Lapland

North Adventure Day 5

Posted by gozamite on 10.7.2024
Posted in: adventure bike, BMW G650XChallenge, dirt bike, Finnish Nature, insta360 Ace Pro, Lapland, Moottoripyöräily, TET Finland, TransEuroTrail, Youtube. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

After a great night sleep in Inari Uruniemi camping (30€ only!) I was more than ready to start exploring new possible section for TransEuroTrail Finland.

First I had to ride the section 7 until it’s starting point which was still more than 100km away behind Pokka village. And it was paved road all the way there.

Actually before the “starting point” of section 7 I turned away from the paved road and all the fun started!
I soon joined with section 1 and was riding 27km together with the “main section”! And that was maybe the best road/ track that I had on this day!
Then I had route ahead of me that I knew nothing about. I planned the route to make it a section of it’s own but at some point I realised that it could be a continuation of an already existing section 7!
So all this new route would be just a new beginning part of that section. And after the update the section 7 is now 770km long!
So I was riding all the way down to Rovaniemi and it was almost 500km of riding!
Here’s the video of that day:

The route for the day 5 looks like this:

North Adventure Day 4

Posted by gozamite on 8.7.2024
Posted in: adventure, adventure bike, BMW G650XChallenge, insta360 Ace Pro, Lapland, Moottoripyöräily, TET Finland, Youtube. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

My friends Eero & Lauri decided to continue west towards Kilpisjärvi. I had other plans so I started riding east. I was riding a big road all day. First it was paved road until I was in Finland and then from Karigasniemi to Angeli and Inari it was big gravel road.
In Vuottašjávri I took a short break and checked the place beside the lake. But there was too many mosquitos and black flies. So I continued riding.

The landscape and views are incredible in this area! So I can say that I did enjoy my ride. It was 370km all together!

The village of Angeli I have never visited before. I had to search the result for a quite a long time about how many people lives in this village. It’s less than 100!
The road from Karigasniemi south to Angeli and then east to Inari is also part of TransEuroTrail Finland section 7.

Here’s the video of this day. It’s the road up and away from Alta, so called Alta Canyon road.

North Adventure Day 2

Posted by gozamite on 6.7.2024
Posted in: adventure, adventure bike, BMW G650XChallenge, dirt bike, enduro, Finnish Nature, helmetcamera, insta360 Ace Pro, Lapland, Moottoripyöräily, nature, TET Finland, Youtube. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Day 2 started with a light rain but it was over before I started packing my bike. Second time packing was already much faster and easier (& better). First I was riding back to Muonio and from there I called my friends Eero & Lauri who I knew were staying somewhere close in a cabin. I also had a place there for the next 1 or 2 nights.

We wanted to explore the area and make a warm up for the next day. And it ended up being such an amazing riding day! First to Pakasaivo lake and then some smaller tracks/ roads to Äkäslompolo village where we filled the tanks and enjoyed some great lunch in Ravintola Rouhe. Then we continued to the Rautuvaara mining area and we spent maybe 2 hours exploring the tracks there. That was such an amazing area! After the mining area we still checked some smaller tracks in the forest of Kolari and Muonio. For me it was first 70km to the cabin and then 200km with my friends. The route was like this:

The video of the day is here:

North Adventure Day 2

Holiday 2020 Day 11

Posted by gozamite on 20.7.2020
Posted in: adventure, autoilu, Drone, Kävely, Lapland, Matkustus, nature, Travel, walking. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

Waking up beside the river in Lapland is quite nice. I took my drone up even it was max 50m.

Ounasjoki
Levitunturi (mountain)
Ounasjoki early morning

Later the weather was not very nice in Finland either. But there was a chance that it wouldn’t rain so we decided to go up to Aavasaksa -after we crossed the Arctic circle…

Aavasaksa is one of the first “Tourist attractions” in Lapland. There was visitors from other countries already in 18th century. In 1881 they built “Emperor’s Hut” for possible Russian Emperor visit but it never happened!

Emperor’s Hut

Aavasaksa is 242 meters high “mountain” just beside border of Sweden and Torniojoki -river. On the top of the hill is also one of the Struve Geodetic Arc -points. We took a walk around 2,5km path on the top of the hill. We had to take our raincoats because it was raining a little bit.

Aavasaksa

We also checked little bit of the city of Tornio -I was very interested how they had arranged the check in points on the border? But it was just a border patrol car beside the road before Sweden.
There is an old church in Alatornio. This was built (1797) only 11 years before Sweden lost a war against Russia. And the church was built honoring the King of Sweden -I would say quite bad luck for him!

Alatornio Church

Then we drove all the way south of Oulu to the island of Hailuoto! Because weather forecast was quite nice for the evening and for next morning! Yes, the evening was nice but there was also quite strong wind!

Dinner
Pöllä beach, Hailuoto

Trying to make a dinner in this kind of wind was interesting. Ok the food was great but there was some sand and small stones as a spice!
Route for the Day 11 was like this:

Holiday 2020 Day 10

Posted by gozamite on 20.7.2020
Posted in: adventure, autoilu, Lapland, Matkustus, summertime, Travel, walking. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Escaping the rainy Norway…
This was second day with rain and the weather forecast didn’t look nice at all… So we decided to drive back to Finland. In Norway we spent 2 nights in a car, 1 night in a camping area cabin and 2 nights in a hotel. Temperatures were mostly about 10-13 degrees celsius and it was cloudy.

Norway – Finland border in Kilpisjärvi

After 2 hours and 150 km’s we reached our homecountry Finland. It was still raining! But only about 50km’s later the rain had stopped and we saw blue sky!

Finland somewhere between Kilpisjärvi and Muonio

In Muonio we decided to buy new camping cooking system (Trangia). And it was a good decision! From Muonio we took Levi as our goal! And there we drove straight to the top… Or not quite, you still have to climb about 100 meters higher from the parking area. The top of Levi is 530 meters.
There is nice wooden path to walk around in the top of this “mountain”. It’s only 700 meters but the views are quite amazing to all directions.
We had even a rainbow in the beginning of our walk!

Wooden path around the top of Levi

Then it was time to find a place for sleeping in a car. There was nice lean-to just beside Ounasjoki -river. A perfect place to get to know better all of those mosquitos…

Ounasjoki goes down to Rovaniemi and connects with Kemijoki
Lean-To in Finnish it’s Laavu
Camp-fire makes a special atmosphere in the evening!

Holiday 2020 Day 7

Posted by gozamite on 14.7.2020
Posted in: adventure, autoilu, Lapland, Matkustus, nature, Reisen, summertime, Travel, walking. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

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

Posted by gozamite on 13.7.2020
Posted in: adventure, autoilu, DJI Mavic, Drone, Lapland, nature, summertime, Travel. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

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

Posted by gozamite on 11.7.2020
Posted in: adventure, autoilu, Drone, Lapland, nature, summertime. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

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

Posted by gozamite on 10.7.2020
Posted in: adventure, Lapland, National Park, nature, summertime, Travel, walking. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

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

Posted by gozamite on 9.7.2020
Posted in: adventure, gravel road, Lapland, Matkustus, National Park, summertime, Travel. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

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: