Discussion: Yes, you got it right :)) I sh...

Yes, you got it right :)) I should print this out and read it for my teammates. I guess they will like it very much.

Sounds great! Which leg are you running and how many teams does Rastivarast have? (I am running leg 6 for Linne's 3rd team.)

We have 6 Jukola teams and 4 Venla teams. I will run 4th leg in out 1st team, if there will be no any injuries. We will aim for top 60 but will be somewhere around 80 I am afraid.

I incidentally bumped into one of your team mates in Östersund a couple of days ago - Markko Laaksonen - and had a few words with him. We were running the Sprint and Ultra Long Distance Championships there while celebrating a 'studentexamen'. I think he had a good race placing second on the Ultra Long.

Yes, Marko has been living in Sweden for couple of years. He was coaching of Finnish biathlon national team few years ago, don't know what he is doing at the moment. Working as a doctor I guess.

He one of these guys, I think you know what I mean: I guess almost no O training at all during last year and he says he is not fit - we can't be pick him to run in our 1st team. But then in 2nd team he will be faster than our 1st team runner. Being 2nd in ultra long sounds just typical Marko - I guess he hasn't done any orienteering after Jukola 2006, so he decided try this ultra long race just to get one O training done before Jukola.

Well, he told me he was working at the university - if that´s the kind of doctor you mean... He also mentioned that he had not been training very much and wasn't fit to run in Tiomila, but had been running a bit more lately.
I guess the competition in Östersund isn´t the toughest, but at least the H21 course (16km) was tough in the very hot and sunny summer weather.

I hope you were able to find some good thorns and hostile vines to drape around in the control locations. For the most part DVOAers will usually refuse to go into any forest in the summer unless there are briars and other unfavorable vegetations to thrash through. It's what they expect and demand. FDFs would be a bonus, but I'm not sure it's reasonable to think that FDFs can be arranged for in Finland.

If I have got it right, here FDFs are called "paarma" (try google image search with "paarma"). I am afraid it's not so common here yet, you would need to wait few weeks. And these scandinavian one aren't as fierce as the US ones, that's sure.

There wasn't attack badgers or wild dogs either. Just a horse or two and couple of lame mosquites. But we were only 20 km form he heart of the city - Helsinki senate square - so you can't expect much.

And now you know what MS Parma's yellow stripes are for.

I have done some investigations, and maybe this paarma fly is the same as the FDF. Does it bite like hell and make runners curse the day they were brought into the world? If so, it is probably about the same thing. Though, if so, I'm a little surprised (but not unhappy) that I've never seen this devil insect anywhere in Scandinavia myself.

Does it bite like hell and make runners curse the day they were brought into the world?

Yes. There is other insects that bites too, but this is the only one here that bites big chops of meat and it really hurts when it happens. Other insect bites are just itchy afterwards.

These animals may not be as common in Norway and souhern Swden as it i here. Have you ever visited these deep forest near Russian border? There is some other insects as well not yet exists in most parts of Sweden/Norway. For example this creature is a new comer (came here from Russia in the 70's) is sometihing most orieneers here hate over paarma:

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Experts+fear+trou...
http://www.pbase.com/holopain/image/49834698

It's slowly spreading west, after few years it will conquer whole Scandinavia. You are lucky for having this Atlantic ocean.

EDIT: My knowledge on this issue seems to be outdated:
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/30777.html
So they already have found their way around the Gulf of Bothnia, this has happenned during last two years.

I was at one Jukola that was quite close to the Russian border.

I have actually seen those Moose Flies (if that's what they are) in Smaland, at least as early as 2001, while mapping. A definitely creepy insect I would say, with the way they land on you and immediately start running around and trying to get in your hair. It would probably be good to send them all back to Russia if it's not too late.

And you can still find those from your head couple of days later. Shower doesn't help, I guess they like getting some showering and shampoo. And it's body is so hard and durable you can't kill them by squeezing them with your fingers (without using nails). Sometimes when you find one frorm your head and try to squeeze it and you open yur fingers to see is it dead, it immedately jumps to your har and dissapears.

If they are now in Norway, 2001 they must have been in Smaland.

From your description I can see for sure we are talking about the same pest. They seemed mostly impossible to kill, maybe they had 13 lives (compare with the reputed 9 lives of a cat or the 2 lives of a Ballengee) or something. Sometimes I was able to apparently kill one by putting it on a rock and jumping up and down on it with O' spikes until a spike made a lucky piercing, but usually they would fly up before that would happen and it would find sanctuary in the hair again, thus reinitiating the entire cycle. Probably it is one of the main reasons mappers are quickly vanishing these days. If you went home to your wife with 30-40 of those things in your hair (of course there is no way to sure how many might be hidden away) there's no way she would let you into the house like that. I guess they wouldn't let you in sauna like that either.