In Espoo archipelago there’s an island on the sea called Pentala. On this island, there’s a lake. On the lake there’s an island. That was our destination!
There are couple of reasons why we wanted to visit this island. The first introduction we got of this place was from a board game that we played many years ago with my friends. The board game was published in 1992 by the kayaking club Canoa for their 60th anniversary. In the game you are kayaking around and collecting bird observations. The rarer the birds are, the more points they are worth. There is also a dodo in the game, and since it is extinct since 1700 it’s worth the most!
In the game you can carry your kayak on land, for example if you want to visit the island on Pentala. So, it was from this game we got the idea to do this same thing in real life! We were also assured that we were going to find the extinct dodo on this island! We also knew that there was a geocache on this island, so we definitely had to log that as well!
On a sunny day we jumped in our kayaks and started paddling towards Pentala. We started our tour near Hirsala, so it didn’t take a long time to reach our destination. We stranded on a beach in the south of the island Pentala. From there we took a path towards the lake carrying on one kayak. We chose the wrong path, because we ended up climbing over the highest point before we reached the lake. The distance was about 400 m. But it was really worth it!
The lake was surrounded by green leafy plants, the water was completely still, except for a few waves a pair of swans caused. And there on the lake, we saw our destination: the island! In turns, we jumped in the kayak and paddled around the island. We also stranded on the island and logged the geocache, as it was one of our goals.
On the way back we found the right path, and it was so much easier to carry the kayak that way! Sadly, we didn’t spot any dodo birds, but now we can check one item from our bucket lists 😉
Frida Pelin 