I'm into some Finn good

Pete Gavan heads to Finland's Arctic Lakeland and finds a remote, calm and happy place

- Pete Gavan

Just what is the key to a happy life and why do the Finns have it? These were the two things at the forefront of my mind as we arrived in the glorious north of the country.

Finland has had the happiest people for the past seven years. And it has 5.5 million people and 2.5 million saunas, so they know how to relax.

But we were heading to Finland's Arctic Lakeland, which sits 350 miles north of Helsinki. While not quite being in the Arctic Circle, it is just beneath it and has the name to distinguish it from the Lakeland area further south.

We flew into Helsinki from Heathrow on Finnair before transferring to a propeller plane that provided a taste of what was to come. Forest as far as the eye could see, punctuated by huge lakes.

The area - renowned for its wildlife - is the size of Belgium (population over 11 million), with just 70,000 people living there. It is known for its own Big Five: bears, wolves, wolverines, lynxes and elk.

And as we sat, silently, in our hide, it only took moments for the first of them nearest shop - remote in a way it's hard to imagine. There Elise Heikkinen-Johnstone runs a holiday village with her astronomer Scottish husband Rob Johnstone.

The area has some of the darkest of dark skies and is a hot spot for those who want to literally look into the past using Rob's huge telescope. Alas for us the weather was our enemy and stargazing was off.