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We had gone to bed at one at night (Finnish time) in our luxurious cabin, but at four o'clock Teije woke up by a call coming from the cabin loudspeaker telling that some people had to disembark now for Åland / Marianhamina.

Finland

Elisabeth & Teije
2004-03-06 13:51:51

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public toilet. On the picture to the left one can see how the trunks have been hollowed to fit them into each other.

Also, there are wooden sculptures on very desolate spots, sometimes accompanied by mailboxes, probably some sort of nameplates. The Finnish Samen are well-known for their beautiful works of wood engraving.
Teije doesn't know when to stop and takes another side road. But after a few kilometres we can't go further because of the bad condition of the road. At least we can take a nice picture. And we see a lot more reindeer. But at this point we decide to stop taking pictures of every reindeer we meet.
So we drive back to the E75 and to the camping at Ivalo where we have a nice cabin, next to a beautiful lake.
After a walk on the campingsite, where also this original wooden wigwam stands, we return to our cabin and try to stay awake, but at twelve we are so tired that we have to sleep, while outside the sun is shining; it looks as if it is 4 in the afternoon.

Monday, June 24, Ivalo - north-Finland, then into Norway

This morning it is much cooler then yesterday. Halfway to Inari we pass Karhunpesäkivi (don't ask us how to pronounce that, we have no idea), Bear-stone in English. After climbing a few hundred metres (well, it's a wooden flight of stairs) we arrive at a huge rock. A load of tourists walk before us and we wait patiently for them to leave.
A big cavity has been made inside the rock where prehistoric men used to make sacrifices to the gods. Several people can stand within the cavity.
It is still early, so we don't drive straight towards Karasjok in Norway, but follow the E75 until Utsjoki in North-Finland. Along the road we pass some Samen settlements.

Of course we also meet some tourist-Samen along the way, but they don't have much visitors. Most tourists have taken the direct way to Norway, more to the south and we seldom meet any traffic on both sides of the road. The area is getting more inhospitable and we see more and more hills and even real mountains. We like it!

We like woods very much, but woods in a combination with hills, mountains, creeks and waterfalls make up the best landscape for us. Finland surely has some charm and we liked the nature in the north, but we were disappointed in the mentality of the people (at least, the ones we encountered); most of them were quite rude, but probably there is a very good explanation for that, we don't know. We have had fun here, but we long to cross the river and enter Norway.

At Utsjoki we cross a bridge over the river Tana and then we are in Norway, the final country of our Scandinavia trip. Also the country where we spend the longest time. But first to the north, to the Nordkapp (North-Cape).