Deep lake rush hour

Syväjärven uimaranta, Kirkkonummi. A beach on the "deep lake" (Syväjärvi). In reality the lake is pretty small though. I doubt about its deepness either. Anyway, with almost thirty degrees and one of the rare sunshine-filled days of the summer, everybody and their kids appear to be at the lake. So am I!

The official page for the beach can be found from the Kirkkonummi web pages, here. But a more interesting review is on the Tony Hagerlund's pages, here.

The lake is indeed reported to be deep, but looking at the map, that maximum depth is actually just 3.2 meters. So not so deep. But still many people, at least on this day :-)

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) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take recognizable photos of saunagoers or swimmers.

Flåm bunkers and caves

While in Flåm (see separate articles about Vatnahalsen and the train journey), I noticed that there are some interesting places near the Flåm harbor. Today, the harbor is visited by massive cruise ships that flood the little town with tourists, but it is an old harbor and has seen a lot of history. 

For instance, the new church replaced the old one in 1670.. and at the beginning of World War II, German warplanes attacked an Estonian ship Begonia in the fjord outside Flåm.

The Krigsminne (war memory), a bunker or a gun station is here: N 60.866604 E 7.118450. Some extra info here.

The Dynamittlager (dynamite storage), a cellar used for storing explosives is here: N 60.867770 E 7.1199569. There's no other information about this than the Google Maps link. Just wondering if the blue containers have dynamite in them...

There's also a cave under the boulders near the Dynamittlager is here: N 60.867816 E 7.120017. The cave starts with a large room easily accessible from the entrance, but with a bit of a hole in the roof. Then it continues deeper under the boulders. I did not have suitable clothing for continuing further, but clearly it was possible to go further, the tunnel was just big enough for that. And there were some human left things further in the tunnel. 

The cave is likely 5+ meters long, but now I don't exactly how long.

One picture of the cave is at the beginning of this article, the others below:

Flåm views:

While walking in the village, I also noticed that there's a "floating fjord sauna" in the harbor. Sadly, it was booked and/or too expensive to try (they have both shared and private sessions, the latter were available but too much money). Maybe next time. More information here.

Author:

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, TGR. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved. 

Porvoo's Näsi mini-cave

Right across the river in Porvoo, there's a hill with a famous rock and an observation deck on top of it: Näsin kivi. A massive glacial boulder, moved by during the ice age. It is very interesting by itself, including some small crack canyons on its sides. But a hundred meters away is another smaller boulder, cracked open in two points. And there are two narrow tunnels in cracks, passing under the boulder.

The boulder with the cave is roughly in coordinates N 60.394459 E 25.654824. Näsin kivi itself is in coordinates N 60.393955 E 25.655243. Read more about Näsin kivi here.

But back to the cave rock. I of course scanned with my iPhone lidar, and used by Cave Outliner software to draw a map out of it. My scan was a bit hurried, and as a result I had to edit the map quite a bit before it corresponded to what's actually out there. But here's the map:

The full map in more accurate PDF format can be loaded here. The 3D model itself can be downloaded as well, either in GLB, Blender, or STL format. If you want to see the model and rotate it on your screen, it is easier to just click on this link so that you can do so on your browser. 

Here's a screenshot of the model:

Cave rock photos:

Näsin kivi photos:

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, TGR. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved. 

Mareminehollet

I'm in Norway, traveling between Oslo and Bergen. But are there any caves that I could visit? Turning to Google, I do find some, but they are generally too far out of my reach. The good caves appear to be much higher up north. However, just a kilometer from the city center of Bergen there's Maraminehollet. It is a city cave, with everything that comes with it. Easy to access, there's a sign, there's a bench next to it. But to enter, you must first pass the beer cans and park chemists :-)

A nice, short cave visit. The cave is pretty tight, you have to squeeze in at some points. I was able to go to the end if you just go horizontally forward. This was around 17 meters from the entrance. But, I was alone, and did not dare to go the two side tunnels leading down to the right. They were sloped, looked wet and muddy, had a rope in them, and I wasn't 100% certain I'd be able to get back up. Maybe a sane decision... but also maybe one that I regret. Could have been interesting.

There were some spiders in the cave as well. Big ones:

But also locals hanging out by the bench. And there was a pile of empty beer bottle by the entrance, and garbage inside. The locals felt like they had been sampling the beer or stronger.

And the garbage. Including, yikes, medical syringes. And this was 17 meters in, at the end of the main passage. In a tight cave. Although I didn't touch it, it is possible that it was just packaging, blown by the wind. But even wind... not sure it would really carry things this far.

Be careful if you visit this cave.

The cave is at these coordinates: N 60.4046321 E 5.3223898. I also tried to make a 3D scan of the cave with my iPhone, and then process the resulting 3D model to a rudimentary cave map. However, this turned out to be pretty difficult. The iPhone's lidar and camera sensors have only a certain range they operate in. Not too far, but I have found them to not work well too close either. This, combined with the difficulty of pointing the phone to all the right directions at every point in the cave was the problem. 

So the results are not as great as they would be in some other, a bit larger caves (for an example, see this one from Austria).

Nevertheless, the models are here (GLB format, Blender format, browser version). And the resulting map, heavily edited manually due to missing model parts is below. But as noted earlier, I did not visit the entire cave, so big parts are likely missing. Here's the plan view map and a few of the cross sections. A higher-resolution PDF with everything is here.

Photos, first from the entrance:

Then inside:

There was a plaque in the rock:

And here's the path from the street, leading to the park and the cave. the cave is just 15 meters along this path.

City of Bergen was of course wonderful. Some pictures:

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, TGR. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko, except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved. 

Vatnahalsen sauna

Vatnahalsen Høyfjellshotell is a hotel on a lonely mountaintop, on the Flåm railway line between Myrdal and Flåm. This railway line is "considered one of the world’s best train journeys". It is indeed spectacular, going through mountains and running on the sides of beautiful, untouched valleys and high plains. And the hotel is a convenient place to stay along the route, if you don't want to stay in Flåm which has more services and hotels. In Vatnahalsen there's nothing except this one hotel, mountain views... also a zip line down to the valley, length 1380 meters :-) And there's s sauna.

Here's what AI said about the world's most beautiful train rides:

The hotel is a hiker's hotel, mostly. The rooms are quite basic but clean and comfortable. The hotel has all the necessary services, your phone works, there's WiFi, they have a nice restaurant for good dinners and breakfasts, they sell hiking gear, etc. 

There's even a swimming pool... but it was empty. I found myself thinking what this place looked like in the summer. Of course, it was the middle of the summer, but in the mountains it felt more like the fall. On the rail line from Oslo to Bergen there's plenty of snow around you, even in the middle of summer. Also visible on the mountains from Vatnahalsen. And it can be windy, and is likely rainy. In the opening photo in this article (above), you see how the water from the waterfalls either flies to the right side due to high winds, or even up in the air entirely.

The sauna was basic, like the rest of the hotel, but did its job :-) The temperature was just right. Their water-throwing bucket-scoop was a bit weird though, a water jug.

More about the hotel here and here. More about the Flåm railway line here. See also my other article about the underground rivers along the railway here.

To reach Vatnahalsen, take the Oslo - Bergen train line, and get off in Myrdal, and change the train towards Flåm, then get off on the first station which is Vatnahalsen. Or walk from Flåm :-)

Photos, first the pool and sauna:

Then the hotel itself, and views from it:

Then the zip line. Would you take it? 1380 meters long, 300 meters down.

Myrdal views, one station before Vatnahalsen:

And views from the Oslo - Bergen line, going at the highest point to Finse, 1222 meters above the sea level.

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) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take photos of saunagoers or swimmers, all photos are taken from the outside or when the facility is closed or empty.