It’s been very busy in Soomaa National Park this week, with hundreds of people drawn there over the weekend to experience for themselves the annual spring floods known as the ‘fifth season’ or sometimes as ‘suur vesi’ which clumsily translates into english as ‘big water’.
Visiting a house at Karukose, Soomaa National Park. Photo by Kati Grauberg-Longhurst.
Soomaa is a natural lowland that receives meltwater from the adjacent Sakala uplands, leading to an annual period of flooding. The highest recorded flood level was in 1931, but with large amounts of snow falling over both the 2009/10 and 2010/11 winters, spring flood levels in 2010 and 2011 have been the second and third highest on record. The flooded area covers around 150km2 and can reach 7-8 km at its widest point.
Getting ready for a big day at Soomaa. Photo by Geoff Longhurst
I (Geoff) visited Soomaa on the weekend with my wife and we joined a 9am Soomaa.com canoe trip that explored part of the flooded area. Unfortunately we also chose the coldest and wettest day of the week!
Our group paddled past road signs and over parish borders, guided our canoes through forests and across meadows and hay fields. We also paddled past a number of farm houses that seem to be well accustomed to the annual inundation.
"Läbipääs rakendatud" / "Difficult to pass". Photo by waldec
Paddling through the forests was one of the highlights for me. I guess I generally associate trees with solid ground, so It was unusual and interesting to be making waves with our canoes in the middle of a thick conifer forest. Maneuvering a canoe amongst tree trunks and low branches was occasionally tricky, but also a fun challenge. It was certainly strange to be sitting in a canoe in a place that you can easily imagine to be a relatively dry forest floor.
Paddling along a forest trail in Soomaa National Park. Photo by Kati Grauberg-Longhurst.
I think also that part of the appeal of the fifth season is that in most other places in the world, a flood like this would be seen as a disaster and cause for panic and evacuations. Here though, it is a well understood part of life and people are encouraged to come and explore for themselves what a flooded landscape is actually like.
Raudna River and floodplain meadows in dryer times, Soomaa National Park. Photo by Ruukel.
Soomaa National Park was created in 1993 and is Estonia’s youngest National Park. It is a partner of the Pan Parks network of wilderness areas and was created to protect large raised bogs, flood plain grasslands, paludified forests and meandering rivers. The territory of the national park is mostly covered with large mires, and Soomaa (literally ‘land of mires’) includes Europe’s largest intact peat bog system that is preserved as wilderness.
Riisa Bog Pool in June, Soomaa National Park. Photo by Ruukel.
Hi Geoff
This looks amazing – and given our recent brush with massive (unexpected) floods in QLD – it gives a whole other perspective.
Hope you and Kati are both happy and well – and now warmer than you appear in the photo’s!
Lots of love
Lucy
Hi Lucy,
Yeah, I was thinking a little about the Queensland floods and the Japanese tsunami when we were out there. It was an interesting and slightly surreal adventure, but I’m sure it would feel different being on the water in the middle of natural disaster.
We hope you’re all well and staying warm now that autumn has breezed into Sydney.
Geoff
Hi Geoff! Thanks for sharing these pictures and your insightful experience. Estonia looks quite magical! I was whimsied away by the thought of canoeing through a dense forest and I also really got your comment about the annual flooding being an accepted part of everyday life…I guess it’s the predictability of it that makes it more acceptible too though. Glad to see you’re well and seem to be thriving over there
Vicki x