Experience the Healing Power of Nature in a Remarkable Finnish Forest
Kerttu Komulainen is a professional nature guide and photographer. Born and raised in Kuhmo, she now lives in a log cabin in the Kainuu forest, a remarkable environment and way of life she loves to share with others. We asked her to give us a taste of her unique Healing Through Nature Experience.
ECT: What makes the Kainuu forest so special?
KK: Kainuu is a Taiga forest. [That’s a forest located in high northern latitudes with long, cold winters and short, cool summers.] It is mostly made up of pine and spruce trees, but we have some leafy trees here too. The trees are covered in what we call 'bearded lichen' - they really do look like they are growing a beard – and if you see it, it means that the air is super clean! It is also very quiet – all you will hear is the birds singing and the wind moving the trees.
Our forests areas are huge so there's a lot of space for various wildlife. In Kuhmo you can encounter four different predators - bear, wolf, wolverine and lynx. We have also plenty of elks and wild forest reindeers.
Finnish forests are also very easy to roam through as we don’t have big hills and valleys and you can find plenty of food to snack on as you walk. Wild blueberries are a special summertime treat.
Kainuu has very interesting history stretching from the ice age and the Vikings who used our rivers as a passageway, to the many famous artists who travelled here to see the 'real Finland’. Until 300 years ago, people here were still worshipping bears and the spirits of the nature.
ECT: One of the healing elements of this experience involves resin - tell us more
Trees produce resin in response to some sort of damage as a way of protecting the tree from bacteria, fungi etc, and what's amazing is that it works the same for us humans – if you apply resin cream to an open wound, it helps to clean and protect it. Resin is used even in hospitals to treat challenging wounds after surgeries. Resin cream is also commonly used for sunburn, rashes and acne. As we walk through the forest, we will collect resin from the spruce trees (we might have to wander for some time because we want to find a tree that has been damaged naturally and has started to produce the resin) and I will show my guests how to make it into their own cream as a special souvenir to take home.
ECT: You don’t only work in the forest, you live here too…
KK: Yes, my spouse, our cat and I have lived in a log cabin in the middle in the forest for five years. It's a lovely and very peaceful place. Sometimes when I go for a walk, I see bear’s footprints in the mud and I often spot wildlife just looking out of the windows! I bring the people on the Healing Through Nature experience here for lunch, which I make from local ingredients. It's usually some sort of soup followed by berries I've collected from the forest. As we cook and eat, I share some of the specialities of a Finnish home, like how we keep warm in temperatures of -30C and how important sauna is for us. And of course, I also reveal insights into our lifestyle which combines modern and ancient elements making us the happiest people in the world!
Discover the magic of Finland’s wilderness for yourself on our Discover the Wild in Finland's Arctic Taiga holiday.