30th
Aug 2015
Trees, Oulu, and
a secluded camp site beside a river.
Woke up to an
absolutely clear blue sky on the Arctic Circle, and had a leisurely pack up, then wandered down to a local restaurant where we had been last night to
use their wifi. A few more photos of the
Arctic Circle, and a chat with some of the guys from the car sprint / rally who
still hadn’t left, and then we set off down the road towards Kemi, on the
coast. We had decided to travel down the
Gulf of Bothnia because driving through central Finland is very flat, so all
you see is the trees beside the road.
Several locals had concurred with this decision, suggesting that the
coast road would be more scenic and interesting. Certainly, all we saw on the 2 hour drive to
Kemi on the coast was trees beside the road !!
And a couple of rivers !
And once we got
to the coast, all we continued to see was trees. And a couple of rivers !! There really isn’t a lot to look at in
Finland unless you have some particular destination in mind, in which case I am
sure there are some superb places. But
if you are just wandering like us, then it is hard to know where one needs to
wander to in order see something. Unlike
other countries where you see unexpected things along the way because they are
visible.
We stopped for
lunch in a rather dismal gas station simply because there were no Parking areas
along the road we were on, which was a bit of a surprise because normally they
have them all over the place. After
lunch, we decided to head into a town called Oulu in order to get away from the
trees – And found a delightful little town beside the Oulojoki – Yup, “joki”
means river. We found the main square,
parked the car, and went for a wander.
First thing we noticed was no payment for parking - Unlike Norway where
you pay to park anywhere at any time of day !
The town is focused around the river, and where we were all the old
riverside warehouses had been turned into bars and restaurants and little
boutique shops – But the shops were closed – Scandinavia REALLY shuts down on
weekends, especially Sundays.
It was a
beautiful warm (20 deg) sunny afternoon so many locals were out walking,
cycling, or just sitting in the sun enjoying a feed or a drink. They have had a terrible summer in
Scandinavia (in Europe generally), and July, Scandinavia’s holiday month, was
basically rained out every day. So they
are all making the most of the sunshine now.
We met another couple today who have taken some extra time to enjoy the
weather, since they missed it in July ! We wandered along the river, watched
some brave girls hire Stand up Paddle boards – Obviously first timers, but they
did pretty well. There were market
stalls in the square – Unfortunately most of them were empty – The markets were
in the morning and we had missed them.
But one food stall was still trying to sell food, and tried to tempt us
with some whitebait (or similar) and some Moose Balls – We tried each, but
cried off as we had only finished our lunch a short while earlier – What a
shame !!
We then wandered
on round the river, enjoying the sun – If you get into the shade, it is
instantly chilly. We then wandered up
past some of the old warehouses, and up through part of town, before returning
to the car. While finishing our melting
ice creams before we got in the car, a couple stopped to ask us about our
journey, and we ended up chatting to them for half an hour or more – A
delightful couple. Rainer and Hietrud
are from Germany but now live in Sweden, and are in Finland enjoying the warm
weather, as well as stocking up on food – apparently more choice in Finnish
supermarkets than in Sweden ! They have
been out to Australia / Tasmania a couple of times, and it was very pleasant to
spend some time talking with them. Meeting people like this, and just touching
base with them, however briefly, is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the
trip.
From Oulu we
continued on down the coast road a little longer but it was getting towards 5
pm, so we started to look for a suitable place to camp. Not much on the main road, so we found a
turning down to a little village called Pyhajoki, and once in the village
followed a little dirt road down towards the river (one of the advantages of a
good mapping programme on a tablet is that you can find little places like
this), and as the lane got narrower and narrower, with little weekend cottages
set back in the trees along it, we found a little clearing beside a little harbour
where the locals keep their boats – Just perfect. We set up camp beside the water, in the
sunshine, had Norwegian Fish Cakes and stir fried veggies for supper, and
watched the sun disappear behind the trees.
A few mossies, but not bad – We haven’t really had a problem with them
on the whole trip.
Pics should be here if the new system works properly !
Woke up to an
absolutely clear blue sky on the Arctic Circle, and had a leisurely pack up, then wandered down to a local restaurant where we had been last night to
use their wifi. A few more photos of the
Arctic Circle, and a chat with some of the guys from the car sprint / rally who
still hadn’t left, and then we set off down the road towards Kemi, on the
coast. We had decided to travel down the
Gulf of Bothnia because driving through central Finland is very flat, so all
you see is the trees beside the road.
Several locals had concurred with this decision, suggesting that the
coast road would be more scenic and interesting. Certainly, all we saw on the 2 hour drive to
Kemi on the coast was trees beside the road !!
And a couple of rivers !
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