In early July, Christine and I once again travelled to the Bear Centre, near Vartius, in central Finland. Like our visit in the Spring of 2025, we travelled from Helsinki using the amazing Finnish train service, this time taking a sleeper train to Oulu, then changing trains for Kajaani, where we hired a car to get to the Bear Centre. We are big fans of Finnish trains, which compared to the UK, seem like they belong in some utopian science fiction film. Our en-suite sleeper cabin did not disappoint. Once again, maybe it’s due to comparison with British train fares, but ticket prices are incredibly good value.
The car journey from Kajaani to the Bear Centre takes about 90 minutes along wonderful roads that are nearly devoid of traffic. As we most of Finland, you drive through seemingly endless forest that’s only broken by pristine lakes, and the occasional homestead. It’s some of the most enjoyable, stress-free driving imaginable.
Unlike our Spring visit in 2025, when we were the only guests for the week, Summer and early Autumn are the high season at the Bear Centre, with guests from throughout Europe. After unpacking and getting our camera bags sorted, we joined the other guests for a late lunch at 16:00, and then reassembled at 17:00 to pick up our snacks and beverages for the hide, before setting off as a group to our allotted hides. On arrival at our hide we quickly set up our cameras and settled in for the next 14 hours, and so the rhythm for the next 7 days was set.
Throughout the week we were there, the hide areas were dominated by an enormous male bear that we named Big Ted (if you are British and of a certain age, you’ll know the reference). He was a pale, golden-brown colour, with super-fluffy ears. While he looked like a giant child’s teddy bear, the scars across his muzzle and nose revealed that he had fought and won many battles to attain his dominant status. He was a very reliable visitor, slowly lumbering around the hides.
Unfortunately, his presence seemed to deter other bears from visiting or hanging around for too long. As a consequence, we only saw three other bears, all of which were considerably smaller. This was in contrast to our autumn visit in 2019, when we saw many individual bears including cubs. However, this didn’t detract from the overall experience as all the bears provided spectacular photo opportunities.
We had one very memorable evening in Hide 5, which unlike the majority of hides looks out over some rocks in the forest, rather than at one of the lakes. On two occasions, Big Ted approached our hide from behind and we heard the sound of his breathing long before he appeared within about 5 metres of the hide. That was pretty cool.
Aside from the bears, the red squirrels were very active, as were the forest birds. However, it must be said the Crested Tits looked pretty dishevelled presumably as a consequence of feeding a nest full of chicks. So, I say that September is a better time for the Crested Tits as their plumage is in better condition.