You’re deep in the forest, trying to figure out your way, and you don’t have your phone. All you have is a map, which is covered with hieroglyphics, and an old-fashioned compass.
It might sound like a troubled dream, but this is the world of orienteering. It’s a pastime with its origins in the Nordic countries, encouraged by their ‘right to roam’ policies; fitting, then, that Kuopio hosted the annual World Orienteering Championships this summer, as part of the Finnish city’s 250th anniversary celebrations.
What is orienteering?
Requiring a mix of brainpower and fitness, orienteering is an adventurous sport where participants compete to reach a series of checkpoints using only a paper map and compass. It’s typically done outdoors, in forests and parks, but can also be done in urban environments. Some take it at a leisurely pace, but competitive orienteering calls for speed.
Perhaps inspired by the phone-free challenge of the BBC’s much-loved adventure travel show Race Across The World and the rise in unplugged escapes, interest in the sport is growing. It melds together a few current crazes: running and wellness and wholesome hobbying. Ultimately, orienteering offers the most exhilarating digital detox you can find.
So I’m in Kuopio to give it a go. The city is in Savo, Finland’s lake district, and you can reach it from Helsinki by plane, by train – a beautiful rail journey with lakes on either side – or by car, in which case stopping for a swim at one the many beaches that border the country’s 180,000 lakes is a must.
Before my first race, I take one of the hotel’s bikes and cycle past Kuopio’s stone buildings, through its buzzing market and up to the Puijo tower, with its revolving restaurant, where I can survey the forested landscape I’ll be navigating.
Race one: an easy city sprint
My baptism is a city sprint – the easiest introduction to orienteering – in the Nilsiä district. When I arrive, the scene somewhat resembles a newsroom before deadline, with people (young and old) running around clutching sheets of paper.
I pay €15 to a friendly volunteer to take part in a spectator race (the main event is for elite athletes only), and once I touch the electronic chip I’m given on the first checkpoint, I’m off.
Now, it’s worth mentioning that the map you’re given will probably confuse beginners, especially if the only map you’re used to using is your phone’s in-built navigation app. Orienteering maps are incredibly detailed – they’re designed to help you navigate the topography of the area, including stuff like ditches and boulders, with different colours indicating easy and hard terrain.
But I find that using these maps forces you to notice what’s around you. What’s that big circle? Oh, a water tower remarkably converted into a home. And that Lego-like shape? One of Nilsiä’s beautiful wooden houses, hiding the next checkpoint, which winks at me in recognition when I tap it.
The excitement of the hunt makes me notice other things too, like the smell of wild roses. It’s as if turning off my phone awakens my senses.
A summer storm, long brewing, breaks as I re-enter the stadium. So, though I’m no runner, my final stretch is indeed a sprint, albeit with my map over my head.
It’s as if turning off my phone awakens my senses
Sheltering under the tent with the organisers, I learn I’d reached all eight checkpoints in 28 minutes 36 seconds – which I think puts me somewhere among the eight-year-olds and 88-year-olds. But, buoyed by this success, I travel further north to the resort of Tahko for the next race, stopping first to celebrate with my partner at the mountaintop Havu restaurant and relax in its adjoining four saunas.
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After dining on Havu’s huge tasting menu – including beef tartare with honey turnip, locally caught whitefish with trout roe marinated in tomatoes and elderflower, beef tenderloin with bone marrow, shallots and creamy celeriac, all complemented by minerally Grüner Veltliners and Californian reds aged in Bourbon barrels – my partner and I decide, in the spirit of orienteering, to go by foot to our hotel.
As with the proper sport, you have to play to your strengths, as we find descending in our smart shoes and jackets. I struggle on steep downhills, so find a winding mountain bike path down, while my husband (a mosquito magnet) finds a more direct trail away from the forest. Yet I still reach the hotel first – my only win of the week.
Race two: man v nature
Finding my way between checkpoints the next day proves far harder, even though I’ve picked the easiest of three courses – a 4.1km route. We’re not in the city anymore. Where are all those helpful roads and odd-shaped buildings?
Richard, a Briton in his late 50s participating in the spectator race, tells me this is why he loves the Nordic landscape – ‘a proper forest with lots of squiggly contour lines to navigate by’. A keen runner, he clearly likes the mental challenge of orienteering.
Saara, 38, a personal trainer from Turku, reassures me: ‘Making mistakes isn’t bad. Each one is something you learn from.’
Leaving the path for the springy, moss-covered forest floor after identifying a narrow gorge, I search for the first checkpoint. On the map, it appears to be fairly clearly between two bogs, but only reveals itself after much squelching.
For the second, I carefully count my paces to estimate my distance, but I’m still left scrabbling among the lupins, with the symbol ‘O.’ on the map telling me it’s hidden south-east of a rock. When I finally spy the orange flag, my spirits soar.
When I finally spy the second checkpoint, my spirits soar
The third target should be easy, being due west of a water station staffed by volunteers, but the checkpoints are becoming as elusive as the bears, elk, lynx and wolves in the forest. My delight at finding it is tempered by the calculation that I will be finishing long after everyone has packed up.
The region offers loads of outdoorsy activities – frisbee golf, anyone? – and the zipwire and mountain bikes promise faster routes down. But despite my ineptitude, I prefer the more naturalistic world of orienteering. And some Finns ascribe their country’s top ranking in the World Happiness Report eight years running to their genuine connection with nature.
I manage just three of the 12 checkpoints, but even so, I’m left pining to try another race. But I need far more practice. Thankfully, there are 1,101 permanent orienteering courses back home in the UK, with checkpoints in the form of posts or plaques in forests, heathlands, parks and green spaces. Or I could join one of the UK’s hundred-plus clubs.
If I do get some orienteering practice in, I may attempt next year’s Fin5 tournament at Salla, in Lapland. But maybe not the annual Jukola race – the world’s biggest orienteering relay, held next year in Kotka in mid-June – where participants will race through the day and overnight in the midsummer twilight. After all, I’ve already done my midnight bash through the forest.
Visiting Kuopio and its surrounds
Orienteering or not, there’s much to see and do in the Kuopio area. Go for dinner at Kummisetä in Kuopio, a restaurant serving organic and freshly farmed and foraged food. Take a peaceful cruise on Kallavesi – Finland’s tenth biggest lake, with its archipelago of 2,000 islands – which Roll Risteilyt offers from just €36 including lunch, which you can combine with a berry wine tasting visit to Alahovi.
The traditional smoke sauna at Jätkänkämppä can be accompanied with a dinner of the ubiquitous local delicacy of freshwater muikku fish, as well as live music and a lumberjack display on the lake. Follow the huge floating islands of logs down the lakes to Leppavirtä, where the Vesileppis hotel features a remarkable permanent winter in the caves 30 metres below reception, with the intricate Moomin ice sculptures crafted from the incredibly clear ice of Lapland’s rivers.
Colin travelled as a guest of Visit Finland, Hello Kuopio and Destination Savo. Our reviews and recommendations have been editorially independent since 1968. For more, see our editorial guidelines.
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