Finland and North Cape - Page 5

North Cape - Ivalo

The next morning I drove almost the same beautiful route back along the Porsangerfjord, over into wooded Finland. Today it went a little more south to Ivalo. On the local campground Ivalo River Camping I had to do it for the first time with the notorious Finnish mosquitoes. Probably because the place here wind-protected at the river. First I had to go to the small town, get food, then I went on my daily bike tour. This time along the river Ivalojoki, I saw again reindeer on beaches, the animals were hardly shy.

In the winter months it should be optimal in Ivalo to see auroras. Well, did not concern me now unfortunately. After my warm meal in the camper I strolled still something the river up and down, then it went in the bed chamber on mosquito hunting 😠.

Ivalo - Kuusamo

On the west coast I drove northward, the way southward leads more through the interior. Here it became partly so quiet on the roads that one doubted to be on the right route. Idyllic lakes and forests. More often I parked the camper in small driveways at clear lakes bordered by meadows, only the mosquitoes kept me from staying longer. In the ski village of Ruka, I took a major hiking break, walked to the ski jump and to the top of Rukatunturi. The venue of some international winter sports competitions is also a starting point for a hiking tour of about 80 kilometers, the Bear Circuit. Here in the tourist village there were again herds of reindeer. One had locked itself behind a fence and was nervously looking for the exit.

My campsite today Petäjäkylä - Pinevillage was further south, before Kuusamo, at a quiet lake. After a bike tour in the town of Kuusamo relaxed swimming in the not so cold lake was announced. Brilliant, completely alone swimming in a quiet idyllic forest lake. The area here scores with its natural beauty in summer and winter. Sometimes in places like Kuusamo I still fail in my own expectations that some architectural or historical masterpiece surprises me. But that would not correspond to Finland's own character: here the beauty and tranquility of nature is the focus. Towns are only pragmatically built dots in the vastness of the landscape.