GoZa Mite

gozamite

motorcycling, Adventure riding, Trans Euro Trail updates, travelling

Adventure motorcycle rider TransEuroTrail Finland Linesman but also some other interesting (or not so interesting) things

  • Holiday 2020 Day 8

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    After sleeping in a car quite many nights and 2 nights in a camping area cabin and 1 in a room with kitchen it was time to take a hotel room.
    We drove to Tromsø and took 2 days in the hotel (Smarthoel Tromsø was very cheap!)
    The way to Tromsø was with one ferry -from Svensby to Breivikeidet. This was about 13€.
    After we put all our stuff to the hotel room we went to check Arctic-Alpine Botanic Garden. This was very nice visit! So many beautiful flowers and plants!!

    Amazing colourful flowers

    The area of this Arctic-Alpine is not too big but we checked all the flowers quite closely! After the garden it was to time to go UP!
    The cable car of Tromsø is called Fjellheisen and it will take you to 420 meters above sea level!

    Fjellheisen

    The weather was little bit better than it was in morning so we could actually see something from up there! And took some nice pictures!
    In the evening we were eating pizza just beside our hotel. The restaurant was called Casa Inferno and with the price little bit over 20€ we ate very nice pizzas!

    Local traditional food

    The route for this day was like this:

    Day 9

    Like I said we didn’t move anywhere from Tromsø. But this second day it was already raining. So we visited the Polaria. We saw quite many fishes and plants and also the feeding “show” of the seals. They had 2 small seals (Harbour Seal) and 2 big ones (Bearded Seal). The show was quite nice and these guys knew few tricks. Everytime they did some nice trick the stuff gave them the reward. But I was thinking why they had to be there in this small pool??? Why they will not them to go free?

    Sea anemone
    Small moray

    The most interesting “show” was the short movie about Svalbard. That would really be interesting place to visit! The movie was mostly about how the landscape has been changing there. All the glaciers are soon gone…
    In the evening we had a dinner in Asian place called Tang’s restaurant. About this We would give even bigger recommendations because the price was almost “normal”.
    This day there was almost no driving at all.

  • Holiday 2020 Day 7

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    Day 7 was about driving west in quite cloudy and grey weather. It was a big pitty because there is many places to admire the landscape and the view to the sea.

    Few pictures from the E6 to the Arctic Sea

    We took also 1 ferry from Olderdalen to Lyngen. It was about 17€ and took about 50 minutes. But soon after this ferry we arrived to our destination!
    Blåvatnet
    This is a small lake located in Lyngen municipality in northern Norway. Area is also famous about Lyngen Alps where the shape of the mountains is more steep than ordinary fjells or mountains in Norway. The highest peak is Jiekkevarre with 1833 meters.
    Blåvatnet is one of the most famous hiking places in northern Norway. The lake is about 200 meters higher than the parking area and it’s about 4km’s walk. The landscape is rugged with lots of stones and small rivers to cross. Luckily for us it looked like it would not start raining. We started the walk up to the lake about 3.40 pm.

    • River after river
    • Wooden paths
    • Amazing views
    • And river
    • And river
    • This rock was about in the halfway
    • Clouds over the mountains
    • Rugged land
    • And river
    • Getting closer
    • The walls of Mordor!
    Almost 2 hours hike to the lake

    I was little bit afraid when the weather is so grey that we will not see the amazing crystal clear blue colour of the lake. But there was no reason!
    The water of the lake comes straight from the glaciers in the mountains and it stays very very crystal clear all the time!

    Blåvatnet

    The last 200 meters hike to the lake is quite difficult! The stones are big and sharp and there’s many chances to step wrong and twist your ankle or even worse. The consentration and physical struggle made me sweat quite a lot. Now I understood why quite many said to take your swimming pants so you can swim in the lake! I didn’t have them with me (So stupid!) so I just took off my jacket and t-shirt and flushed my upper body in the lake!
    On the way back I took only 3 pictures -Here’s one of them:

    6.30 pm in Northern Norway

    When you search the pictures of Blåvatnet you will ofcourse find those ones first that was taken in sunny weather and with clear blue sky. But when you come here you can’t choose your conditions and weather. We are very happy that we saw the lake at least without rain!
    The route for the Day 7 was like this:

  • Holiday 2020 Day 6

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    It was beautiful morning beside Barents/ Arctic Sea. We started driving first to south towards Lakselv city and then to north towards Nordkapp. Even it was quite nice weather I knew it wouldn’t be like this in the North Cape -ofcourse I was hoping that there would be sunshine!
    We made the test cooking with our camping cooking system and I even called to Minna Jakosuo.
    I knew she would know the answer and she did!!

    Cooking water as a test

    If you keep “The Heart” of this cooking system in the same package with all the pots, the steam from the burning fuel will catch the pots! And it is almost impossible to wash the taste away.
    Even this Alcohol Stove has a lid with seal the steam of alcohol is still going outside the heart!

    Alcohol stove

    So we didn’t have a proper cooking system anymore… All the pots were ruined by the taste of burning alcohol. Luckily we had quite a lot of food with us that you can eat if it is cold so we didn’t care too much about this.
    After very nice road from Lakselv to Honningsvåg (about 160km) we at least could check a little bit of this village and the views from the “Viewing point” from the military above this village.

    Honningsvåg harbour
    Same village from above

    So we didn’t visit the North Cape. It was my second time on this island and again I didn’t go to Nordkapp… (Shame on ME!)
    We had to drive the same beautiful road back to the mainland. The more south we were driving the more beautiful the weather was coming! On the southside of Skaidi we made a stop beside the road. It was amazing place with very nice landscape. I made even a drone flight.

    • Question Mark
    • Goahtemuorjohka
    • Picture taken by my wife
    Click any of the pictures to see it bigger

    We took a cabin from the camping area in Lakselv for the night so we could make proper food!
    The route for the day 6 was like this:

  • Holiday 2020 Day 5

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    Morning beside the Lake Inari was amazing!

    Käyräniemi, Lake Inari
    Käyräniemi

    We started driving towards Norway. We shortly visited in the last shop to buy something sweet…

    Shop before border

    And very soon in Norway there is very nice rapids/ waterfall called Skoltefossen. We stopped to take pictures.

    Skoltefossen rapids in Neiden, Norway

    Our route was following the Varangerfjord and the views to this part of Barents Sea are beautiful. It was only few days earlier when one my friend visited Pykeija (Bugøynes) village so I was thinking I need to see this too!
    So even our weather wasn’t too nice we checked this small fishing village!

    • Few km’s before Pykeija
    • Fishing harbour
    • Village beach
    • Village from the hill
    • “Famous” Arctic Sauna on the other side of the bay

    Our driving continued over Tana bridge. This is the only possible route from the “Western part of Norway” to the “Eastern Part of Norway” where this country has border with Russia.

    Short video driving over old Tana bridge

    After Tana we were still driving quite a lot before we entered the Silfar Canyon and ofcourse we stopped to take pictures!

    Silfar Canyon 50km’s north from Lakselv

    We found a nice place for sleeping in the car beside the mainroad and we slept well!

    Roddenes

    The route for Day 5 was like this:

  • Holiday 2020 Day 4

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    We woke up in Ruka and cleaned the appartment. Started driving to Pyhätunturi (The Holy mountain). There was one stop on the way in the northside of Kemijärvi, there is a small village called Kostamo. Why is this village interesting?? It just happens to be the same name than my Family name…

    Kostamoroad & It was also chosen as the village of the year in 1997

    From Kemijärvi to Pyhätunturi it’s not too far anymore. The path to the Pyhäkasteen lampi & vesiputous (pond in the end of canyon and the waterfall) had been closed for the whole summer until this day. So we were about the first ones to see these amazing views!

    • FIrst there is about 1km walk in the forest
    • Then you have to go down
    • On the bottom of the canyon there is nice wooden path
    • Canyon is called Isokuru
    • At the end of the canyon you will find the pond & waterfall
    Click any of the pictures to see it bigger

    After this very nice hike we continued driving north. We were shopping first time in Sodankylä and then again in Inari. The second visit to shop was because we realized that we will be in Norway next day and there everything is much more expensive!
    We made a short stop in the top of Saariselkä and beside the Lake Inari.

    2 years ago when we were here it was very warm. Now it was +11 and little bit of raining
    The Top -restaurant
    Lake Inari

    We also found the place for sleep beside the Lake Inari.
    In the evening we were making food with our Trangia cooking system. The taste of food was terrible!

    Cooking the meal that came out with terrible taste!

    We realized that there was some taste of the fuel that we were using to make the fire in the cooking system. We put the question to Facebook to ask from other users did they have the same? Few days later we found out the reason.
    The route for the day 4 was like this:

  • Holiday 2020 Day 3

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    We had a nice sleep in this small cabin.

    My car beside the campingarea cabin

    On the northside of Suomussalmi there is quite famous “art installation” called Silent People. It was originally put up to a private field in 1988 but in this field it has stayed since 1994! There is almost 1000 “people” standing in the field… It is such an interesting installation!

    Haypeople
    If you find an interesting t-shirt you can take it! Just leave your own t-shirt there!

    Quite soon after Haypeople we turned to Hossa National park. We wanted to check the deepest canyon in Finland! We took the 5 km walk to the new hanging bridge in the middle of the “Julma-Ölkky” lake. This is so beautiful Finnish nature!

    Bridge is about 5m from the lake surface…
    But the canyon walls goes much higher!
    The lake is called “Julma-Ölkky” -impossible to translate…

    If you want to visit this lake we recommend you will take the road from Hossa (from east)!This is only 8,5km’s. The road to west from the lake is in much worse condition and can be full of surprises and it’s 25km’s.
    We took a room from the old Omena hotel in Ruka. Omena Hotel in Ruka doesn’t exist anymore and nowadays there is few rooms/ apartments available from “Vuosselin Helmi apartments”. We also checked few possible places to sleep in the car but didn’t find any.
    The route for Day 3 was like this:

  • Holiday 2020 Day 2

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    First night slept in the car. It wasn’t bad at all!

    Small pond “Harakkalampi” in the morning

    We ate breakfast (as fast as we could -the mosquitoes were eating us!) and packed the car. Soon we were driving again.
    First stop we made at one old ironworks area called “Möhkö”.
    Unluckily they have entrance fee to almost everything there is to see so we checked only the cafeteria that was built inside a boat and the old boatcanal.

    This is cafeteria
    This canal they hardly use anymore

    After Möhkö there is very big museum-area about WW II called “Öykkösenvaaran battle zone”. There would be quite a lot to see but we wanted to continue driving. At least I took a picture of this:

    WW II cannon

    The route I was choosing is marked pretty much as the main road… At least in some maps. But I can say that I was about to loose my faith many times! It didn’t seem like the road was leading anywhere! And when I tried to check from google maps where we were -there was no internet!!
    This was the road: https://goo.gl/maps/zsoDNcJEPmVnNNgL8
    But finally we made it to the bigger road and after maybe 2,5 hours of driving we made it to the Ruunaa rapids! Amazing area with many different kind of wild rapids…

    Neitikoski rapids in Ruunaa

    There is also some islands where you can walk and it was so nice to see a duck family there swimming!

    Mother duck with… How many babies?

    You can also see the work of the Beaver in Ruunaa! In one place there was more than 10 trees fallen… It would be nice to see the “guy” in action!!

    Work of Beaver!

    After Ruunaa we were still driving north, we visited Mätäsvaara mine. This used to be the biggest Molybdenum -mine in Finland but it stopped working already in 1947 because nobody needed Molybdenum anymore.

    This is very interesting place! Old mine…

    Finally we arrived to one camping area from where we booked one small cabin. This was in Suomussalmi (one of my own personal favorite places in Finland!) We still took a drive to the “city” and went swimming.

    Kiantajärvi in Suomussalmi

    The route for our second day was like this:

  • Holiday 2020 Day 1

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    This summer we are making our holiday trip with the car. Luckily last winter I bought a Station Wagon (Ford Focus) so we can even make the beds to the back side of the car. The bed will be a little bit too short for me but I was thinking it will be OK.

    Ford Focus double bed

    We started driving on tuesday 23rd of June to the north from Imatra. The first goal was one nice hill quite close… So I typed the address to google maps and we started driving. After about 50 km’s we stopped and I was looking around. It was a wrong place!! I had typed “Hukkavuoren…” when I should have been typing “Haukkavuoren…” Luckily the correct place was only about 20km’s away!

    Walking to the hill

    The first place we visited was “Haukkavuori” in Rautjärvi. It’s a hill 79 meters above the lake below so the views are amazing!

    79 meters down

    We continued to Punkaharju. This National Landscape is so beautiful that people of Finland have voted this road as the most beautiful road in Finland!

    The most beautiful road.

    We checked one possible sleeping place near Punkaharju but it wasn’t ok… and it was still quite early. We continued to Kerimäki.

    Kerimäki church

    This is the biggest wooden church in the world. We had seen it before so we continued to check few bunkers close to Kerimäki. There is so called “Salpalinja” that Finnish soldiers built during the WW II against the Russian attack. Luckily we never needed to use this defense line.
    Finally quite far from Punkaharju and Kerimäki we found a place to stay for the night. It was only 1,5 km’s from the Russian border!

    Near Russian border

    First day’s route was like this:

  • Tiger 900 Rally Pro testride

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    Took a short testride today. Even I knew this is going to be great bike I was still surprised! What an amazing bike!
    The engine is marvellous! It gives smooth power already from 2000rpm and it sounds very nice too.

    Already OffRoading…

    The suspension is totally with manual adjustments but it seems it made me very happy with the factory defaults (I’m 120kg’s!) And that is rare. I was also very happy with the riding position even when I was standing. Maybe I would add 2cm’s to the height of the handlebar if I would be the owner of the bike.

    The bike doesn’t look very special… Except the spoked wheels are very nice!

    This bike would be big enough for me and for my wife. The power is ofcourse much smaller than in XR but I think I could manage with it.
    I did find ONE thing I didn’t like! When you’re filling the tank the lid of the tank doesn’t stay up! So when you take the gaspump you have to lift the lid up with your other hand to get the gas to the tank… Not very big thing but it made me think how easy it would be to change this!
    One interesting thing was the rpm meter in the TFT-screen! There was 2 of them!!! One on the left side and then another on the right side of the TFT…
    It seems they had (too much) space in the TFT screen to put it there twice 😉

    Keimola race track (or it was a race track)

  • S1000XR 2020 review

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    Today I took the testride with the S1000XR (New 2020 model). My wife was there with me so she could give some opinions about the rear seat and how the bike feels from her POV.

    IceGrey BMW S1000XR

    When you sit on the bike you can notice right away that the seat feels quite different. It’s more narrow and the edges are too sharp. Luckily I’m quite tall and my knees are coming quite high so I don’t feel this sharp edge almost at all. In my 150km testride I didn’t feel uncomfortable and I could ride longer trips easily!

    #OneWorldOneXR

    Then I notice the narrow handlebar. But it doesn’t bother me at all! Maybe I should’ve gone to some heavy traffic where you need to use the maximum steering… But in this kind of normal street riding it didn’t bother me (Even I like the wide bar of the old XR!)

    Boxroad in Sipoo Finland

    The bike feels maybe little bit lighter, it feels like it wants to take the corners tighter and faster -it reminded me about S1000R that I was riding back in 2014. All the buzz or vibration is gone from the handlebars but there was few times when I felt a little bit of buzz in the bike itself -somewhere around 4000rpm.

    Spjutsund pier

    Since I have owned already 3 XR’s it makes me think “Is this bike really so much better than my old XR?” The price of the new bike is about 4000 euros higher. Is it worth it?
    I think there is 2 correct answers to this question!
    1) No it is not worth it! Keep the old one and you will be very happy with it!
    2) Yes definitely! They made it little bit better, little bit more unique and little more nice in every way (except maybe the seat!)

    Bike by the sea

    My wife didn’t like the backseat of the bike. She thought it was too short and the handlers for her were too short also. They should go further behind the seat.
    One thing I found very interesting! There was 1 page in this new TFT screen where you can see the leaning angle of the bike… I think I would be staring this page only… all the time! Or at least when I’m riding in the curvy road.

    It will be mine, someday!

    Thank you Biketeam Vantaa for making this testride possible.