On Top Of The World chasing the Aurora Borealis

Stellatz: Nordkapp

Wow, I don't quite know what to say. We have reached the northern most point of our trip which, incidentally, is also the northern most part of Europe - the famous Nordkapp.

Timm deserves a medal today for driving 380km but what a trip it was. 

The scenery once again was breathtaking and the photos don't even come close to showing the colors we experienced. At one point we were driving through what felt like flames, just orange everywhere.

These red flowers / bushes are everywhere and I just love them!

We encountered Rudolph....

.... And his family taking a bath

Seeing the landscape become sparser and sparser.

It's desolate up here. And with the windchill factor, the apparent temperature is -0.6 degrees. Yikes

Below is a picture of the municipal truck drilling in the snow poles

At the Nordkapp Earth Monument

From now on our trip will be going south (literally speaking of course ;-) so here is the sunset from the Nordkapp

From Timm:

Those of you who know me know that I am fascinated by reinventing the Viking Sun Compass. I think I have it right now and have seen nothing like it on the Internet - it is accurate at 71 degrees north as it is accurate in the southern most cape - to 5 degrees!

We checked the weather and the space weather at dinner as we are old Aurora Hunters and decided the conditions were right tonight in the West of Nordkap to see an Aurora, the Kp was five and there would be a western hole in the clouds.

So we set our alarm clock for 23:00 and 01:00 to check.

At 23:00 all there was was clouds, at 01:30......the iPhone could not capture it but it looked like this, oddly the picture below was also taken from this spot as we could see the small white light in the bottom left corner, it actually flashes on and off.

At the foot of the Rainbow

Campsite: Lomakyla Inari (Inari, Finland)

Well, we saw mindblowingly beautiful rainbows yesterday so today we thought we'd go in search of the renowed pot of gold that can supposedly be found at the end of it.... We didn't quite find a pot full but we did manage to find Gold!

Lapland believe it or not has gold fields and so we pulled into Tankavaara Gold Village to try our luck at panning Gold. There we were met by a crazy, very passionate german geologist called Casper who has been prospecting Tankavaara for the last 25 years. Casper showed us the ropes on how to utilise the pan and soon Timm and I were (quite expertly might I add) panning our soil and were successfull! Mind you, it was't enough to buy a beer (apparently that required 7g) but enough to prove that we found gold. 

This is how you choose the right soil

Then you pan it like so...

And voila! There is gold

The weather was horrible, it was drizzling and bitterly cold (7 degrees) but both of us had a whale of a time and spent a good 2 hours outside trying to get rich ;-)

Warming up with some coffee and waffles bought with our gold!

After warming up our frozen feet and hands, back on the road we went direction Inari which is our last stop in Finland before we head into Norway tomorrow. 

Ever seen the glass igloos so often shown? Well, we were there!!

The landscape is just beautiful plus we saw our first free-range reindeer so here are just a few pictures of today....

The amazing autumn colors 

Moose on the Loose (actually reindeer)

Our Campsite is not only reachable via road but also by air....

Into the Arctic chasing Rainbows

Campsite :  Nilimella (Sodankylã

We woke up this morning ready to head north on an important mission to meet a very well known gentleman - Father Christmas! 

Now my son Cole will tell you that there is no such thing but I thought I would go and find out for myself. 

Apparently he lives at the boundary of the Arctic Circle in a place called Rovaniemi !

We headed north and low and behold we found his house and there he was!

I shook hands with the man himself and he even gave me a certificate of meeting with him. 

We discussed my son and daughters behavior and he said he had only heard good things about them both this year so he will stop by at Xmas. I explained that we would be in Austria and he noted the address down - his Elf then took a picture for us and saved it on a memory stick and said "Give that to Cole from me with this special T - Shirt so he can come and find me someday too!" He also gave me something for Jade and Joey!

We then bumped into a Moose on the Loose!

Then we set off to find a home for the night but ended up chasing Rainbows all the way there - there is something magical about Lapland be it Summer or Winter or anywhere in between.

Tomorrow we continue our quest for the aurora borealis....

It's getting colder....

Campsite: Tornio Campsite (Tornio, Finland)

As we're heading north it's getting colder and yesterday afternoon one could start seeing the change in vegetation - pine forests are now making way for low lying shrubbery.

The past few days we've had absolutely magical weather, the sun has been out, relatively clear skies and out-of-this-world views. BUT maximum temperatures during the day seem to be sitting at 13 / 14 degrees and of course dropping lower during the night. However, Felix is amazingly insulated and seems to be holding a steady 18 / 20 degrees without having switched on the heater yet.

But winter is coming and the majority of the campsites have closed already and it took us 3 attempts yesterday to find this one which was open, it is virtually on the border to Sweden!



Not many people camping here!

However, seeing that we are in the Land of Saunas, all campsites have Saunas which seem to be segregated into male & female, either by different timings (like last nights campsite) or having two saunas (like tonight). And so Timm and I hit the sauna and I ended up having a lovely chat with an older finnish woman while we were both sweating off our behinds.
Her english was remarkably good and she proudly told me that she worked at a market which serves a lot of foreign tourists :-)

We also visited yet another Graduate of ours who lives in Oulu but found the city quite unremarkable and we so quietly moved on :-)

Oulu's famous Policeman 

Timm enjoying his cycle through the autumn forests around Oulu

Outside last nights Campsite

We haven't seen so many cars in days!!! Must have been the sunday afternoon traffic back to town

Sweet Vasa

Campsite: Himanka, Finland

The goal for today was to get as close to Oulu as possible and so we hit the road relatively early (no reason to stay longer than in a shopping mall parking lot than you need to)

Just before departure we both rang home and had a quick chat with the family & the kids - all utilising the grocery stores free internet. Got to love it!

I often get asked "don't you get bored driving these long distances?" And I must admit - I don't. Once we had covered the usual topics, Timm and I have started discussing politics (something we never did much of in the past) and other odd stuff we come across. 

Such as the plural of Moose. What IS the plural of moose? Well, it is moose (one moose, many moose) but why not mice or even meese? I mean, you get one goose many geese, so why not the same with moose? That kept us occupied for a good 100km ;-)

One other thing on the agenda today was visiting Alan in Vaasa. Alan is a Graduate of ours and is one of Ronin's success stories having qualified as a CP Operative with us and going on to gain his Paramedic Qualification. 

We met him in Vaasa, had a coffee and walk around town and then followed him home to have lunch and meet his family. All I can say is what an absoluty wonderful day we had. We learnt alot about living in Finland (did you know that Swedish is the second official language of Finalnd?), the local area and crossed Finlands longest bridge. 

Alan, Janna and 4 week old Amanda (2 year old Eric is sleeping)

Leaving in the afternoon, we finally headed out and drove another 160km to the camspite. We arrived just after 7pm and all the men were heading to the Sauna but no person in site to check us in. Eventually some of the campers took pity on us and did the check in - he clearly is a local and knows the procedure by now!

Toy-toying in Helsinki

Stellplatz for tonight: in front of ABC Shopping (Pori, Finland)

We were up early again this morning as the plan was to catch the metro into town, do a red city bus tour and leave our Campsite in the aftnoon.

But alas, Helsinki had other plans. Today, of all days, was the day that labour unions decided to strike and so schools were closed, no public transport etc etc. 30 000 people striked causing an estimated €100 million loss to the economy. And we were stuck in the middle of it.

So back to Felix we went to concoct a Plan B and after much deliberation we decided to skip Helsinki and proceed north as we didnt want to lose another 48hrs.

I am really bleak as this is the SECOND time I have been in Helsinki without actually seeing the city. Maybe third time lucky?

So on we went with the first stop for the day being Tampere. Tampere is a lovely town 200km  north west of Helsinki and the plan was to have lunch there and visit a Spy Museum. The Spy Museum was small and interesting but we were in and out within 45 minutes.
So back into Felix we climbed and headed 3km up the road to an old Watch Tower which had a coffee shop and supposedly the best donuts in Tampere. Well, I would have to say the coffee was grate and so were the donuts plus we got a little bit of work done as well.

Pori was the final stop for the day which is located on the west coast. If I had to swim out to sea I would end up in Sweden ;-)

But where to stay? All our Apps show a distinct lack of Stellplatze in Finland and the campsites are exorbitantly expensive. So where do people stay? 

Well, they stay in the parking lots of 24hr ABC Grocery Stores (similar to Checkers I would say).

I kid you not. These ABC's generally have a petrol station, a fast food take out, a small grocery store and a large grocery store (which is closed after business hours). Some of them even provide fresh water, grey water and chemical toilet dumping facilities.... Of course this isn't pretty but it will do especially as we will be moving on again tomorrow.....

Welcome to Finland!

Campsite: Rustila Camping (Helsinki, Finland)

Today was the day! Time to leave the baltic countries and head into Scandinavia.

Yesterday (on our red city bus tour) it was mentioned that the long road from Pirita (our Stellplatz neighbourhood) to the City Centre  was one of the prime sites of morning rush hour traffic / congestion and so we decided to get up early. Real early. As in "I haven't got up this early in MONTHS early". And so the alarm clock was set for 6am :-)

We did beat the morning traffic, in fact we were SO early that we could have made it onto the ferry before our one. See the pic below, it's not even light yet!

But we enjoyed a home made coffee, their free internet and stood first in the queue.

We might have been the first to check-in (9am when the gates opened) but then we literally waited for  close to 90 minutes before we were finally loaded.... Sitting in the car for 1.5 hours watching cars, trucks, bikes etc all allowed on.... Not my idea of fun.

BUT that meant we were one of the first to be off on the other side. So, off we got in Helsinki straight to our Campsite. 

Two things we have noticed straight away: 1. Fuel prices have jumped. Having paid 90 cents / litre in Latvia and Estonia, it is now €1.40 in Finland. Ouch. Two: the camping prices follow suit, having paid around € 15 in the baltic states, try €35 for tonight! But in Rustila's defense, it was a lovely organised campsite and we got to do our laundry...

Just before dinner we took a quick cycle down to a huge shopping centre down the road to see if we couldn't find a finnish SIM card. Well, let me tell you, that was the quickest, most effortless process we have seen so far. Buy SIM Card, put into router, switch on, voila you have internet. No ID required, no prepaid contracts to sign, no activation period, no allocation of funds to data etc etc. Even Timm was impressed ;-)

And then, the second reason why I was impressed that day:
On our way out we took a stroll through a Sportsmans Warehouse-type shop and what do I see? Riding Gear! They sell riding gear in an average sports shop!! How cool is that!!! Timm was also happy but I think that had more to do with all the shooting / hunting stuff that they had on sale ;-)

So after a long day we headed into bed, ready to explore Helsinki tomorrow.

Olympic Spirit

Stellplatz: Pirita Yacht Harbour

We are staying in a real Olympic Village tonight! Yip, Pirita (a suburb of Talinn) was the sight of the yachting competition for the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the defunct complex as well as athletes village is now part of the Pirita Yacht Harbour. 

You can still see remnants such as the writing on the building....

Or the spectator seating in the background

The rest of the day was spent actually driving here (150 odd km) and doing a Talinn City Tour with the red hop-on-hop-off bus (I LOVE these tours)

For those that have no idea where we are, here's a picture just in case :-)