Saturday 15th February: Santa, smelly fish and a white road

Kittilä- Santa Village (Rovaniemi) -  Posio: 252 km

This morning I noticed that doing two raids and driving for three weeks daily is quite demanding. I was really not ready to get out off bed when I had to, but duty called, so I dragged myself out of my comfy bed and into the car again. 

Luckily when I was in the car and looked around my bad morning mood disappeared very quickly, Finland is to beautiful to feel bad to long. 

We stopped for petrol and breakfast at the first chance, no breakfast at the petrol station this time, but there was a little restaurant on the other side of the road and lunch was just ready when we came in. Unfortunately it was Salmon soup, so I had to do with a roll and a sandwich. But the others enjoyed their soup for breakfast very much. It came with salad, coffee and a fresh donut.

Breakfast 

The restaurant 

After we filled our bellies it was time to see Santa on the Polarcircle and treat the Polarcircle virgins on some smelly fish called Sürströming. It’s a Swedisch tradition and we didn’t want to withhold it from them 😂.

Al lined up, taxi wasn’t to happy

Preparing the treat

Trying not to vomit 

Different tactics 

Al gathered around Napapiiri (Polarcircle)

Offcourse we had to visit Santa Village as well , being here anyway. Each time it’s bigger and more commercial it seems. We visited Santa’s office and stood in line for a few seconds, then decided it was not worth the effort and left to look for his wife. Just to find out she had the day off.

The magic clock making it possible to deliver al presents in one night 

In line to meet Santa

Looking for mrs Santa, but she was not home 

Only 1970km from Amsterdam 

We left for the hotel in Posio and took a detour so we could take at least one in between road today. Rhe main roads are to busy and boring. 

In Posio we hat to get more petrol and do some shopping before going to the hotel. Close at the hotel we realized that we were here also two year’s ago, twice! Because the hotel we than booked had water problems. It’s located beautifully and had stunning views.

Found my own reindeer

Room with a view 

We had a delicious meal at the restaurant followed by the safe arrival drink outside.  Offcourse there was a driversmeeting also and then it was time for me to curl up in my bed. Finally a (almost) double bed. ( I put the two single ones to each other), and normal bed linnen, funny how much you can long for these things when you are on the road for a few weeks.   

A normal bed ☺️ Finally 

The others are in the hallway sharing stories so I think I put my earplugs in before I go to sleep, as in right now.

Goodnight again. 

February: snowy roads and an ice castle

Inari - snow village - Kittilä 301 km

Today we took the road along Pokka again. This time is was cleaned of snow and the sun was shining. A big difference with last time we were here. Now we could see how beautiful it was. Offcourse we visited the little petrol station in Pokka again. 

Same road different day

We found out that we left our drinks in the car overnight and as it is still freezing they all got totally frozen. So we had to find ways to defrost them. 

Defrosting cola with the front window heater

Back at Pokka petrol station

All 4 A-types aligned that are in the raid

These guys use the same roads

The second part of the road was also easier than last time because someone else removed the snow for us. 

Today we had three other teams as company 

Before we went to our cabins we visited snow village, a hotel built from snow and ice. Always amazing to see and Tanguy lives the ice slide, feeling a kid again.

Tanguy enjoying the ice slide 

After we saw every room in the hotel we had a very good soup there for lunch and then we went to the cabins.

Our cabin is really tiny, my feed are almost in the kitchen when I am in bed. But it had a private shower and toilet so that is nice for a change.

With my feed in the kitchen 

We had a delicious dinner made by the teams from Delft and after dinner we had the save drive drink at the campfire.

After the drink I decided to take a shower and go to bed early as I am still not feeling great. I just got out of the shower when I got a message “Aurora outside!”

So I jumped into some clothes and saw the Northern lights for the first time this trip. The picture is from a fellow raider because it’s hard to capture Aurora with a phone camera. But I did see it!

Northern lights behind our cabins

After all the excitement of the Aurora I am in my bed now and soon going to sleep. Tomorrow we have the pool circle ritual planned at Santa Village, so I need to be rested. 

Good night.

 

Thursday 13 February: visiting the Sami museum

Skoganvarre- Ivalo 207 km

View from the cabin this morning was stunning.

Today we took the nice scenic route trough one of the many natural parks. Temperatures dropt rapidly went we drove into the mountains. The lowest temperature reached was minus 23,8 🥶. And that was pretty cold. 

🥶

At the beginning of the route we had the first serious damage of the trip. We stopped for a picture when we heard a strange ticking noise, it looked like the fan came loose. Tighten it didn’t work and when we took the fan of we saw that the pouli had ruptured. 

We put a message in the group app and luckily one of the other teams had a spare. They were also right behind us so the problem was fixed within ten minutes. 

Rescue teams

Fixed

So after this minor delay we continued our way making frequent stops for photos and museum visits.

First small Sami museum 

Old snowscooter 

Rocking reindeer

On our way again

Frozen window 

We crossed the border again, this time back into Finland again.

We also went back to a hotel where we were last week because Gertjan forgot something there. Besides the hotel was this cool old campervan all covered with snow.

And offcourse we stopped along the way for more pictures. 

We stopped once more to take the extra insulation out because temperatures got less extreme and in the car it was getting way to warm.

And then we visited the big Sami museum near Inari.

After this museum we drove to the cabins for tonight. It was the same place as were we where two years ago, with a petrol station in front.

Tonight we cooked our own meal, spaghetti, sausages and salat. 

And then it was time for the enough drink, outside because in Finland it is forbidden to have you’re own drinks inside a bar.

We ended the evening celebrating Mathijs 18th birthday in their cabin and then it was time for bed again.