Hungry visitor: Valeri the blind bear - all 60 stone of him - lumbering just 20ft away from Wendy's lodgeIt was an exhilarating moment. A huge log lay across the narrow track in front of us with deep clawmarks scratched into the bark. It would have taken at least two men to shift it but it had obviously been rolled there by some creature searching for grubs in the rotten wood. It was our first indication that bears were nearby and gave us an inkling of just how powerful they are.
As I glanced around apprehensively, I wondered how many pairs of beady black eyes were watching me from the depths of the forest.
We were in Finland in the hope of seeing these massive predators in their natural habitat and were making our way to our hide at Wild Brown Bear viewing centre in the far east of the country. It is run by Ari Saaski, whose father and grandfather had both been bear-hunters.
Situated in a remote wilderness location on the Russian border, it takes a full day to reach from Britain. Landing first in Helsinki, we made a quick dash into the historic city centre to visit its cobbled squares and Russian-style palaces along the waterfront before flying on to the tiny airport at Kajaani.
From here, it was a two-hour drive along deserted roads through endless forests of spruce and pine, edged with banks of wild flowers.
Ari has converted an old border station beside a lake into a complex of simple lodges and built about 20 hides - which visitors can comfortably stay in - scattered in the woods and swamps nearby. Every afternoon, he fills large bins dotted around the site with fish scraps, a tasty breakfast for the bears when they wake in the early evening.
'They hibernate in dens over in Russia all winter and when they first arrive in April their coats are two sizes too big,' Ari told me as I prepared for our first bear-watching experience. 'By October they are two sizes too small.'
After a quick briefing, Sabrina, our guide, led us through ancient birch woods draped in lichen and beard moss on a ten-minute walk to the hides. Ours was perched on a small hillside with a panoramic view of the forest clearing. It cost much the same as a five-star hotel, although the accommodation was somewhat more modest.
There were no chocolates on the pillow but it was well equipped with comfortable chairs, bunk beds, sleeping bags and a compost toilet. We even had room service.
Sabrina had brought sandwiches, yogurt and fruit with hot tea and coffee in case we were hungry.
It was going to be a long night. It was mid-July and with the sun barely sinking below the horizon the bears would probably be feeding until the early morning. 'Don't make any noise,' Sabrina told us. 'Move very slowly and only talk in whispers.
'They have poor eyesight but a strong sense of smell and can hear a human voice a kilometre away. If they are aware of us, they will turn tail and run.'
It was well into the early hours of the morning before I curled up in my sleeping bag for a couple of hours' sleep. By the time I woke up, the bears had already slunk away, heading back over the Russian border to digest their meal. Joining a crowd of locals on a special outing across no-man's-land, we set off to see the border for ourselves. Accompanied by a Finnish guard, we tramped over carpets of lingonberries, the bear's favourite food, to a wide clearing in the woods.
It wasn't quite as I had imagined. There was no electric fence, no barbed wire and no watchtowers but merely a large granite slab engraved with the Orthodox cross and the Swedish crown, dating back some 400 years to the days when Finland was part of Sweden.
In such a wild landscape of forest, waterways and marshes, the only way to explore was on hiking trails or by canoe.
One morning one of our guides, Urpo, took me kayaking on the Jamasjarvi lake. We paddled across the still water, the only sound the rasping call of two terns circling high above us.
Going wild: Wendy Driver checks into her forest hideIt was difficult to keep our voices down when, just a few minutes later, we spotted our first bear in the far distance. It was Valeri, an elderly male weighing more than 60 stone, who was instantly recognised by Sabrina. With his moth-eaten fur and his
glazed, half-blind eyes, he looked like a favourite old teddy.
'He gets a bit confused now. He was spotted hunting for food beside the lodge the other night,' she added as he padded off into the woodland.
I couldn't believe how silently such a cumbersome animal could move. Putting on our headphones, we could pick up sounds more than half a mile away yet I could hear nothing but the sound of birdsong.
From then on, we had numerous encounters with half-a-dozen bears. I lost track of the times they returned to raid the bins, sometimes growling or chasing each other if one approached too close.
Before long, they were emerging from the shelter of the trees just yards from us, rearing up on their hind legs to sniff the air before sloping off with mouthfuls of pink salmon hanging from their jaws.
Sometimes flocks of seagulls would swoop down on them, screeching and squawking until the poor beasts fled in desperation to the safety of the forest.
Brewing up: A coffee break for the Finnish guards at the Russian frontier
Stopping beside an abandoned fisherman's cabin on a tiny island, Urpo brewed up coffee over an open fire. Then, as dappled sunlight streamed through the pine trees, he spread out a picnic of salmon and cabbage tarts, the staple diet of the region.
The best place to taste traditional fare is Kalevala Spirit historic village in Kuhmo. The centrepiece is a 19th Century-style Finnish farmhouse, surrounded by a high wall of stout wooden stakes. Akke, the chef, resembled a Viking hippy with his shoulder-length blond hair and trailing felt wristbands.
His eight-course menu consisted of different rye breads filled with a variety of berries, local fish and vegetables followed by his homesmoked salmon served with a dollop of terve, a delicious tar syrup made from fir trees.
On our last evening, Ari prepared a smoke sauna for us in a log cabin down by the lake. With its blackened walls impregnated with the smell of woodsmoke, it was very different from the pristine clinical saunas you'll find in health clubs As the temperature rose to a searing heat, I bolted outside to plunge naked into the icy water in true Finnish style. I just hoped Valeri was foraging elsewhere.
source: dailymail
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