After yesterday’s more restful day we planned on heading back south to start a short tour of the Lofoten Islands. I knew it would take a couple of days to get there so we decided to take a slight detour through Finland and Sweden. After getting everything ready we topped up the drinking water and emptied the grey waste water. I got told off for emptying it in the wrong place but when we looked at the correct place it didn’t look any different to the one I had used. Oh well, never mind!
I had a preconceived idea that the route we were going to take would be a bit flat and not nearly as scenic as we had become accustomed to. Initially I was dead wrong because soon after leaving the campsite we were driving up through a steep canyon with waterfalls all the way down. It was beautiful but with nowhere to stop and park for photos. Eventually though it did flatten out and soon we were passing through forest for as far as the eye could see. This went on for more than two hours and although very beautiful soon became a bit boring. I kept an eye out for something worth photographing but drew a complete blank the entire time we were in Finland. We did have a drive up and down the main road through Hetta but without wanting to be unkind I’d have to say it’s not the most happening place I’ve ever been. We did manage to see more Reindeer and I made a point of having a big lens on and got one shot that I was quite pleased with. He didn’t seem too pleased to see us though!
There’s not much else to say about Finland except to say we weren’t unhappy to leave and enter Sweden. Sweden seemed nice at first but then lapsed into unending forests just like Finland before it. We were hoping to see a supermarket so we could stock up on food and nibbles but in this particular region there doesn’t appear to be much in the way of civilization!
We eventually gave up on finding a supermarket of any kind and started looking for a place to camp. Sweden doesn’t seem to cater quite as much for motorhomes the way Norway does but we finally found a quiet spot near a small lake well away from the road and settled for the night. The sky was clear and we set the alarm for 1.30 am so that we could get up to see if the northern lights were on display. Needless to say they weren’t. I got out in all my glory and all I could see were millions of stars! Also it was a bit brass monkeys and I didn’t want to risk the Crown Jewels withering away so straight back to the warmth of bed!
The following morning (Thursday) I woke early without knowing exactly what time it was and had a peek out of the small kitchen window. I could see there was a mist over the small lake we were parked next to. I decided it was too good a chance to pass up so I got dressed as quietly as possible so as not to disturb Lynne and grabbed my camera gear and went out. The sun hadn’t quite risen yet and there was just about some color left in the sky with a beautiful mist drifting across the lake. It was also perishing cold! There was quite a heavy frost which in spite of us being in the Arctic Circle still took me by surprise and it didn’t take long before I was struggling to do anything as my fingers were rapidly turning numb! I set the camera up on the tripod and composed my first shot. Having dialled in the best possible exposure using the histogram in live view I then slipped in a 2 stop hard edge nd grad filter to keep the sky from burning out. Also because the lake was reflecting the sky I put in a 1 stop hard nd grad upside down to tone down too. This was the result.
The other side of the van was a large sandbank and I went up there for this second photo of the morning. It includes a view of Nellie with that lovely mist around the mountain in the background. This was probably the highlight of our short visit to Sweden as all we saw the rest of the time was miles and miles of forests!
It was 5.45 am when I went back inside and I was bordering on hypothermic! I slipped back into bed and warmed myself up on toasty Lynne! I had another hour in bed before getting up and putting the heater on to take the chill off the place. We didn’t leave till about 10.30 am. A little bit late really as we had a long distance to drive again. Within an hour we arrived in Vittangi (still Sweden) and found the supermarket where we stocked up on supplies. I was down to about 40 miles range so the next stop was the gas station round the corner. Once again I couldn’t work out how to pump gas so I went into the shop to ask. I had to stand in line while the attendant, a black guy, was tending two counters and cooking hot dogs at the same time. So he was taking money at two counters one for petrol, one for people buying groceries, and also cooking and selling hot dogs at the same time. Unbelievable! (My best Victor Meldrew). Meanwhile the place was quite crowded with the motliest crew of people I’ve ever seen. A bit of a freak show really. Plus they all seemed to be freaking giants! I know I’m not the biggest bloke in the world but I don’t think there was anyone in there under 6 foot 6”. After all that you have to pay outside, these places all seem to have one pay point outside which covers all the pumps on the forecourt! So that’s another £80 or so gone on diesel just so we could spend the best part of two days looking at millions of trees along the way!
Whilst not wanting to offend anyone from Sweden I’m guessing that this area we’ve driven through in the last two days isn’t typical of the rest of the country. I sincerely hope so anyway because we have every intention of visiting again in the future, probably somewhere like Gothenburg which we bypassed this time by going up through Denmark! Anyway, back on the road again and we started seeing wildlife again. We saw one Reindeer dead at the side of the road and a squashed fox in the middle of the road. I’m not sure if the Reindeer didn’t die of boredom because as beautiful as the forests are, I had begun to lose the will to live whilst driving through them! However as we approached the border we started seeing mountains and the landscape was suddenly looking more interesting. We looked at a couple of potential places to wild camp but carried on till the border with Norway and then found a place about 500 meters on the Norwegian side and settled for the night!
Wandering Wildman 