08-Jun-2003 -- N68 E28 is very difficult to reach. That’s why it was one of the last unvisited confluence points in Finland.

The Tulppio area is an unpopulated wilderness. The view varies; stunted trees, fens and peatland, lakes and rivers. It is located behind one of Finland's biggest artificial lakes; Lokka. The area is a really fascinating wilderness with real challenges for an explorer.

With carefully made plans, we were ready to leave our car far from our target. In case of misfortune we were ready to bike, walk, even row with a small rubber boat the last 35 km to the goal. We were cautioned against bad roads and bridges damaged by spring floods. It seemed that it would be possible to make the round trip without staying overnight if everything went according to plan.

The distance from Rovaniemi is roughly 250 km by car.

After many challenges we did reach our goal. We crossed one big river and a couple of smaller ones. Jukka crossed the Luirojoki first. I had a long rope so that I could pull the boat back to my own river bank. This was more luck than planning, because I just happened to pack that rope along with the rest of my gear. Our brand new boat (really a children's toy!) was not big enough for two adult persons even if the shopkeeper promised otherwise. We left the boat and crossed the last two brooks in other ways.

We didn’t meet any bears, even if it is well known that bears are common in the area. We trusted that they would be more frightened of us than we of them. Besides, statistics showed that within the last 2 years nobody has been killed by bears in Finland. (A couple of less than fatal incident did happen though.) So we were confident. The risk of bears was more theoretical than real.

The confluence area itself turned out to be open peatland.