The North Cape

[scrote]

great stuff. see any 'northern lights''?

[Popeye]

you can't see them in the summer time because there is no darkness!

[scrote]

[Popeye]

From Rovaniemi it was only a short distance to the Arctic Circle.



Although a landmark on our trip I hate these touristy places. To many penguins. Penguins I hear you ask! Please permit me to attempt to explain this one.

Picture a bus full of tourists. May I first say that I am not trying to be disrespectful to the elderly. We will all get there one day. Ha I am nearly there now. But not yet Most of them will be knocking on in life and to tour by bus maybe their only option. They have been sitting on the bus for two or three hours and when the bus finally reaches somewhere of interest they disembark the bus to relieve their aching joints. Well if you watch the next bus load of tourists getting off a bus for a photo shoot or dash to the toilets, please observe their gait. They will waddle just like a penguin, take their precious snaps and waddle back to the bus. So when I refer to the penguins it is not the little black and white flightless birds.

OK back to the plot. Our arrival at the Arctic Circle also involved another episode of fettling broken spokes. It was so hot I had to repair the wheel in the shade.




One for the tourists


We couldn't afford anything so asked if we could take a picture.

From here the landscape changes quite dramatically and so did the weather.


This stretch of road also doubles as a landing strip in wartime.



The weather conditions in these areas can be quite extreme and to combat this they have a variety of modes of transport. The temperature had dropped from about 17℃ to 3℃ in only 100 miles.




Kirkenes was a welcome sight and we felt some satisfaction at having reached here.


Next stop Russia, well nearly!

[aliengravy]

Really brilliant! I bet your so glad now that you took so many pictures??

[CeeGee]

Nice work Popeye, I'm enjoying this one, looking forward to each installment!

[Popeye]

Kirkenes was a little like a frontier town. I suppose that continual hard winters play havoc with the asphalt. There appeared nothing much to see so we ventured further East to Grense Jakobselv. On the way we took a slight detour that had we got the necessary visas etc we would have been able to continue to either Nickel or Murmansk in Russia. No asphalt out here and we even encountered a little snow on the way back to Kirkenes.


Main Street Kirkenes.



Asphalt and very nice at the border but no access.


God knows who comes here. no pun intended. It's in the middle of nowhere.


It looks empty but if you look close the windows are visible.


I love these roads.


I'm in the center at the other side of the lake.


Just for interest, my tent on the right is a Vango Microlite. Wonderful.


Great kitchens but here the cold made my Jam jar almost impossible to open. almost. Snowed overnight but gone by morning.

Vardo.

[Pjam]

Good to see you weren't starving out there on the road

You know how people see images of christ in toast and aubergines and stuff well can I see a face in that church door, the one to the right?

[Popeye]

You mean the one wearing dark glasses Have you been there before Pjam?

[Pjam]

Nope, I don't get out much

But I've got a keen eye for detail