So, my bike was in excellent condition and I was succesfull in my first priority mission to get the oils changed. I had all night long time to drive anywhere I want, if I so desired. I asked from service chief Esa Laakso is there any dirt roads towards Lahti, and he gave me directions to one. It was the time to take one last picture of this very nice village called Nikkilä and move on.





I found the dirt road and had tons of good time driving on it. On dirt my Skyteam really shined, even though it was still a little bit shy of me and did not yet show its best performance. That I understood well.





All good things come to an end and eventually the I found myself driving in tarmac. I visited yet another fuel station and ate a sandwich there. I had no idea where I was, so I had to ask from the merchant lady about my location. The map told me I was about 30km from Tampere, if I remember correctly, so can’t speak of progression distance wise – a minor detail I just laughed at.


However the night was surprisingly cold and I wondered if I should find an inn and rest. I thought that well alright, I can do it IF I happen to find a very cheap place. It meant in practise that I wont sleep on clean sheets. After some driving I found an old mansion now used as an inn. It looked cool and for the sake of curiosity I went inside and routinely asked for a price of a room. The nice lady told me that unfortunately she does not have any rooms left. We pondered the situation and I finally said that it is fine, I can easily drive more. The house were populated by very drunken Finnish people singing Karaoke upstairs loudly. Even though it was cool I don’t think I would had been not able to sleep there.


I went out of the house near my bike and after a while the lady came out too and said she is going to lock the doors and go home. That certainly inspired me to think about asking her how much a sofa at her home would cost. There was just a problem, maybe she would be unable to handle a real man like me? Then suddenly the real problem arised. Would I be able to handle a lady like her? I shrugged in my mind and replied to her drive safely wishes that I will.





The night was even colder and I stopped a couple of times on the way to warm up a little. I wore only my enduro driving suit and a t-shirt under it. Was rather stupid to not take more clothes to the trip but can’t say it was an issue, I had time to travel slowly and enjoy. The breaks from driving also did good to my rear, the bench was hard to sit for long periods of time.


Before I arrived Lahti while I was taking a break somewhere I felt for the first time compassion and love at my bike. It was a great moment I enjoyed. This can be hard to understand for those who don’t drive motorcycles, or maybe not, I don’t know if people can feel the same for cars. I can’t feel the same for cars so it could be hard for me to understand.


Anyway, I knew we would make it. Me and my bike. I trusted my bike and appreciated I can drive it. The Skyteam felt like a woman who is not fine tuned artificially to please eyes and body. It felt like a good real woman I don’t have to fear leaving me for another man. I thought that one good thing in china bikes is that they probably don’t attract thieves. I watched my bike standing on the tarmac and waiting for me to give life for it. Suddenly I realized that dang, I can’t compare women to my Skyteam because my Skyteam is like a dog. It just waits for me patiently and says come as you are, I don’t judge you and I will come with you anywhere you take me, no matter how you are.


Pity I did not take a picture of that moment but it was too personal private moment to capture on a camera and publish in Internet.


I arrived to Lahti city at night and drove around watching night life on the streets. There was not much to see, except near some entrances to the bars.






My mind got again distracted by warm and clean sheets in the hotel so it was the time to eat something before finding a nice place to rest or even sleep.






I looked for one place I knew which could be fine for camping without paying, but were unable to find it. Instead I found the harbour of Lahti for the first time in my life. I walked around and thought about waking up there in the morning. I did not like the idea so I chose to just rest on the bench and wait for the morning to come and bike shops to open. A woman with two dogs walked past me and the other dog pooped to the grassy area in the front of the bench. Oh well, who cares, the bench was good and the air was fresh.






Some time passed and one scooter police passed me too. The early morning came, within came screams of hundreds of seagulls. The seaguls had plenty of good time in the nearby breakwater construct. This was their home. Alright, time to change place after taking a couple of pictures. I never wanted to sleep there anyway.





One last photo and onwards.





I inspected my bike and found that something is going to break soon. It was a rubber thingy separating the plastic fairing and muffler. At the time I write this it has not yet breaked.





Lahti is famous in being a winter sport city in Finland. I saw the Ski Jumping towers and it was a must to go take a closer look of them. Maybe I could get some pictures of the city from there in the early morning light. I was sleepy but had to find some view for my bike and the towers.


Near the roots of the towers were very comfortably looking grass, the sun shining on it. It was just a fine place to rest some more. The ground was a little bit cold, but I had warm driving pants and the rising sun warmed me more. My last thoughts before I fell asleep were: alright, not a good idea to sleep here, someone can come pick my pockets while I sleep and get my wallet and keys to the motorbike. Not good to fall asleep before I hide the keys and wallet somewhere inside my driving pants rom where people can’t get it without me waking up. So can’t fall asleep.





I woke up and saw a man walking near me asking is everything alright. I said yeah no problems, I just rest here a little. The man said aha ok and went away. I was very sleepy and wanted to sleep more. I watched as the man begun to do some maintenance things around the towers, and I fell asleep again.


The next wake-up came from a big school bus full of little kids yelling. I watched the clock, it was three to ten in the morning. About just a fine time to continue my journey. The maintenance man begun to drive some noisy vehicle so I did not have much choise either. I started my bike and drove near the maintenance man and greeted him as thanks for everything.



(To be continued... next time with more pictures, explosions and stuff with less text, was tired and did not photograph much at this part + lack of light, sorry.)