Day 16 - Finland for Christmas.

1 Sept

Overnight the clouds didn't lift and there was light rain this morning. No aurora spotting this time.

We had about 180 km before we crossed the border into Finland. We had been noticing the walk signs occasionally differed. One is the more conventional style, the other is of a person wearing a hat and striding out across the crossing. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to have the Hat Dude in any particular place. In fact there were instances of the two different styles being at the same crossing.

The pedestrian only signs had a bit of character as well. Check out little girl and the adult with what could be described as bow legs.

Clint was on otter watch for a while until our drive eventually took us away from the fjords and into the forests. The trees are starting to show their autumn colours.

We found a rest stop not far from the border for our last cuppa, fly and look around Norway.

Autumn colours beginning to change.

The ubiquitous Selfie

Aerial of the Kárášjohka River and our morning tea spot.

The border crossing was uneventful, no guards checking our passports, just drive on through. Not far down the road we had unsealed road for quite a few kilometres.

Would have been fun on a Wing.  About 10km of it.

Finland is part of the EU so we had to retrain our brains to think in Euro when looking at prices. We had filled the car in Norway as we weren't sure which country would have the cheaper diesel turns out it was Finland by about 10%.

The Finland reindeer must have gotten word that we had some of their Norwegian cousins for dinner last night as they welcomed us with their usual habit of standing on the road or walking out as if they were going to cross. Finland has a maximum speed limit of 100kph so there were a couple of quick stops to avoid the critters.

An immediate difference here is the traffic signs have yellow backgrounds rather than the standard white. The Finns believe the yellow has more visibility in the snow. They could have a point.

Most of the drive to our destination was rather uninspiring. The road was lined with trees with no particular view points. Guess that’s what happens when the country flattens out. Rain stayed with us with it getting particularly heavy for the last hundred kilometres or so. Must say, the front wheel drive Volvo handled the wet roads rather well.

After about 600km we arrived at the Arctic Circle again. The Finns certainly have embraced the idea. Our accommodation for the night is in a cabin at Santa Claus Holiday Village. What a place to be for Christmas! 

Lots of cabins to rent.  Each one has it's own Christmas tree.

Very nicely appointed

In the souvenir shop entrance.  We hoped to talk with Santa as we wanted to pass on a request from Little JohnnyG, but he only works 9-5 at this time of year.