We left the hotel and drove down to the seafront where there is a marvellous covered market. One of the vendors told us it was the oldest in northern Europe. Who was I to disagree?
The area had lovely old wooden buildings that housed restaurants and shops.
In the square outside the market stood the town mascot, Toripollisi (the Town Policeman) and no, it's not the man in the blue pullover!
We left Oulu for the drive along the coast before heading north-east to the Lapland regional capital, Rovaniemi. The weather was consistently poor with drizzle turning at times to quite heavy rain. We reached Rovaniemi and stopped by the Kemi River to take photos of the bridge and a sign I noticed showing distances to various towns. The town that caught my eye was Murmansk in Russia and the fact that it was only 500 kms away, more or less the same distance as we have driven today.
We then drove to the Arktikum Museum, famous for its history of Lapland and the north. We enjoyed about an hour at the museum which looked out over the Kemi River.
Our next 'port of call' was Santa's Village, a few kilometres north of the city where the Arctic Circle crosses the road at 66 degrees and 32 minutes north. Here are the sign and the marker showing the Arctic Circle, the second time we have crossed it by car, the first being on the Dalton Highway in Alaska in August 2009.
We left the village at about 1.30pm for the drive due north to Muonio. It was along a very good fast road with virtually no traffic at all. At one point, the cars in front of us slowed down very quickly. I then saw why. Two reindeer, a buck and a doe, were about to run across the road, which they did right in front of us! Peter took this great photo of the buck as it crossed the road.
We reached our destination, Muonio, a winter resort area, at around 4pm. We are staying in ski apartments very close to the border with Sweden, which is on the other side of the Muonio River that runs close to the resort.
Eric and Lynn had just arrived before us and then Bob & Thelma and Kenny and DeeAnne turned up. It appears we had all taken different routes from Oulu. Eric and Lynn were very lucky to have seen an elk. Having Googled it, we learned that it is the same species as the North American moose, which came as a surprise to us. I had thought the moose came only from North America.
Eric's photo of the elk and, remember, to enlarge any photo in the blog so that you can see it more clearly, just put the cursor on the photo and double click it. An enlarged photo will open in a separate window.
Learning that the elk and moose are the same animal has resolved a query we all have had; namely why the Finns use a moose road sign for the elk. We thought they might have bought a 'job lot' from the Canadians to use on their roads!
We ended the day by having a very good meal in a local restaurant. We raised our glasses to Ahmad and Reza, wishing them well and hoping that they will be back on the road tomorrow.
After the meal we drove back to the hotel, but turned off the road to cross the Muonio River bridge into Sweden. We drove for 100 metres and turned round to re-enter Finland. A bit of fun!
Leaving Finland and entering Sweden.
Returning to Finland from Sweden.
As we came back into Finland, we saw this sign for the region we are in, Lappi. It reminded us of our son Edward's dog in California called Lapdance but known as Lappi!
A couple of facts. Firstly, today we passed the 3,000 mile mark of the tour and secondly, tomorrow we go into the region of 24 hour daylight. This evening in Muonio the sun sets at nineteen minutes PAST midnight and rises at 2.24am giving just 2 hours and 5 minutes of 'darkness'! It's very weird indeed to see how light it is outside so late in the evening.
Finally, some readers may have wondered how Eric and Lynn have got on with their smashed passenger door window. Well, yesterday Eric bought a sheet of perspex at a store near Vaasa and then stopped by the side of the road and cut and fixed it in place. He did a marvellous job and, even if he doesn't get the replacement window, meant to be waiting for him at our hotel in Alta, Norway (our next stop), the perspex window would see him through the rest of the trip.
Here he is, with a smile on his face, cutting the perspex on the tailgate of his Discovery.
Another example of the resourcefulness of us intrepid adventure drivers!
1 comment:
It's news to me about the North American moose. I like the "elk" crossing sign. Very funny! As soon as I saw the "Lappi" sign, I figured I would tell you in was the Lapdance sign, but then you made the comment instead. Great minds think alike!
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