Hi,

It is now less than one year to next European Summer and let's forget the snow
to come in between and let's focus a second on the summer days to come after one
year.

This has not been discussed anywhere yet, but the idea came to my mind out of
the blue and I would like to share it here with you.

Would you like the idea of a natural HC summer camp under midnight sun in
Lapland, Finland? The camp would be a week long event somewhere in the
wilderness in Lapland, above the Arctic Circle where sun never goes down and
where you prefer mosquito repellent smell over your Chanel 5.

At this point it would not be important to know any details yet, neither you
should know if you come as a "camper" but it would be nice to start some kind of
workgroup to plan the camp.

We would need a "President" of the camp who is in responsibility of everything
and we would need a team for him/her which organizes this spectacle. There
should be a team with resposibilities spread to communication IN/OUT HC,
Ecology, Security, Media, Transportation, Program, Finance, Logistics and what
ever that comes to mind from first aid to outdoor expertise.

In my vision this would be a camp for nature lovers who wants to experience the
true wilderness so rare in modern Europe and who would like to get close to last
indigenous population in Europe. Most likely the camp would also include boozing
and moral hangovers as well but it's up to you. Accomodation would be very "down
to earth" meaning tents etc. Camp could boost up the local economy in areas
where summer is the low season.
 
Camp could include treks around the area, trips to natural wonders, rafting,
visits to sites presenting the local culture etc.

When thinking of Lapland in ecological point of view it might be challencing to
organize big camp ecologically, since the nature is extremely fragile there, so
we would need good planning and preparing for this. We don't want to make the
Greenpeace or locals angry. Connections to local people would be essential. I am
just a South Finland Citizen and HC members from Lapland are mostly needed :))

So, this post is mostly targeted to the people who would like to be in active
role of a team that would start to plan a big camp in Lapland in summer 2007.

What do you think? Crazy idea? Should we go for it?

See you in the Helsinki Camp this weekend!

Tomi

I guess this was too SciFi idea :)

Tomi

great-great-great!
since i have to start work again next april i won't have lots of vacation next
summer, but one week should be possible. 
would ths week be around juhannum? 
i'd love to join and hope it will come true.
greetings from stuttgart
annette
p.s. c u in helsinki this weekend... ;-)

Not such a bad idea, but one of the biggest problems is getting there. How is
hitchhiking in Finland or what about the prices for bus/train from Helsinki?

cuco

Hi!

Most likely this would be a camp for those that are not looking for a camp just
to meet somewhere where is easy way to get but for those who are interested to
go FAR away from "civilization" and meet HC members.

It is not sure at all if any camp will come, just asking if someone feels like
it would be possible / nice. And who would like to start to make it real with
bunch of others.

One possibility would of course be just a very modest "meeting" in a form of one
week long trek in Lapland with a group who would like it.

Tomi

@cuco: I recently hitched from helsinki to nordkapp and back and hitching is
pretty easy, only thing is the distances are quite far - takes about 12 hours to
get from helsinki to rovaniemi, and another 12 hours to nordkapp.   Theres
really not so many cars once you get north of Oulu which doesnt help, but when
there are cars they pick you up.   Bear in mind if its in moskito season, theres
*millions* of them...

Train prices are insane - but for students they're only half as insane :)

@ Annette

Are you coming to Helsinki on 8.-10.9.? Maybe we will then see :)

I guess good time for the camp could be the Midsummer (Juhannus) OR in August
when there are less mosquitos.

But hey, this is just brainstorming

:)

Tomi