Day five part 1- beautiful Norway

We woke up early in the morning to get our camp together without hurry. We wanted to take the ferry to the islands, originally I wanted to see Måsøya or Ingøya but we had already on Saturday figured out that this would be impossible on this trip. The small ferry that goes from Havøysund to the islands is expensive and it runs on the island very irregularly. Sunday was the only day on the week the ferry goes to Hammerfest and I did not trust that we would get a ride from Havøysund very easily. From Hammerfest we could get on our journey more easily we hoped.

We had ample time in the Havøysund harbor. The day was a cloudy and windy but beautiful.


Fish in the harbor shallows.

The ferry was fast and comfortable. We spent a little time on the deck to shoot some photos and scenery was amazing!




Beautiful archipelago.


On our way to Hammerfest we also saw an oil facility.


Hammerfest church was a sight to see from the sea but unfortunately I do not have pics from it. Inside it had beautiful color glass windows.

Next episode: karma and our route.

Pictures from day four

Okei, this is a teasepost... but I'm doing other stuff this weekend and cannot really put much effort on the blog. So when I have extra time I will play with the Game labs new screenpad wacom thingie and give you pics at least!

So here you go, a psychedelic norwegian oil refinery. The colors came from the ferry window plus a polaroid filter I think. Trippy!



This is also a test on color calibration because I have no idea what this wacom is showing me!

Day four - Norwegian desert and summer heat

We spent the nigh in a magical little meadow near the fjord.

In the morning we continued to the road. We soon realized there was no traffic this up north and on Saturday. Also everyone would think we were going to Nordkapp and we had by now decided we would see Havøysund instead.

We got a small ride to the right road from locals and kept a lunch brake. After this we noticed we were stuck on a desert. It was flat, we could see the straight(!) road on both directions for a kilometer, on our left side there were few houses by the sea and on our right side the rocky lowa shrubbery continued to faraway hills. The atmosphere was unique. But it was hot... I changed into bikini top and a scarf skirt and we just laid on the empty road waiting for traffic that did not come. We played with the camera, we made mental lists on what to do when hitch hiking on a desert, we got bored and we got desperate.

We can't stop here, this is bat country!

A very bright coloured road kill.

Finally we got a kilometer forward and found a little stream to refill our water bottles. Cold lovely mountain stream water! The sea looked so warm and colorful but we did not stop to take a break in case we missed a rare car. We pleaded for a ride from some tourists, we walked in the heat onward on the road.

And finally! A german couple picked us up, and they were going to Havøysund too! They did not stay there but we did so we thanked them for saving us and planned for the evening and the ferry.

We visited the local small church, marveled the fishing town atmosphere and dragged our pack backs on a hill. But have me deciding on a place for a tent when I'm tired! We ended up camping on a windiest place on a night that was almost storm. We dragged stones on the corners and Taru spent half of the night awake to check on the stones and keep the tent steady. I was so tired in the evening I almost walked past the tent when dragging the stones to it so I could not trust myself to keep awake the night and Taru had to be the heroine and suffer.

In the morning the tent was visibly bent by the wind. Luckily it did not really rain that night.

The coast guard was in harbor.

Not all the town is this idyllic picture of old run down fisher town in Norway but you get to see some details like this. We were really happy to go to Havøysund instead of Nordkapp.

Day three - Oldefjord

More pics from Russenes. The sea here isn't technically the Arctic sea I guess but it is close enough for us!

Beautiful place in many ways but filled with tourist busses, asians taking pics of trolls and themselves and cabins and trailers.

Taru by the sea.

Yes, I have dipped my toes, fingers and my nose to the Arctic sea!

Day 3 - The love of Lapland

We started relatively early in the morning back to the road side. We got really lucky and got a ride on a empty tourist bus on its way to Ivalo airport. We helped a little on the way to clean the bus and perhaps gained a bit of that famous Karma you will soon hear about. Apparently tourist busses go around a lot empty so they are real hitchhikers prices!

On our way to Ivalo the scenery started to change. I had never been northern than Sodankylä before and even the road sides were beautiful in their Lapland scarce way. Ivalo was a very small place, we shopped for ice cream and fresh food and borrowed a screw driver from an outdoors shop. Unfortunately we did not have time or energy to go see a local handy crafts and art exhibition. We just itched to continue our way.

I also met a fellow student from my school! The world is so small... Nuppu was on her way to Murmansk to catch a train to China! I eagerly wait to hear about her travels. It is a journey I want to do someday too.

From Ivalo we got a ride to Kaamaisen Kievari, the tavern at Kaamainen. Oiva who gave us a ride told us about his younger days in the southern Finland and how he fell in love with lapland. I looked at the scenery and understood him, there is just something very rare and amazing in the nature here.

Oiva at Kaamainen

From the tavern we asked a ride for only a few kilometers to the right road to Karasjok. This was the second ride that told us about Nordkapp and it started feeling less and less inviting as a goal of our journey. Tourists by buss loads and mist, it is the almost most northern place in Europe and very expensive.

At the road to Kaamainen we sent the last sms to people and closed our phones. It took a while to get a ride but when we got one it was a speedy one! The norwegian guy also gave us smoked fish when he dropped us to the Saame center in Karasjok. The fish was delicious and the tourist info was very helpful and kind. We had now a decent map book of northern Norway.

We also had a problem with fish. We had too much of it and it would not last to the evening in the warm weather. Luckily we ran across to the buss driver from earlier and could donate the fish to a good new home in his fridge!

Me and all the fish!

We got a ride to Lakselv in a two-door small car from two russian tourists! The ride was hilarious and fun and we were just so happy to be in Norway. (Well the weather was awesome still at this point!)

From Lakselv it was more difficult to get to Oldefjord/Russeness but a local guy drove us there. We stopped on the way to do some photography but we were in Russeness decently early.

In Russeness we spent the evening doing photography and put up our camp. The place we found for our tent felt really magical and close to nature because it was sufficiently far from all the caravans and cabins!

In next post more pics from Russeness and Oldefjord!

Day three route:

Day 2 - alternative routes

We slept at the Tupos gas stations back yard and woke up in the morning. We had no idea what the time was but it seemed morning enough and we had slept enough. We packed our gear and headed to the cafeteria for morning caffeine and bursted out laughing! It was only 6.30. This is no time for nerds to wake up, it should be a time to go to sleep! Nevertheless it was a beautiful morning and we itched to get to the road.

Our tent would become very familiar to us.

The road was not easy to get a ride from here. We had to try to get rides from the people who stopped at the gas station only. This would be very easy if you could take rides from the truckers but they can only take one in their cockpit.

We tried anyway! And we got a ride from a wide transport caravan. Taru got to ride with the truck and I was in the lead car that notified the drivers about up coming traffic and stopped the cars if necessary. Their route took us the scenic way up to Sodankylä. They had to go around Rovaniemi for 60 km just to be able to pass the city. Often the bridges were too low so the trucks had to drive a ramp up and down the wrong way. This meant that the guiding cars in the front and on the back had to stop the traffic for the trucks to pass. Traffic also had to be stopped when crossing narrow bridges.

There was a road work on our way. It would have taken too long to wait for them to finish so they filled up the hole on the road for the transportation.

It took the whole day to reach to Sodankylä but it definitely was worth it! You really saw the traffic in a different way after that. Usually people get annoyed or do not believe if they are instructed to wait for just a half a minute. Why are we all always in such a hurry?

They were transporting containers for a mine.

In Sodankylä it started pouring. We got a little too wet before we could run to the shelter of the gas station but after the rain we saw a beautiful rainbow with a upper halo and a inner halo too!

Sodankylä after rain.

But there was no more rides in the evening and we put our tent up for the night with the company of mosquitos and rain. It was a miracle we managed to keep a little dry.

Day 2 route:

Day 1 route

Here is our route with the kind help of google maps.

612 km and three rides.

Day One

We started our journey to Nordkapp from a whim - why not? Why wait when you are 50 and finally have that caravan? I want to explore the world today, take my camera to places, see and experience other things.

And that we did! We planned and packed for ten days. We bought all the food from Finland because Norway is known to be expensive. It truly is - because the clouds seem so low you can say the prices are above clouds. We packed our food, clothes and camping gear to two backpacks and started on Wednesday morning in Helsinki. Our simple goal was to dip our toes to the arctic sea.

Our first day did not start easy, it took about four hours to get the first ride to Heinola. The ride was nice and unproblematic and when we got out of the car in under a minute we got the second lift to Viitasaari Kiosk! At the kiosk we had a beer and lunch and went back to the roadside.

Finnish summer is beautiful. View from the Viitasaari kiosk.

A girl at the kiosk was reading a book.

The lake.

The last ride of the day was up to Oulu. We stayed before Oulu at Tupos gas station where we blogged and camped. the atmosphere was positive and exited!

Many truckers spend their night at Tupos.

Back from the wilderness

It is a little frustrating not to be able to post from the actual journey but to tell everything afterwards. Then again being poor means I do not want any surprise data fees on my mobile bill so hope you had patience with me! Anyway, today you will have all the goodness and thrills and pics!

Wait for it!

Digital pinhole!

This us my pinhole lens for my digital camera!

Norway pics

Roadkill on Norwegian desert.

Hitc hiking a ride! Anything will do!

Hitch hiking on desert...

Fish in the Havsoysund harbor.

Misty mystical windmills of Havoysund.

Alive in Alta

Okei. We have hitch hiked in Norwegian desert. Surprisingly no cars. We have walked in heatwave stricken Norway on narrow winding roads. We saw an idyllic fishing town and spent the night with horrible wind. Taru stayed up most of the night to keep the tent safe, I just passed out from exhaustion.

Today our karma really pampers us: we got a ride from young people returning home from the festival in Lakselv. Now we have showered, we had coffee and we got internet and a can of beer! This just might be heaven...

Moving pictures on the computer now. You will get some randomly picked pics soon!

Our route:

Sodankylä-Ivalo-Kaamanen-Karasjok-Lakslev-Russenes/Oldefjord-Kokelv-Havösund-Hammerfest (ferry)-E6 crossing-Alta.

Tomorrow a new day!

Kaamainen

Today hopefully we will reach Norway so no more updates before Finland
again. Three rides today. We had ice cream in Ivalo so we are well
pampered.

Sodankylä

We got a ride from Tupos in a wide transport caravan. The ride was slow and on back roads but we got to ride motorway the wrong way. People were very nice and we are now in Sodankylä. Our plans are open at the moment, first we need food. It rains a little occasionally so we will have to see the weather and our level of tiredness.

There is a inspiring full rainbow in Sodankylä and two reflections for it. The scenery has changed and we saw many young reindeer on the way.

About traveling

This is no escape from civilization, we bring it with us to the
wilderness. Well, Into the wild had a gloomy ending anyway!

We are pampered with gas station coffee and toilets!

First day

Getting a ride from Helsinki took us over 3 hours. Finally we got a lift up to Heinola, from there in under a minute a ride to Viitasaari! After lunch our journey continued up to Oulu, we will spend this night in our tent next to Tupos ABC right before Oulu.

At Tupos ABC.

Taru

At last

We are on our way!

All packed!

All packed and ready to go. Tomorrow morning we will start our journey of hitch hiking from Espoo to Nordkapp.

Our pack backs are filled and we can think of nothing we forgot. And we have towels. Morning will be difficult, too early for both of us.

I have my pinhole cameras with me and hope to get amazing photos from our journey. I will update when I can. It is easier with cellphone from Finland, but becomes scarcer in Sweden and Norway because I do not want to get any data costs from abroad. So be patient with us! I promise some cellphone pics soon.

Preparations

Monday. We plan to start on Wednesday. Today we need to list all the things that still need to be acquired. I still lack some batteries and a memory card for my camera. I also need film. We found a nature documentary about an island near Nordkapp. Will link it later if it is good.

I plan to post some pictures of our gear and us later so check this blog again!