Wheels of Freedom

On Mother's Day it started, an unusual journey from Oulu to Tallinn. Traveling to Tallinn is not so unusual, but traveling there by electric wheelchair makes it extraordinary! 

Ville Jaaranto left towards Tallinn by riding his Four X. Journey was long, so some specifications to his chair were needed. Coffee is pretty important when traveling long periods on the road. As you can see from the picture below, Ville was well prepared for this trip. Ville had an assisting group with him, which helped him to succeed in his journey.

Distance travelled from Oulu to Tallinn was about 600 km. It took 3,5 weeks to travel, so it is on average about 30 km per day!

When the journey started, Ville and his team had even more ambitious goal. They were going to travel all the way to Lisbon. The problem was with the car that the assisting team had bought for the journey. There were lots of small problems with it, which eventually piled as too large problem to continue the journey. Ville and his group have said that they are probably going to try again next year.

Ville had lots of publicity and Yle is going to make a movie about his journey. Movie is supposed to be published in spring 2018. From Facebook his journey can be found by name Wheels of Freedom. There you can find more pictures and posts on the road.

The journey was made to support the rights of disabled people. It was also encouraging and perfect example of how dreams can be achieved.


Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wheelsoffreedommovie/?fref=ts

Summer is finally here (in Finland)

Finland is one of the coldest countries in the world. At winters, the outside temperature might be even – 30 C°. We have lots of snow and ice at winters, which makes living sometimes more difficult. Our previous blogpost was about coping with winter, but now it is gladly not time to think about those snowy, cold and dark winter mornings, because it is SUMMER! 

Finnish summer is very beautiful, as you can see from these pictures I took when I was hiking last weekend with my friend. Lakes and untouchable nature are the absolute strengths of Finland. In my opinion, going out to the nature is one of the most relaxing things you can do. Fresh air and quiet environment makes it possible to clear your thoughts and reload your brains for the upcoming days and challenges. With Four X it is fortunately possible to go to the nature easily and enjoy it's benefits.

Our hike included riding paths at the forest while listening birds singing. It was a beautiful day so we took many pictures, which I am going to post here later. After about an hour of hiking, we took a break next to the lake and ate some snacks and drank coffee. What could be better? When the break was over, we rode back to the city and finished our day by eating ice cream at the centrum of Kuopio.

It would be fun and interesting to see how you are enjoying your summertime. If you want to, you can send your own post about your summer day. I could then post it here so we all could have new inspiration to summer days and see what it is like in different countries! 

You could send your post to: mywheelchairlife@gmail.com

Great summer to everyone!

IN FINNISH

SUOMEKSI

Kuten me kaikki suomalaiset tiedämme, talvella on kylmä. Viime talvenakin useaan otteeseen pimeänä aamuna – 30 asteen pakkasessa tuli väistämättä ajatuksia tulevasta kesästä. Mutta hei, nyt se kesä on vihdoinkin täällä!!! Juhannuskin jo kolkuttelee ovella.

Suomen kesä on todella kaunis, kauniimpi kuin aina muistammekaan. Suomessa on ainutlaatuinen luonto, sillä se on suurimmilta osin koskematonta ja puhdasta. Lukuisat järvet ja tunturit ovat poikkeuksellisia etuisuuksia maailmanlaajuisestikin. Four X:n avulla on onneksi mahdollista nauttia luonnosta vaivattomasti. Nämä kuvat otin viime viikonloppuna ollessani luontoretkellä ystäväni kanssa. Kuvat otin retken loppuvaiheessa kun olimme palanneet jo kaupunkiin.

Retkellämme kuljimme luontopolkuja ihaillen maisemia ja kuunnellen lintujen laulua. Keli oli todella hyvä, joten otimme lukuisia kuvia, joita tulen myös täällä julkaisemaan. Noin tunnin retkeilyn jälkeen pidimme tauon, jolloin söimme eväitä ja joimme kahvia järven rannalla. Onko mitään parempaa?Tauon jälkeen aloimme palaamaan takaisin kaupunkiin päin. Viimeistelimme retken jäätelöllä Kuopion keskustassa 

Olisi mahtavaa jos kertoisitte omasta kesäpäivästänne! Voisitte esimerkiksi ottaa päivästä pari kuvaa ja kirjoittaa lyhyesti miten päivän olette viettäneet. Jos lähetätte kuvat ja kirjoituksen minulle, voisin sitten täällä julkaista, jolloin me kaikki voisimme saada inspiraatiota kesäpäiviimme! 

Kuvat ja kirjoituksen voi lähettää: mywheelchairlife@gmail.com

Mahtavaa kesää teille kaikille!