Weather was again very warm. This is not at all typical in Lapland that the temperature stays over +30 long time and even the nights are warmer than +20.
We started soon after 9am and it was already stifling hot. I had plans for some gravelroad in the beginning of the day but I choose the paved road because I could ride faster and get some refreshment from the wind.
I didn’t fill the tank in Kittilä which was a big mistake. I soon realized that there’s no big citys or even villages between Kittilä and Rovaniemi -it looked like there’s no places to add gasoline!! But finally there was one!
This place was 57km’s south from Kittilä and the gasoline pumps was still working! Many these kind of places don’t have gasoline anymore because the regulations are more tight about spoiling the enviroment.
Quite soon after this we found a place for a break and swimming. There was this big river Ounasjoki and our route was following it until Rovaniemi but the rivers are not so obvious places for swimming…
This was a place to put the boat to the river and it was ok for us to make a quick refreshment. About 1 hour later we were in Rovaniemi and there’s one place my wife wanted to see! The Arctic Circle and the Santa Claus village!
Even in a very hot summer day you can hear at least Japanese, Russian, German, English and few other languages here. I hope these people didn’t come here to find the winter wonderland… We almost went to visit Santa Claus!
But we chose the motorcycle ride to the city… and we didn’t want to ride there too long. It was simply too hot! Our final stop was at Ranua -about 110 kilometers south from Rovaniemi. Just behind our hotel there was a beach so we could relax for awhile and ofcourse go swimmig.
Later in the evening we had a dinner in our hotel but to stay the night here we had chosen the “economy room” which meant a room with very poor air ventilation upstairs of… police office!
Luckily we could keep the window open all night so at least after midnight it was already almost ok to fall asleep.
Here’s video about the day (made by my wife):
The route for the day 12 was like this:
Tag: Napapiiri
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We started the morning wit a short walk around the Ruka “city-area”. The streets were empty and weather was already very warm! There is a small pond just in the front of the hotels and skiing area.
After breakfast we packed tha bike once again and started the ride from Ruka to Kiutaköngäs. Even this is not a long way there is still one very nice road (and rare in northern Finland) with low bending corners. This Juumantie is very nice ride in this area and I recommend to ride it even if you are not going to the rapids.
To see the rapids it is maybe wiser to change your riding gear to hiking gear. There is about 1km walk to the rapids… but after you find them you will probably walk quite a lot more to see everything and you might even climb or at least take the more difficult paths!
It’s vey rare that the water level is so low here! Normally you wouldn’t see any rocks in the middle of the rapids.
It took maybe about 2 hours for us to check the Kiutaköngäs -rapids.
We continued riding north… and went over the Polar Circle! (In Hautajärvi) Here they don’t make so big number about the Polar Circle even it is quite remarkable “line in the map” when you think about the nights and the sun (summer or winter).
In Salla -village we stopped for a little while to check the nice church (built in 1950).
And from further north we found our place to stay… We chose the “lappish style” hut from Loma Joosula. We really enjoyed the place!
We walked to a hotel nearby to enjoy the “real Lappish food” -The reindeer stew.
And in the evening when I was making a flight with my drone the host of this place recommended that he would like to have photos and video from this area and his place and if I would do it I could have my stay for free! And ofcourse I said “Yes!”
Here are few of the photos I took from this area: Google Album
My wife made a video about this day:
The route for the day 6 was like this:
GoZa Mite 