes. Several other candidate hole-like things may have also been  on the wall higher up.

But these holes also didn't match the map and description from Espeleoworld, as it was supposed to be covered by a man-made front wall.  Some 50 or 100 meters down the road there was an intersection with man-made rock walls that I investigated on second pass through this area, but it also didn't seem to have any cave hole.

The coordinates for this cave were expected to be N 42.3337385 E 1.0654971. More information here.

Photos of the location and my main suspected cave hole, the one I couldn't reach:

The second cave was Cova del Mirador de l'Infern in Solduga-Esplugues. It is easy to find, you can even see it from the hike up. But closer to it I actually missed the cave initially, passing right under it first as I kept trying to find it on my level rather than looking high up enough. I ended doing a sketchy climb on steep animal path until I realized I must have passed it and returned.

There's a small parking lot by the road and even a sign for the cave and other hiking paths through the area. There's a good path leading up, maybe a 10 minute climb from the parking lot to the cave. When you get close to the massive cliff wall, turn right to head towards the cliff face. There you find some climbing spots and even some ropes left by climbers. 

The first thing you''ll notice is about a two meter deep shelter cave under the cliff. The actual cave is above it, on the right side. However, to reach it one has to climb about four meters on the cliff face. There's some hand holds and a ledge to step on, but ... it is high and the consequences of falling down on bushes and the steep hill are severe. Plus I was alone and the night was coming. 

Oh well, enough excuses. I was afraid. The coordinates for this cave are N 42.2852392 E 1.0357393. Read more about the cave here and here.

One photo of this cave is in the opening picture of this article, others below:

On the same path you could also reach a more famous nearby cave, Forat del Serpent (cave of the Serpent). The coordinates for this cave are N 42.280975 E 1.034601. You may alternatively (and that's probably the recommended approach) access it further south from the pedestrian road that bypasses the next tunnel. In any case, this cave is much higher and requires at least half an hour hike. More information about this cave here, here, here, and here. Note that I have not been to this cave and there seems to be some confusion about the location of the cave. Google and Grottocenter give a different location, and in addition there may be two different caves, Forat del Serpent and Cova del Serpent.

Sign from the same parking lot as from the previous cave:

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. 

Port Ainé and Espot Esquí

I've already been to multiple ski resorts in this corner of the world, in Andorra (alt. link), and also here on the Spanish side: Port del Comte (alt. link), La Molina (alt. link).  But now I had an opportunity to take a day and a half off after my meetings in Barcelona, could I score some more ski resorts? 

I was able! Actually, one day was just about enough to visit two ones close to each other, Port Ainé and Espot Esquí. I had never heard of them before, but both are in the kilometer-of-vertical (or almost) class so not at all insignificant. Massive, I would say. And overall a super nice experience, particularly due to the snow that had fallen on the night before my visit. I got to ski fresh powder! ... Maybe a bit wet but still.

Magnificent slopes, both resorts. Both also had good restaurants and facilities on the slopes, and at least on that early March day, I was able to get up there without chains. And found parking close to the lifts in both cases. Both resorts have a bottom lift and some of the biggest restaurant and other facilities are on the middle mountain. Both go pretty high up, to about two and half kilometers.

Both also have a lot of terrain that you can ski outside the prepared slopes: trees, open space, cliffs... just be careful out there. Just because you are in Spain doesn't mean that the mountains are mellow. Avalanches, hidden obstacles, and, as mentioned, cliffs are a danger. Or visibility. I experienced severe fog in Port Ainé in the morning for instance.

There are wonderful views in both, e.g., the opening picture above and the one below are from Espot:

A view from Port Ainé:

I really loved the skier's right side slopes in Port Ainé, e.g., Barranc de Comalforn (17) or Messegué Utge (18). As well as El Tub de l'Olla (20). Well, those are the black ones... also liked the red ones. Barranc de Comalforn was particularly nice black slope, as it was through the woods, far away from the main resort. Also happened to have powdery fresh snow on the sides quite a bit. Very nice. A picture from those sides:

In Espot Esquí, I really liked Tub de la Pala (black) and La Dos, both steep slopes coming straight down from the top. Sustained, fun, straight. A picture from La Dos:

And in both ski resorts, skiing down from the top to the bottom is a lot of fun, even if the bottom slopes are not typically in the best condition in the afternoon.

Here's the basic information about the resorts:

• Port Ainé, in Rialp. Vertical difference 790 meters, and highest point 2440 meters. The coordinates are N 42.428408 E 1.212051, home page here. Ski are map:

• Espot Esquí, in Espot. Vertical difference 1000 meters, and highest point 2500 meters. The coordinates are N 42.563875 E 1.094009, home page here. Ski area map:

To ski these places I stayed at the Hotel Pessets Restaurant & Spa, which I wrote about separately here (alt. link).

Pictures from Port Ainé:

And pictures from Espot Esquí:

My lift tickets:

This article has also been published here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko.