Bye Norway, hello Finland

Sat. 15.07.2023

From the place to stay, we drove to the next campsite to shower for a small fee. Afterwards we drove south to Karasjok, a small Sami village, where we visited the office for the Tax-Free Cash Back, so that Sarah could claim back the VAT for an expensive GoreTex jacket, which she had bought in Bergen. We also had lunch there and then drove on to the Finnish side of the border river Karasjohka. This was our second trip to Finland. Along the river we drove again to the Norwegian border and passed the northernmost point of Finland and the EU. Nothing spectacular. Our next destination was the island of Vardøya, another two hours by car. It was raining and the clouds were quite low, so we didn't have any views. The landscape here seemed quite barren, there were no trees, but a lot more settlements. On the right side was the sea, maybe a huge fjord.

At a gravel spot at the end of the island, where there were also other campers, we stayed overnight.

Sun 16.07.2023

At first the weather was really bad. The fog was so thick that we hardly saw the camper on the other side of the square. That day we wanted to go to the protected island of Hornøya, which can be reached by a small boat in just 10 minutes. There are over 40,000 pairs of birds on the island and over 200 different species. The first trip would be at 10:00 o'clock, so we went to the small tourist office and could see that the fog was slowly clearing. The ticket for the total 20 minutes boat trip costed a proud EUR.110.00 for both of us together. Well, it's a nature reserve and it's the easternmost point of Norway. Perhaps not so bad, if the price discourages some tourists.

We landed on the island and were immediately overwhelmed by how many birds there are! The noise and the smell! There was only one footpath on the whole small island that had to be followed. First, we met some shags (look like cormorants), which were partly also directly on the path or had their nests with the chicks right next beside it. If you were too close to them (don't worry, you know us: we would never come too close to a wild animal or endanger its safety or health in any way or would tease it in any other way), they rattled their beaks and shook their heads. Soon after we saw the first puffins. It was really very nice to see these beautiful animals up close. We have seen them a few times in Ireland and Scotland, but here we are talking about a distance of maybe two metres. Then there were the beautiful guillemots and the razorbills. Of course, there were noisy seagulls, but to say it a bit pejoratively: they're everywhere.

After two hours we left the islet again and after returning we first cleaned our shoes. From the rain the footpath was quite muddy and it was not the only dirt. By the way, it is very advisable to wear either a hood or an umbrella even in good weather, because the birds fly by the thousands over you and they poop even in flight….

After a delicious lunch in the bistro of the tourist office we meant it seriously now: Off to the South! The weather had become really nice in the meantime and we could now marvel at the beautiful landscape. It was still sparse, but in the sunshine, it is something else. We could now even see as far as the coast of Russia. We said goodbye to Norway, what a wonderful 4 weeks it had been. The country is so varied from South to North, we could have been here almost the whole 4 months and we would still not have discovered everything. But now we were looking forward to a new country to discover. In Utsjoki we finally crossed the border to Finland. In a nice place in the woods next to a small river we slept for the second time on Finnish soil.

Mon 17.07.2023

The midnight sun is really something special. When the sun shines in your face at two o'clock in the morning, you lose a little sense of time. We got caught, too, the last two weeks our evenings have been getting late, most of the time we went to bed after one o'clock. Accordingly, we got up late that day. It was already 10:30 a.m. when we pulled ourselves together. We were also a little bit undecided about what to do today. The weather forecast was very fluctuating. But since we now have over a month to go before we have to get back home, we decided to do nothing. Just south of the huge Inarijärvi (Lake Inari) we stopped at Ukonjärven Camping, which is located in a forest right by Lake Ukonjärvi. It rained, then the sun came again. By the way, it smelled incredibly good in the forest after the rain! The neighbour who had rented a cottage had just started a fire, and it smelled like burning wood, wet moss and fir trees. Like in a sauna.

Tue 18.07.2023

Well, that's the point of doing nothing, that's why there's nothing to tell😊 What a lazy day looks like here: sleeping, eating, tidying up a bit and cleaning, eating, staring on your mobile phones, eating, walking in the woods, drinking beer, watching documentaries about the people living in the far north. And eating.

Wed 19.07.2023

Even today the weather was more rainy and thundery than anything else. Our first stop was a huge store. From now on we have to use the translator more often, because the Finnish language is of a very different calibre than Norwegian or Swedish. The store was really big, all the different breads (fresh, toast, health bread etc.) took up four shelves alone. But we had a lot more choice in this store than in Norway, not only because of the size of the store. For example, we never found chopped chicken in Norway. And, hehe, the alcohol is much easier to buy here.

After shopping we had lunch in a hotel restaurant. For 14.50 euros per person you could serve yourself at the all-you-can-eat buffet, coffee and homemade chocolate cookies were included in the price and it was really very good.

3.5 hours later, driving through absolutely nothing but beautiful landscape and maybe in total 10 houses, we are close to the oldest national park in Finland, the Pallas-Yllästunturin National Park (I had a hard time just typing that name…). The weather for tomorrow is no better, let's see what happens next.

And by the way: in the two days in Finland we saw more reindeer than anywhere else.