Röylä. A place with an ugly name and no one with interest to visit there? Not so. The forests are quite big, and full of cliffs, and indeed, no one goes there so one gets to hike alone :-)
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May 2020, Röylän halkeamaluolanen, Röylä, Espoo, Finland; Röylän lippakolonen, Röylä, Espoo, Finland; Röylän siirtolohkareluolanen, Röylä, Espoo, Finland
Hiking; Caving (Rock, Rock-Granite, Basic, Surveying); Caving (Rock, Rock-Granite, Morphology-Boulders, Basic, Surveying)
I realised last week that I need exercise, and sunshine. Today's exercise was to go caving in Kirkkonummi. But I didn't want to visit places that other people would likely be in. So I took the approach of visiting forest areas where there have been NO caves listed.
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April 2020, Masalan siirtolohkareen luolanen, Masala, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Nägelsin siirtolohkareen luolanen, Hirsala, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Nägelsin lippaluolanen 1, Hirsala, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Nägelsin lippaluolanen 2, Hirsala, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Nägelsin halkeamaluolanen, Hirsala, Kirkkonummi, Finland
Caving (Rock, Rock-Granite, Basic)
Bunker... in Jorvas. With a ladder leading down a tight concrete shaft. How could I resist?
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(TGR version)
April 2020, Sähköaseman bunkkeri, Masala, Kirkkonummi, Finland
Urban-Exploration (Bunkers); Caving (Man-Made)
For the last three years, the highlight of my caving year has been the fun, warm, and social camping week at the Lummelunda cave in Gotland. Sadly, I just received a cancellation for the flights to Gotland, due to the virus. I think this year's caving week is therefore cancelled.
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April 2020, House Arkko, Kauniainen, Finland
Caving (None)
No, it is not a rat. It is a Swedish caver's magazine. Grottan is cave in Swedish.
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April 2020, House Arkko, Kauniainen, Finland
Caving (None, Media)
Another caver's club virtual meeting! Nice! Since the others played around with nice picture backgrounds, I decided to have a background of my own: in a cave in Korkberget, Kirkkonummi.
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April 2020, Korkbergetin lohkareluola, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Pieni lippaluola 1 pohjoiskärjessä, Korkberget, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Pieni lippaluola 2 pohjoiskärjessä, Korkberget, Kirkkonummi, Finland
Caving (Rock, Rock-Granite, Morphology-Boulders, Social)
What a wonderful experience - forced to not not have in-person meetings, all kinds of organizations are realising that their meetings *can* be done over network connections, and that the results are often better. We just had a caver's meet-up in Finland, and we chatted longer -- six hours -- than we ever have and had many more people participate than before.
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April 2020, House Arkko, Kauniainen, Finland
Caving (None, Social)
My best caving light broke down last week on a nightly skiing excursion. I measured it and determined that the likely culprit was broken battery. Today the mail delivered a spare battery, and I installed and voilá, the light works again! Happy about not having to look for a new light.
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April 2020, House Arkko, Kauniainen, Finland
Caving (Equipment)
Still in quarantine! So, I'm hiking in a forgotten forest in Kirkkonummi. And found two caves that aren't listed in any of the cave books. One roof cave, visited by climbers for the overhang. But the other one I liked a lot. It is small, but much cave-like, dark, and with a very tight entrance :-)
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(TGR version)
April 2020, Goddarsbölebergenin lippaluola, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Goddarsbölebergenin luola, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Goddarsbölebergenin kolmiokolo, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Goddarsbölebergenin pieni lippaluolan kaltainen kalliojyrkänne 1, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Goddarsbölebergenin pieni lippaluolan kaltainen kalliojyrkänne 2, Kirkkonummi, Finland
Caving (Rock, Rock-Granite, Basic, Surveying)
Jukka performed a search on cave references from the database of the Finnish National Board of Antiquities during our recent virtual meet-up. He came up with a reference to a potentia cave in Espoo that none of us had heard about. Yesterday I went to look for it...
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(TGR version)
April 2020, Johannesbergetin halkeamalaluola, Espoo, Finland; Johannesbergetin lippaluola 1, Espoo, Finland; Johannesbergetin lippaluola 2, Espoo, Finland; Johannesbergetin siirtolohkareen alusluola 1, Espoo, Finland
Caving (Rock, Rock-Granite, Morphology-Crack, Basic); Caving (Rock, Rock-Granite, Basic); Caving (Rock, Rock-Granite, Morphology-Boulders, Basic)
I have now put up all my Finnish cave maps at the Planetcaver site. There's maps for 34 different caves, almost all of which are in the Kirkkonummi area. A few maps are in the works.
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(TGR version)
March 2020, House Arkko, Kauniainen, Finland
Caving (None)
While skiing on the rainy Titlis, I saw a crack cave by the slopes, and also visited an ice cave for tourists.
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February 2020, Titlis ice cave, Engelberg, Switzerland
Caving (Glacier, Basic, Showtour)
What a shitty bunker! Literally.
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February 2020, Abandoned bunker, Mount Hermon, Israel
Urban-Exploration (Bunkers); Caving (Man-Made)
As we returned from the skiing in Israel, I wanted to stop at a cave in Israel. Most of the show caves are closed in the winter, but there should be enough natural caves to visit, right? Not so... we failed to enter the ones we found for various reasons.
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February 2020, Пещера, Tiberias, Israel
Caving (None)
Massive cities carved inside rock towers. Luxury hotels carved inside cliffs. Sometimes a bad weather closure day can lead to interesting other things. I'm glad we got to visit Cappadocia, Turkey.
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(TGR version)
February 2020, Göreme Open Air Museum, Göreme, Cappadocia, Turkey
Caving (Rock, Man-Made)
While skiing off the Gamsleiten 2 ski lift in Obertauern, we spotted a potential small cave. It was outside the pistes on a steep slope, but I skied to investigate. And found what would in Finland be classified as a cave: 2-3 meter long roof cave on a cliff. But not in Austria...
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January 2020, Small cave, Obertauern, Austria
Skiing (Outdoor, Snow, Lifts); Caving (Rock, Basic)