Punkaharju Ridge

July 12, 2016, Tuesday ...
"Enough sleep" - my wife said in the early morning after a swim in the lake.
"Let's go on the pier, I'll show you something".
The white tower was visible on the other side of the lake...

The weather was excellent and we decided to get to the tower by bicycles, which we brought with us.

The white tower is located in the town of Punkaharju and you can get there by the forest road, between the lakes.

The area around Punkaharju is a famous nature landscape, the best known national scenery in Finland.
The Punkaharju ridge is located here, with lakes between the grand pine trees growing on both sides of the ridge.
Here are the coordinates: 61°45'59.5"N, 29°22'00.9"E

The stone ridge was formed during the glacial period about 10 thousand years ago.
A continental ice melted and powerful water streams washed a long and narrow strip of land (beach) from sand and stones.
The length of the rock ridge is 7-8 km.

The ridge separates the two lakes of the Saimaa system: Puruvesi and Pihlajavesi.
Highway 14 and a road 4792 runs along a Punkaharju ridge and you can see beautiful views of bays, rocks and islands on both sides of the road.

A bicycle trail ran along a pine forest...

You can stop at numerous Viewing Areas, admire nature and relax.

Yes, nature is admirable here!

People try not to violate this harmony of nature, everything is very clean and well-groomed.
And bus stops remind toys...

A very beautiful bridge was built at the confluence of Lake Puruvesi and Lake Pihlajavesi...

On our way there were many beautiful piers on the lake...

When we moved across another bridge, we arrived in the town of Punkaharju...

The white tower was very close...

So, it is a water tower with a observation desk for tourists, which is at the top.

Let's go guys, we'll moving closer to the tower...

Unfortunately, the entrance to the tower to the observation deck was closed and we could not see from the height those places where we passed.
But you have a chance to see a bird's-eye view the area of Punkaharju: lakes, islands, forests and stone ridge.

Well, we went slowly back to the campsite, were stopping and walking on the shore of lakes and resting on benches.

And here is the camping...