Camping (or not)

We decided it was time we gave our little ones their first taste of outdoor life, which, in the absence of a suitable summer cottage, turned into a short camping trip. We found a picturesque spot, a place to light a fire and grill sausages, and so set off, driving for an hour southwards to a place called Orinoro Gorge (a very fine picture, here). Very spectacular, and both littlies coped very well indeed with the 2 km or so of walking required, quite often on boards, due to the prevailing swampy conditions. We found the fireplace, between a hill and a beautiful calm lake, and having chatted with a Swedish family, grilled our sausages, fished in the lake with no success, we turned our thoughts to finding a flat, dry spot big enough for our 1 man + 3 women tent. (BTW there is an ancient right in finland called the 'everyman's right' which means, among other things, that you can camp pretty well where you want). Hmm, idyllic location, lake on one side, steep hill on the other, swampy ground in between. Not a chance... Continued along the path another km to a deforested area, dry but still no chance. Another lake 500 metres later, surrounded by trees and swamp. By now two small children had made their very best efforts, and were beginning to fade fast, and two adults were becoming rather desperate, on account of the hour, and the number of mosquitos. So about 3 kms farther than we intended to walk, beside a laneway, we found a space. Hurrah! Tent up, mossies out, children in. Oh dear, what do we do for the next couple of hours? Get bitten. A lot. Retired gracefully to tent, realising that the sun setting at 11. 08 and rising at 3.20 meant that a) we wouldn't get much darkness, b) since our only spot had not much shelter, and not a cloud to be seen in the sky, it was going to be very hot in the tent and, finally, c) we weren't going to sleep much. And so it proved. Kids slept fine, surprisingly, mossies and other assorted biters got the feed of a lifetime, and adults took it in turns to stare at the ceiling of the tent and feign sleep. Still, until the location finding went wrong, everything was great, and will pave the way for more similar adventures. We shall ensure that there are proper insect free camping places beforehand...