Trekking retreat 3.-10.9.2015 in Hammastunturi area: Practical details

Price and donations

The base price of the retreat is 210 €.  This covers the travel expenses of the teachers and the managers, the food expenses and some other practicalities. The bus from Rovaniemi to the trekking area is included in the price; meals during the bus trips are not included.

We feel that financial situation should not prevent anybody from participating, so we are willing to offer the retreat for a reduced price, if needed. If the base price is too high for you, please contact us at nirodha.retriitit@gmail.com and let us know how much you are able to pay. If you would like to support those in dire financial situation, you can pay more than the base price.

The teachers and organizers do not receive any payment for their services, but offer these freely, so that as many as possible have a possibility to benefit from the teachings regardless of their financial situation. This principle of generosity is very central in the teachings of the Buddha, and has made it possible that we can still practice meditation 2500 years after him. The retreatants may support the teachers and organizers by donations after the retreat; we ask you to take cash with you for this. The teachers live mostly on donations.

Registration and cancellations

You can apply for the retreat by filling in the application form and by paying the registration fee. We will confirm your place on the retreat after we have received the form and the payment. The registration fee is 30€ and is paid to the following account:

Bank name: LähiTapiola Pankki
Bank address: Revontulenkuja 1, Espoo
Swift code: TAPIFI22
Name of bank account holder: Nirodha ry
Address of the account holder: Vetehisenkuja 3, 00530 Helsinki
Account number: FI83 3636 3010 8888 24
Type of account: business account
Reference number: 920151

The rest of the retreat fee (180 € in case of the standard price) should be paid by July 27th 2015. The reserved places which are not paid for by the due date will be given to others on waiting list. If you pay from an account which is not with your own name, please inform us about this to nirodha.retriitit@gmail.com. The information needed is the name of the participant, the name of the account owner, and the day of payment.

In case you need to cancel the retreat, we kindly ask that you tell us as soon as possible, so we can give your place to the next person in queue. In case of cancellations, the registration fee is not refundable. If the cancellation takes place before the 27th of July, we will return the rest of the fee. If the cancellation takes place later than this, money will be returned only if we can find another participant to fill in the empty place.

If you are coming from abroad, please note that we are not able to provide any documents for visa applications because of limited resources.

Time, place and travel arrangements

The retreat starts on Thursday the 3rd of September. Our bus leaves from Rovaniemi railway station at around 8:15 a.m. and takes us to the Hammastunturi area, where we start trekking approximately 2-3 p.m. The trek ends on Thursday the 10th of September. The bus picks us up so that we are back at Rovaniemi railway station at the latest at 8:45 p.m. We will try to arrange a place close to the trekking area, where it will be possible to store some equipment (like spare clothes for the journey back) for the duration of the trek, and possibly have a sauna after the trek.

A good way to travel from Southern Finland to Rovaniemi is by taking a night train. A suitable train leaves Helsinki on Wednesday the 2nd of September at 6:52 p.m. and arrives at Rovaniemi the next morning at 7:47 a.m. For the journey back, a possible train leaves Rovaniemi at 9:15 p.m. and arrives at Helsinki on Friday the 11th of September at 9 a.m. Closer to the trek we will help to organize the reservation of train tickets together with other retreatants coming from the same direction. Train tickets are not included in the retreat price.

Trekking conditions

We will walk partly on paths and partly outside of them. In places the terrain may be wet or stony. We will wade across streams and small rivers. Nights are spent in shared tents, and food will be cooked with portable stoves. There will be no toilets available. Washing is possible in cold streams and lakes; it is also possible to spend a week without washing oneself. If clothes get wet, it may not be possible to get them dry immediately.

The beginning of September will probably be a beautiful time of autumn colors. Biting insects have disappeared. The weather may vary from quite warm to even occasional snowfall; most probably daytime temperatures will be between 5 and 20 degrees. The temperature may go below zero at night.

Hammastunturi wilderness is a remote area, and we will probably have a chance to be mostly on our own there. Mobile phones will not work everywhere. The organizers will be carrying a satellite phone for possible emergencies.

Equipment needed

For the trek you will need a big backpack, a warm sleeping bag (good to work down to zero degrees), a sleeping mat, a waterproof jacket and trousers, trekking boots (good to be waterproof), and sandals or other shoes good for staying in the camp and for wading the streams. Good clothes for trekking are lightweight and dry quickly.

For meditation it may be useful to have an inflatable pillow (tough enough to endure sitting on it) – or you can sit on a pile of clothes or on your sleeping bag stuffed into its storage bag.

For common use we need tents and lightweight stoves meant for trekking; in the registration form we ask you to tell whether you have these to share with others. You can join the trek without these, too.

Closer to the retreat we will send a more detailed list of the equipment needed, and other useful information about the trek. It may be some equipment can be found to lend, or it might be possible to rent them somewhere. Good equipment is rather lightweight, as we will have a lot to carry, anyway.

We do not have an insurance for the participants. It may be good to have your own personal insurance, which also covers trekking type of activities.

Food

On the trek we will eat trekking type of food, which is light to carry. We eat three meals a day, and there will also be some common snacks. All the food will be vegetarian. You can tell about your food allergies in the registration form.

Drinking water we will get from the streams and lakes; the water is safe to drink as such. The trek is a drug-free event. We also encourage people not to smoke during the trek.

Lastly

If you have any questions, you can contact us at nirodha.retriitit@gmail.com. We wish this will be a fruitful trekking retreat for everyone!

You are warmly welcome,
Solja Temmes (+358-44 978 0844)
Tuulikki Hukka (+358 50 432 9241)

Vastaa