Vaelkommen till Sveriges

Today was our first rainy day, aside from some "heavy" mist on the Varanger Peninsula that really didn't inconvenience us.

We drove through the Brugedalen, where we stopped at a flea market where the women sold hand knit mittens and lefse (a kind of pale thin pancake) in plastic bags and the men sold reindeer salami and frilly pink polyester girls' dresses.

We were out of bread and milk, but it was Sunday in Europe and grocery stores were closed.  So we bought a sweet bun with chocolate chips in a gas station convenience store, but this is Europe so the buns were freshly baked and rather yummy.

They seem to be promoting bicycle tourism along our route today because everywhere were giant bicycle sculptures and real bikes spray painted in bright colours.

We stopped again in Narvik, site of a famous battle between the Germans and Norwegian and French Allied troops in 1940.  We failed to find a stone age drawing of a reindeer carved into a rock (it looks cool on the internet), but we did find the geyser (actually a big spray released from the power station building) that shoots off twice a day, coincidently right when it was shooting off.  Kind of a strange tourist attraction for a rainy day.  But also a good overlook over a gloomy looking Narvik

Unlike us the hardy Norwegians were all heading off on hikes or mountain bike rides despite the weather.

We managed to find a cafe that was open on Sunday, and then we headed off to our third country, Sweden, in search of drier weather and less convoluted roads.  We are still north of the Arctic Circle and have to make time to get back to Helsinki in 2 weeks.

And the sun did make an appearance once we crossed the border and the road did get straighter.  We stopped at a memorial to he Yugoslavian prisoners who built this road for the Germans.  They were not official prisoners of war and were not protected by the Geneva Convention, and many of them died from the hardship.

We camped at Kiruna, a mining town and aurora borealis specializing tourist town in winter.  It's a busy campsite, the kitchen was crowded tonight. 

We went for a walk in the hills next to the campsite.  Many of Sweden's 60-year olds were out proving their superior fitness to the average Canadian 40-year old by running or walking vigorously along the town's ski trail system.

Leo saw some whooper swans, ducks and grebes; Connie ate a lot of blueberries.

Ferry to Tromso

As we traveled south we really moved into the typical Norwegian scenery I imagined.  Fjords surrounded by mountains.

  We took two ferries across two fjords to get to Tromso, which itself is an island conected to the mainland by a bridge and are now camped on the outskirts of the city.

Tromso is the largest city we've been to yet (we really just saw the outskirts of Helsinki). After setting up our tent we drove across the bridge to downtown Tromso.  There was a rock concert going on that blocked off several blocks of downtown.  Old warehouses down by the docks have been converted into shops and restaurants.  The Lutheran Cathedral (built 1861) is the largest wooden church I've ever seen.

We started off our second day by visiting the Prestvannet reservoir located at the top of the island.  Here we saw our first loons of the trip, red-necked loons, 8 gray herons, Eurasian widgeons, a brambling (bird of the day), tufted ducks, and lots of mallards and gulls, both of which were trained to rush toward visitors in hopes of being fed.

Our next stop was Polaria, which had a really great wide screen film about Svalbard, Norway's most northerly island,  from the viewpoint of a little auk.  It's also an aquarium with 4 trained seals.

Then we visited the highlight of the day, also the superlative of the day, the world's most northerly botanical garden, also it's free, including the parking, which contributed to its being s highlight in pricey Norway.  The garden specializes in in Arctic and alpine plants.  In August the garden was obviously not at its prime blooming, but there were still a few blue Himalayan poppies, their speciality, in bloom.

Also, lots of birds here.

In driving to the garden, we discovered there's a system of tunnels under the city complete with underground rotaries so you don't have to drive up the steep hills.

Lastly we took the Fjellheisen cable car up Mount Storsteinen, with a great view of the city and it's surroundings.  There's a pricey restaurant at the top, of course, this being Europe.

From there we climbed up further to the cairn, which turned out to be false advertising, since the summit was quite a bit higher.

This is the first place we've been since leaving Helsinki, where we've experienced darkness during the night.  We're still north of Ivalo, so I guess it's the fact that it's the end of August.

Hamningberg to Alta

Hamningberg to Alta

The next day we retraced our steps, stopping for coffee and wifi after taking the tunnel over to Vardo.  Highlights of the trip were sighting six sea eagles

and a carcass of a dead seal on a beach (not all at the same time).  After returning to the head of Varangerfjord, we headed west, stopping at a campsite in Kunis. This is the second time we've arrived at a campsite only to find you have to call a telephone number to register.  Here the bathrooms were locked, so we couldn't take a chance that someone would show up later and take our money.  So we just turned down the next road we found and wound up at a fishing access point on the Storelva River.  There were several caravans camped here and even an outhouse.  After setting up our tent, we walked down along the Storelva to its mouth on the Laksefjord.  The sun came out for the first time all day, but  with the wind the air cooled quickly and we were early to bed.

Walking along the Storelva with the fjord in the distance

The next day we continued driving east and south, stopping at Stabburnes National Park to check out the visitor Centre and take a one hour walk out to the point on the fjord.

The vegetation is mostly crowberry, but also blueberry and another blue berry I don't recognise (edible, but not as tasty as the blueberries).

  Here we saw the bird of the day, the redshank.

We are camped tonight at Alta, the largest town we have seen in a wild, at a relatively urban campsite, crammed into a small lawn area with a number of bicyclists. 

Again we walked down along the river, the Altaelva.  Our campsite is the smallest of three campsites all on the same road.  There were several fishermen on the river and the banks were full of the traditional Sami riverboats, beautiful.

So beautiful in fact, they're worth another photo:

Lastly, a new feature, the superlative of the day:

The world's most northerly pine tree, or at least the one conveniently close to the road in the most northerly pine forest in the world -

You can see in the background another young pine tree, ready to take over, should the current most northerly pine tree succumb.

And, bonus bird photo,

this beautiful whooper swan

Camped at the End of the World

We left Vestre Jakobselv this morning and continued on around the peninsula.   We stopped near Kiby to check out some sea ducks (mergansers and eiders), and just happened upon these

standing stones.

We continued on to Ekkeroy where there was a seabird nesting cliff.  The kittiwakes had already left for the season, but we had a great walk among German embattlements from WWII below and above the cliffs

Stonecrop and sea daisies growing on the bird cliff

where we saw purple sandpipers in among the rocks and surf

 and the Bird of the Day, a sea eagle sitting patiently on a rock, before flying off and showing us its white tail feathers.

Lots of cloudberry patches here, but not many berries.  Anyone can pick berries on this nature reserve the sign said, but only the locals can collect the kittiwake eggs!

The further we drove, the shorter the trees got, till they disappeared altogether, the rockier the terrain and the narrower the road till it was just a single track. Once we entered Varangerhalvoya National Park we saw wild reindeer.  Unlike the domesticated reindeer we saw in Finland that amble down the middle of the highway, these ones run away when they hear a camera shut

We passed the tunnel to Vadso Island, and continued on till we reached Hamningberg and the end of the road where we camped by ourselves above the beach. Hamningberg was a busy harbour until the fishing industry was modernized with larger fishing boats.  It was abandoned in the 1960's and is now a national heritage site.

                                             Our campsite at the end of the world

Highlight of the Day

You may now refer to us by our official title as weasel whisperers.  After we called in a mink last summer by imitating the squeak of injured prey, we did the same today to an ermine we saw running down the beach.  It ran towards us and proceeded to amuse us for 15 minutes as it bounced around, coming ever closer, running in and out of burrow holes.   Leo got some great pictures.

Valkommen til Norge

As soon as we crossed the Ivalajoki River into Norway we could tell the difference.

Wide  vistas rather than views of  trees broken by a lake now and then , mountains, people congregated into small villages rather than in separate holdings in the woods.  Everything a lot neater looking in general.

Bags of real ice in the grocery store rather than plastic ice packs with a return policy for newly refrozen ones that we never really figured out.

We followed the Ivalojoki north , except now its called the Avaaljokl, to Vanagerfjord and camped at a fishing village called Vestre Jakobselv .

Our campsite is full of fishermen here to fish for salmon.

After setting up our tent we drove down to the river and hiked along the shore.  It looked like the whole town was out to watch the fisherman, but it turned out they were collecting yellow rubber ducks that had been dropped in the river for a fundraising duck race.

Bird of the Day:  Arctic Skua chasing the gulls to steal their food.

Leo's Worst Rogaine and What He Learned From It

We arrived at Kilopaa on Thursday evening and set up our tents in the Rogaine tent zone.  There were 800 people attending from 20 countries so gradually the campsite filled up with tenters from all over Europe and the rest of the world.  Imagine falling to sleep with the babble of many languages all around you.

There was only one other team from Canada and Leo and Bryan never did meet them.  We talked to some people from Estonia, Switzerland, Australia, and Russia.

We bought passes for use of the shower and sauna facilities.   The women's sauna was in a building built of sod, but very high tech and plush inside.  It included a stairway leading down to the creek, where you could jump in the water after your sauna. 

Sod smoke sauna (not the ladies' sauna)

While Leo and Bryan rested on Friday, Debi and I climbed up the Kilopaa fell, within Erho Kekkonen National Park.  The trail was mostly a wooden staircase all the way to the top.  While climbing these stairs I saw my first wheatear, the bird of the day.

And they're off!

The event began Sunday at noon, and Debi and I walked north to Saariselka, the nearest town.    On our way we saw the bird of the day, a ptarmigan.

It was 10 km away on trails, so we walked a half marathon that day, with a negative split, since we were worried we'd miss dinner at the restaurant.  As it was it was open an hour later so we had time for a shower.

I was in the tent early to avoid the bugs and slept till 6 am when Bryan woke me to collect some dry clothes for Leo.  They had been slogging thigh high through bogs throughout the night, but when Leo fell in face first, all his clothes got wet and he was shivering uncontrollably.  They had to call for help and were picked up and driven to headquarters, where the organizers plunked Leo in the sauna.  He recovered quickly.  So they were not able to finish the race.

What Leo learned:

Swamps are awful.
Saunas are great.
Maybe this is his last Rogaine.
But there are no swamps in Australia* are there?

After saying goodbye to Debi and Bryan, now on their way to drop Debi off at the Rovaniemi airport, we drove to our hotel room at the Saariselka Inn.  We're watching Finnish television surrounded by our freshly washed clothes hanging all over the room.  Did you know that circus horse riding acrobatics was an official sport in Europe?  Teams of 5 people jumping off and on, and figure skating-like glitzy costumes!

*Site of next year's World Championships.  And yes, there are swamps in Australia.  With crocodiles.

Fells, rivers and lakes

We are still in the Ivalo area, but we have moved from the Urienemi campsite  on Inarijarvi lake down the road to the Ukonjarvi campsite on Ukonjarvi Lake.

On Tuesday, Leo and Bryan did a test on the practice area for the rogaine in Saariselka, a ski resort that's pretty quiet in the off season.  The event sets up a few practice points so teams can get used to the terrain and the mapping.  We agreed to meet in  2 hours, and Debi and I went for a hike up to the top of the fell that overlooks Saariselka.  We were rewarded with a view of the town, the neighboring ski hill and far into the distance all around us.

We got back 15 minutes late and sat down next to the neighbourhood swimming hole to wait for the men.  And waited.  They didn't get back till 2 hours later.  Not lost, they said, just underestimated the distances.

The next day we rented canoes from a youth Centre and paddled from the lake outlet down the river till we got to a rapid.  We portaged on the nifty Finnish canoe skid, then continued down the river.  After a few hours we turned around and paddled up the river again.  There's not much gradient here in the rolling Finnish fell country, except for that one rapid we portaged.

                                                            Finnish portage

Into Reindeerland

Rovaneimi to Inari

We slept in till 9 am this morning so we're hoping the jetlag is done with.

We drove north most of the day, stopping at a roadside cafe/souvenir shop for pancakes with cloudberry sauce, whipped cream and icecream.

Once we hit the Arctic circle we started seeing reindeer on the road.

We were thrilled, but I guess it's the equivalent of getting excited by seeing cattle on the road, since they're domesticated here.  Some of them even wear collars.

We stopped in at the airport in Ivalo to check up on my luggage, but the airport was deserted, closed till the next flight comes in.  Ain't nobody here but us

reindeer.

Later this evening we got an email from the Ivalo airport; our luggage is waiting for pickup tomorrow.

Our friends Bryan and Debi were waiting for us at the Ureniemi campsite in Inari, just back from a trip up to the Arctic Ocean at the end of the road in Norway.

 Ureniemi campsite.

This camp reminds me of a fishing resort in Canada, with small cabins along the lake and  Coleman canoes for rent,  with the exception that there's no picnic tables for tenters.

Basking in the evening glow

Debi spotted our bird of the day, and Leo got a great picture of this golden plover's beautiful plumage.

Finland's Charmless Service Centre

Ever since I read the lonely planet's description of William's Lake as a charmless service Centre for the Cariboo, Leo  and I seem to be making a mission of finding its equivalent throughout the world, witness this winter.  The Rough Guide to Finland we're using as our guidebook is similarly less than kind to Rovaniemi, the gateway to Finnish Lapland.

But  we found Rovaniemi to be more than charming.   Most of old Rovaniemi was destroyed in WW2.  Now it's a clean, modern European city, beautifully situated on the banks of the Kemisjoki River.  Our campsite is right on the river too.

The campsite directed us to the fair going on in the old market, again on the Riverfront.   It was full of artisans selling Sami handicrafts like reindeer horn utensils, curved wooden boxes, fur mukluks with curved toes; traditional foods like fresh reindeer meat, salmon, plates full of tiny fried sardines,

delicious pastries, beautifully knit Scandinavian mittens.  There were live reindeer on display,

and kiddie teacup ride the parent powered by pedalling a bicycle.

Men dressed up in old army uniforms were selling camp coffee and Finnish pancakes

The music was modern though, improvisational jazz and rock and roll.


We walked along the river and back to our parked car through the city streets.

When we went to bed there was still music playing across the river at the old market, but again we both fell asleep right away.

Exotic junkfood of the day:  Bruner mansikka suukkoja (Sweet kisses).  Somewhat racist, but pretty delicious, these are the Scandinavian version of my favorite Scottish junkfood, the Tunnocks cake.  A wafer topped with strawberry-flavoured cream and coated with dark chocolate.

Helsinki to Oulo - 600 km - Aug 14

First thing this morning we drove to the airport to check on my bag. The good news is it was found and will be on tomorrow's flight from Toronto. They will send it up to Ivalo in Lapland, and forward it to us when we have an address.  The bad news is it took us half an hour to get out of the airport parade since the instructions were in Finnish.

It was a 7 hour drive north to Oulu, through the Lake District.  There's more water than land in this region, but we only glimpsed the water when  crossed the bridges; otherwise it was a steady scenery of birches, conifers, green hay meadows and red farm buildings.

We had Finnish hamburgers at a truckstop for lunch, the skinniest patty I 've ever seen (the thickness of a tortilla), but the bacon was thicker and very tasty.  They don't skimp on the salt here.

We listened to a lot of Finnish pop music on our drive.  Highlight of the day was some Finnish hiphop, the language is a natural for rapping; full of consonants, it already sounds like beat box.

We arrived at Oulo at 5 pm.  Our campsite is on the seashore; we walked down to the beach to see the restaurant setting up a beer garden with live music; not a good omen for a good night's sleep.

Changerooms at Nallikari beach

Not a problem, we fell asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow while the music was still playing.  I woke up at 1:30 to silence.  It was still light enough to see inside the tent, we are north of 60 now (65°).