Day 4 - Bear photography at Martinselkonen

We arrived at Martinselkonen in the early afternoon and we have been warmly welcomed by Riina who is one of the owners. The first impression was really good. The staff is very friendly and helpful, the rooms are very clean and well maintained. Our bedroom has a private bathroom with a shower. The guest house also includes a fully equipped kitchen free for use for all guests in case you prefer to prepare your own meals or to have a snack, coffee or tea. As we booked the full package we got a really delicious dinner at 3 p.m. During the dinner Riina asked for our preferences regarding the photography hides for the three days. There are hides available in the forest, the swamp and at the pond. Unfortunately, end of May is too early for the pond so we could choose between a hide in the forest and the swamp. We decided to go in the forest today and to give a try for the swamp tomorrow. At 4 p.m. we started heading forward to the bears. Compared to Boreal Wildlife Centre, there were more customers present so we started in a group of about 10 persons. The guide drove us to the forest from where it was another 1,5 km hike to the hides. During a short introduction the guide explained to always stay in the group especially when arriving at the hides as there might be already a bear (…do not take photographs, touch or hug the bear when arriving ;-) ). After a 20 minutes hike we arrived at the hides and there was not one bear but 10! To be honest, I have never seen something like that. The bears have been about 20 meters away but busy eating and didn’t care about us at all. We choose one of the small hides, suitable for two persons and set up our equipment. Like in the guest house, the hides are exceptionally clean and well maintained with no damages or similar. A backpack with hot drinks, sandwiches and cookies was already waiting for us in the hide as well. Exceptional service!

During the evening a lot of bears showed up. There were mainly young bears and mothers with cups about 18 months of age. In busy moments there have been 11 bears at the same time! Due to the location in the forest, we didn’t use the 600mm lens as that would be by far to close. Instead, the 70-200mm f/2.8 (with 1,4x converter) did a pretty good job. In addition, I used the 400mm f/2.8 for close ups. It has been a pretty amazing evening with lots of bears walking around, cubs playing with each other and climbing up on trees. The next morning, the guide picked us up and we returned to the base camp for an excellent breakfast.

As a summary after the first day, I have to say that Martinselkonnen is a bit different from all the other wildlife camps we have been before. Everything is very well organized, very clean, well maintained and the price is the same as with other tour operators of that kind of business in Finland. There are lots of bears all the time, no real need to have a super expensive long lens and due to the fact that mothers show up with their cubs it makes it the perfect place to get easily amazing images for your photo gallery and your Instagram. That makes Martinselkonen probably one of the most popular places for bear watching for the Finnish people as well as for visitors from abroad. On the other hand we missed a little bit that feeling of being alone somewhere in the wild taiga.

Nevertheless, we do highly recommend Martinselkonen as one of the best places for bear photography in Finland, probably even in whole Europe.