Blogging at 22:15 on Friday 9th August from intended overnighting spot N 68.84566°, E 21.18019° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:68.84566%2C21.18019
Today we took it easy. We felt we needed to. The trip's been pretty full-on so far and we figured a really steady day would do us no harm.
So, we had a comparatively short drive out of Norway and crossed the border into Finland. Not long after the border we stopped to stock up on bread and such and then, only about half an hour further on, spotted the place we're now hunkered and decided to call it a day.
It's a functional rather than spectacular camp but it's so far been unmolested* and has been a decent base for a run apiece. The road we're currently bumbling along is still an E route but both it, and the general area we're in, is already much quieter than the mega-touristy E6 in Norway. It's just so much more relaxing.
The border from Norway into Finland was more striking than most in as much as the topography and flora changed almost immediately. We now find ourselves in much less mountainous terrain and are surrounded by rocky ground, lakes and stressed birch woodlands (small trees only), on which the leaves are already well on their way to full autumnal colours.
There are loads of reindeer around and they seem utterly unperturbed by people. They're also happy to stroll nonchalantly along the road. We've had to stop / steer around two, and have seen other drivers do the same. As well as reindeer, we've also seen two young elk; again these were close to the road and seemed completely unfazed by traffic.
Plans, then. As before, we just didn't fancy retracing down the busy E6 in Norway so originally were going to do as little of that busy road as possible before dropping into Sweden and heading generally homewards; before popping back briefly into Norway to do a parkrun next Saturday just south of Oslo. From there we were then due to head to Gothenburg to catch the ferry back to Kiel in Germany.
The 'problem' with that plan was that it still meant a good chunk of time simply retracing on the somewhat stressful E6; plus, vast tracts of Sweden can also be a bit, err... 'samey'. So; some time spent thinking, planning, booking and rebooking now means we're going to do most of the southward journey through Finland, hopefully taking in a coveted Finnish parkrun (they're relatively new here), before taking what is probably the most outrageously awesome and ridiculously-good-value ferry in the western world from Naantali to Kapellskär via the Åland Islands. Thereafter will be a very heavy driving day across Sweden to catch the rebooked Gothenburg-Kiel ship.
Buckle in!
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* Apart from the fifteen minutes where a bloke with a high power rifle turned up, set his sights using about 40 rounds, and then drove off again. As is customary in Finland, we all simply nothinged each other.
PS The pic is of one of the public bridges over a pipeline in Barentsburg. It was one of the better-maintained and safer features.