21 August

Now I think I’m into a pattern: wake at 6, organise, shower, dress, breakfast, repack suitcase, suitcase out, finish organization and write up blog, pack backpack and then wait in the lobby and write up paper diary. I just have to make sure it works!
Today we leave Rovaniemi.
We set off at 9, amazingly because EVERYONE was on time. We headed out going north and very quickly arrived at Santa Claus Village. Here we were allocated one hour and fifteen minutes and I blew half an hour in filling out forms for some young people to get Santa letters. My credit card got hot paying for it.
After that it was a quick look around. The Arctic Circle marker, according to my GPS, is out by one second – you can see it next to the line (but I don’t know if you can read the display). Santa’s shop, Santa, all the other shops and the other attractions all got cursory looks (except for the important place when travelling – the gents’) and very soon it was back onto the bus and off we went.
Just before midday we got to Sodankyla where we stopped to look at a very old wooden church. It was surrounded by a fence to keep the animals out (unlike in Perth, at Pinaroo, where the wildlife lives inside and you can’t use fresh flowers as the kangaroos eat them!) and quite nice inside. However the church wasn’t open, so we only admired the outside. Back on the bus, others had had a different show as there were three inebriated Finns in the little park next door and some were seeing if they could still ride their bikes (just) while others just relived themselves to the amusement of the women on the bus.
We headed into the town for lunch. This involved a drive of about eight hundred metres and we saw the commercial centre as we went past. Some had sandwiches at the place we stopped, but others (including me) went back to the supermarket and got various goodies there to eat and drink. I had mine on the way back, but the plastic bags supplied for carrying (no, I didn’t have my GREEN bags with me – even though mine are red) were too weak and I ended up carrying things, while walking and drinking.
Back at base while finishing off and waiting, I got into discussion with a lady from South Africa. She is the only one from South Africa on the tour, and we had an interesting time talking about driving in remote areas and zoos.
Back on the bus and sitting with Keith (now my buddy for the trip), we headed off to Tankavaara. Along the way it showered, but in general the weather was fine and warm, reaching up to 18°C. Along the way we saw a lot of reindeer, many houses and farms (and a lot of holiday houses) and many lakes. The general scenery was light forest (pine, birch and occasionally spruce) with meadows spread sparsely along the way, occasional peat bogs and many lakes (small through to huge). The roads were in good condition and there was little traffic.
At Tankavaara we went to a Gold-mining museum which not only had information on gold rushes in the local area but also those through the rest of the world. Australia featured in two displays, one in an alcove and one on a pinboard. I couldn’t resist and left them a koala stickpin to put with them, so if anyone visits this museum in the future, look on the pinboard display to see if the koala appears (it’s opal on gold, about one centimetre high). After a good look around we headed off for our resting place for the night, at Saariselka. We drove straight through the town to a scenic lookout on the other side, from where we could see the town and also through to Russia.
Back in the town we got off at the Holiday Club and got allocated our rooms. As soon as I got to mine I set up the laptop and found Internet access was FREE! I got on line and then my suitcase appeared (I find it hard that a porter brings my suitcase to the room – and will pick it up in the morning). I processed the photos from today, then went to upload them. There is no such thing as a free lunch, so access was slow. I walked down to the supermarket and had a look around before coming back and finding that the photos were still uploading. When they finished, we all headed off for tea.
That was included today, and was a buffet, so I made up for the nights we will not have. I sat with the tour leader for the other group (now included in ours) and we chatted about seeing places and the way we coped with travel and its restrictions. Most seem to find it hard to realise that I post this, and the photos, each night when I can, and she was fascinated with where I will be going after. The conversation continued on our way back and then I finished writing this, did my washing (I’m keeping up with it at the moment, but may wash my trousers in a capital when I see a laundrette) and then headed off to bed as we leave at 8 tomorrow morning. This isn’t too bad as we leave at 5:30 the day after! Stay tuned to see how I cope.
I was interested to see that visits to my Flickr site have increased dramatically in the last few days, now I’m posting new photos.