Greetings from the Finns!

Eveliina Hirvonen and Jesse Laukkarinen is back in the best o-town - Halden - after one year away. Enjoy their story of the past year's experiences!  

Has been a while when we were last time here, but finally we are back in best o-town. After Christmas last year, we explored New Zealand two months and had our own winter camp with Lizzie! The hospitality of local orienteering community was great and they helped us a lot with everything! New Zealand offered technical sprints, amazing mountain areas and tricky sand dune maps. Our flights back home were cancelled and we already started to plan our new life as sheep farmers ? But in the end, we managed to get home with new flights and without corona.

In Finland, we realized soon that there won’t be international season 2020. So, we ended up to stay in home country and work a bit more than planned. When all the events were cancelled, it opened possibilities for new things. Eve build her own garden with 97 tomato plants and luckily Jesse was working from home so he was able to water them. In the summer, we did short holiday road trip across Finland. We run Jukola 2021 trainings in Rovaniemi and 59km trough Kevo national park with special landscape.

In the autumn, the o-season in Finland finally started with relay league and Finnish champs. It was rather intensive autumn with all the work and competitions. After off-season, we packed our car and headed towards Halden. It was pleasant to run again in Halden forest and finally after 10 days quarantine meet all the people. It is somehow fascinating to live here; run in the Høiåsmarka, eat brunost and watch trainings afterwards in loggator!

Let’s rock in the next season!