I went bear spotting in Finland – and took a detour to the Russian border

It’s long been my ambition to see bears up close in their natural environment, but while they’re found in dozens of European countries – from Norway to Greece – they are famously elusive. To give myself a decent chance, I headed to Finland, where there are thought to be more than 2,000 bears in the wild, with the largest concentrations close to the country’s eastern border. In summer, this far north, there are 16 hours of daylight in which to spot them. After landing at Helsinki Airport, I took a six-hour scenic rail journey from nearby Tikkurila. The train hurtled through the dramatic Arctic Lakeland region, dominated by evergreen pine forests and shimmering lakes. From the sleepy town of Kajaani, the regional capital of the eastern Kainuu region, it was about an hour’s transfer to my des