As we arrived to this Finnish country scene we were greeted with fields of oat and barley growing around the house, along with cows, horses and dogs pottering around. After a tour of the house and property, we accompanied Aino for the daily task of fetching fresh milk from the working farm next door. There we got to get a real peak into the country life, feeling like complete city slickers, watching the cows getting milked and seeing a new born calf. Back at Aino's there was a feast of traditional Finnish food waiting for us: Spinach Soup, Viili (a kind of fermented yoghurt), mushroom sauce from self picked wild mushrooms, blueberry pie from self picked berries etc. yumminess!! We stayed enjoying this country life for two nights before hitting the road again.
So back on the road we started what was to be the main activity of our next six days: drive. We hadn't quite planned the trip, rather just jumped in the car with the destination in mind, but we didn't actually realise quite how far we had to go. The driving wasn't so much what got to us, but the price of petrol which kept rising higher along with our nordic route the higher we got. Oh well, we were on the way already and didn't want to give up, so we kep on...driving.
The route we took followed the west coast of Finland up to Tornio, a city which neighbours Sweden so close, that the street signs point you either to Finland or Sweden depending on weather you're turning right or left, interesting. From there we kept following the eastern boarder of Finland all the way up to Kilpisjärvi, the most northern point of Finland in the east. All along the road from Tornio upwards, we had to keep our eyes out for spotting raindeer that roam on the roads and do not respect give way rules...they cause hundreds of accidents each year along with elks, so it was really a matter of driving slower and training your eye to see them as they blend in with th colour of the road, looking more like a shadow from far away than a real life santa's helper!
We had slept in the car each night, but in Kilpisjärvi we decided we were in desperate need of a shower so we decided to pitch the tent at a camp ground on the bottom of the Saana Fell (hill), one of the tallest in Finnish Lapland, which we conquered the next day before crossing the boarder to Norway. The night was everything but tranquil despite the amazing setting, with a not so lovely group of people right next door... Still, tired and cranky, the next morning we headed up Saana and the view from the top of the hill was a beautiful mix of bare hills and lakes dotted along between them.
So after a bit of hiking we crossed the boarder and drove to our real destination for this trip, the Arctic Ocean. The coast was surprisingly close after the boarder crossing, and it made me wonder why we couldn't have a piece of this amazing scenery of clear blue water from which fjords rise to their mighty snowy peaks on the Finnish side? The scenery was truly beautiful and was highlighted by a glipse of dolphins swimming by as we were rinsing our dishes after a lunch break!
The road which we followed on the Norweigan side took us along the coast the whole way to a city of Alta, from where we cut inland to cross back to Finland just above Enontekiö. The scenery along this road was absolutely amazing, so amazing in fact that it was hard at times to keep your eyes on the road... We found great spots to sleep along the way, right on the coast with nobody in sight, the incredible lighness of the nights keeping us awake (it was still dusk at 1am!!), and the early morning sun waking us not long after we'd fallen asleep. Before we did head inland though, we had to take a dip in the 'Jäämeri=Ice Sea' which is named so for a reason we can confirm!
Back on the Finnish side we camped in the car on the shores of peaceful lakes, our first stop which turned out to be a gold mine of Lakka (Cloudberry), the most tasty berry which grows only in Lapland and is usually hard to find. There we were in the middle of a field of them where you could've collected buckets full! We were happy, however, with just a few wee boxes that we happened to have on us and left the rest for the locals to collect.
After 3000km and hours and hours of driving, we found ourselves back in Helsinki a week after we set off, tired but happy to have had the chance to make yet another amazing journey. Though I do think we will be happy to stay put for a bit longer this time...
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