Day 6 – I’m prepared for a long day on the bicycle, I’ve seen the elevation chart and it will be up and down today. Had a nice evening in Sodankyla and made sure that my to English friends wasn’t able to leave the place today!

Waking up after a nice evening with new friends
After waking up at Sodankyla camping, I wrote the blog post for yesterday’s trip before I started packing my tent and bag. I’m on holiday, I don’t care if I start a bit late some days, no stress, that’s what means something.

I met my two English friends, they were sitting outside the reception area. You know, today people either follow the wifi or the nice ladies, for them it was both, lucky for them that the girl they fancied was working at the reception in the wifi area.

They confirmed that they were staying another day at this campsite. It’s amazing what a headache and a receptionist can make you do, hehe. Anyway, I wish them all the best on their trip furter north and then back south in Norway, hope that some of my tips will help them and that they will visit Lofoten.

Time to get started
I went in to the city center to buy some breakfast, a map and some sportdrink tablets to have in my drinking water. I’ve used all I got from Theo in Kirkenes.

My trip towards Savukoski started a little bit past 12, which is alright. The road was nice, but not much to see.

Continuing further towards Tanhua and Savukoski, I feel like I’m back to day 2, from Neiden to Inari, back to the forrest! The only difference is that the road is definately not flat anymore. At the moment it’s up, down, up, down and so on.

I’m not complaining about the road and the small climbs, my legs are strong enough and to be honest, from time to time it’s actually so nice to have 30 seconds of downhill, when the road is only flat, you get no break from pedalling.

Well deserved Ice Cream
I stop at a small local supermarket to buy a bottle of water for refilling my bottles and a ice cream, a well deserved ice cream! It really tastes good when you can sit down for some minutes and just enjoy the amazing taste of a daim ice cream.

The women behind the counter does not speak English. I use my hands to ask if the road is still up and down to Savukoski, she replies with a special smile and nodding with her head.

It’s just to get back on the road, there is not that many Km left before I reach Savukoski now.

Scared by watchdogs
There’s about 10Km left and suddenly 3 big dogs come running towards me from a farm. AICH, what do I do now? I’m actually a bit frightened. Lucky for me, the dogs seems to be well trained watch dogs, because they stopped at the end of the property and followed me until I passed the farm land, amazing how they never crossed the line.

I arrived at Savukoski and start looking for the camping. It seems to be closed. The name of the camping is translated to be: Mrs Claus’s Cabin, after the one you know. It’s said that Santa Claus’s secret workshop, where all the presants were made, is in the mountain called Korvatunturi.

Small places, there’s always a solution
Camping was closed, hotel was closed, what to do? Next camping is at Salla, which is 80Km away. I know I can sleep in the wild, but it would be nice with a shower, and also to update you guys.

I visit a small store, combined with a pub. The nice women there tells me that I should call until they answer. While she fixes me some food, I continue calling. Finally they answer, and they told me that they would send someone down to open a room for me.

After a quick shower, I go back to the pub for a beer and hopefully to find some new friends in this small place as well.

I’ve got a new caretaker in Finland
I sit outside, one of the guys seems to know English quite well and are friendly enough to stop speaking finish from time to time, to keep me company. He tells me that his profession is massaging people, but that people living here needs to do everything to be able to live.

Suddenly it comes out a women with a drink, she sits down with me and start talking in English. She tells me that the store/pub owner told her to go out and speak with me, and to make sure that I was not feeling lonely with all the guys that doesn’t speak English. It’s almost as if the pub owner really cared for me and wanted to make sure that I had someone to talk to…. My mother from Finland I thought.

Small town, maybe to small?
It’s easy to see that this is a small place, the people come from all over, wearing working clothes and everything. Suddenly a police officer and a fireman comes in there and sits down with the guys.

The farmers in the pub turns around when a tracktor appears, but when a car with nice sound or a motorcycle passes, nobody reacts.

Just before I leave, I see that some of the guys that have been drinking beer is suddenly driving away. The police and fireman are driving at the same time, but doesn’t seem to care, they go the opposite way. I have to be careful walking home to my place here.

Had a nice day, looking forward for tomorrow! Thank’s for all the comments, I really appreciate it!

Stian

Pictures from today:

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GPS Data from today’s stage: