26th May - Lapland and onto the arctic circle

As forecast it rained overnight and in the early morning but then things softened and drizzle became the norm for most of the day with occasional bright spells.  

I travelled north east from Kuopia where I has spent the night, heading roughly towards Kemi on the Gulf of Bothnia, the plan then was to pick up the road to Rovaniemi and head for the Arctic circle which crosses the town.  Decent and largely empty roads was the norm for the day.

Yesterday I remarked on the price of fuel being higher than the UK, well it seems to be slowly increasing as I go north.  But the other interesting thing that struck me is that here, diesel is significantly cheaper than petrol.  Interesting as in the UK it is being artificially taxed higher to discourage use on the supposed grounds that it is less environmentally friendly than petrol.  The Finns, who are generally very environmentally ‘with it’ don't seem to have the same issue.  It will be interesting to see if the same is true in Norway.

The same fuel station where I took the above shot had a rusting steam engine on the grass verge - no indication as to why, though.  I love these random finds!

My target for tonight was the Arctic circle and , just after Rovaniemi, there was a tell tale sign.  

Now you may notice that the sign also points to Santa Claus - I am now of course in Lapland.

Although the Arctic Circle itself is just a line on a map, the Finnish Tourist Board, understandably cant leave it at that.  This area is big business, attested to by the many large car and bus parks in the immediate area - all pretty empty at the moment though.

I hang a left and head for the Arctic Circle Centre cafe, hoping to get a coffee and an Arctic Roll or something - unfortunately it’s closed!

So I ride a little further on to see if the giver of presents is around.  Again I am out of luck.  Well it is late Sunday afternoon, so perhaps he has gone off for his tea.

I head off to a campsite that I found not far away near the river.  

Apparently the camping area does not open until June,  and so I have to make do with a wooden cabin overlooking the river - that’ll do nicely thank-you!.

So I make myself some tea and settle down to take in the scenery.

Its very pretty, though not looking particularly Arctic yet .... I wonder if that will change.

Tomorrow I’m continuing to head north deep into Lapland - see if I can spot some Reindeer.