The Kvarken is a narrow strait in the Gulf of Bothnia, between Finland and Sweden, and a place where you can watch the land rise. At the end of the last ice age, a sheet of ice more than a kilometre thick pressed down on Scandinavia, and when it melted the crust began to rebound, a process that is still going on. Here the uplift is about eight or nine millimetres a year, one of the fastest rates in the world, so the coastline changes within a human lifetime. New islands emerge, bays turn into lakes and then into meadows, and boat channels need to be redrawn. The Finnish Kvarken Archipelago was listed by UNESCO in 2006 and later joined with Sweden's High Coast, which shares the same story.
The landscape is made of thousands of low islands, skerries and shallow bays, with long ridges of boulders called De Geer moraines, laid down in parallel lines by the retreating ice. They run like corrugations across the land, a pattern you can see from the air. On the ground, you see pine woods, juniper and reeds, with seabirds including eider ducks and terns nesting on the rocks and grey seals hauled out on the skerries. The air is clear and cold, and the smell of salt and tar is strong.
For a rider, the road to the archipelago crosses the flat farmland near Vaasa, then runs over a series of bridges to the islands, with the long Replot bridge the most impressive, a long causeway-like crossing between the mainland and the outer islands. The road surface is good, the bends are gentle, and traffic is light, except in July. Wind can be strong over the open water, so be careful on the bridges, and keep a layer of warm clothing in the pannier even in summer. Daylight in June lasts almost around the clock.
Fuel is available in Vaasa, about twenty-eight kilometres away, and in Korsholm, so fill up before crossing. Replot has a village with a small shop, but it is small. Fishermen's cottages, red with white trim, sit beside little harbours, and you can buy smoked fish and rye bread in season. The best time is June to August, though September can be lovely, with clear light and few people. Stand on the shore for a while, and you may notice how the sea seems to be quietly retreating.