After a good day on the road yesterday, I woke up with a smile on my face, ready for a new day towards Lieksa, 110Km from Kuhmo. The legs feel a bit tired after yesterdays monster stage, but give it a few Km and I’m all good. Lieksa, here I come!

New morning, same procedure as everyday
As always, my day starts with a breakfast and a trip to the supermarket to fill up my food quota for the day. Finland is a bit like north of Norway when it comes to distances between places, you need to prepare for everything, since it’s at least 100Km between every place.

I start my trip towards Lieksa. I haven’t checked the elevation today, but I guess it’s like the rest of Finland, not very big climbs, but many of the small ones.

It doesn’t  take more than about 2-3Km and my legs is not tired anymore. I pick up an ok speed, not a part of my plan to push too much today, since I had this long stage yesterday. I can’t feel anything from the pain that I had some days ago…. WHAT A FEELING, I’M BACK!

Memories from the Cold War
I see a sign by the road, which tells me that there will be some historic place soon, normally it’s a stone or something, but when it’s a big sign like this, it might be something like yesterday.

Here it is, stop on the left side on the road. It’s not difficult to see that I need to find my SLR Camera. It’s a lot of thing’s that the Finish military put up as a defence against the enemy in the cold war.

WOW. What can I say, this is more than I expected. Here you can see barbed wired fences, tanks, cannons and trenches from the war, amazing.

I walk around here for an hour, just looking around, taking pictures and fight my own war with the ants, mosquitoes and other creeps, but it’s worth it, these places will be in my memory for the rest of my life.

Finally a cyclist that I can speak with
I’m on the road again, and quickly pick up a good average speed, still no pain, which is good.

The kilometer count is quickly increasing, not much to see on the road, a few cars and trucks that is transporting trees. Suddenly I can see a guy on a bicycle, with bags…. YEAH, finally someone to talk to! I stop on the side of the road and he comes over.

It’s a guy from Germany. He is heading north to Kirkenes. At least that’s his plan, but he’s having trouble with his knees, so he tells me that he most likely will not reach his goal. He’s using the Bikeline book, which is the same as I had, until I lost it…. I can now see why it’s easier and easier to pack my bag everyday, I keep leaving souvenirs from my bag, to my hosts.

I continue towards Lieksa. When I’m approaching the small city, I meet a cosy little place. It doesn’t seem big, but it looks nice. I pass the bridge and turn right, heading for the camping. I have already spoken to them on the phone, so I know that this camping is open.

A night in the tent
After I checked in, I make sure that the tent is built, lougage is safe, and then it’s just to change clothes and get back on the bike without the trailer. You know, a big man on a big ride needs food. And in Finland, you need to make sure that the time is not after 9PM.

I find this bar which serves some pizza and a beer. The pizza is just OK, but it fills my stomach, but the beer tasted really nice today, aww, well deserved!

Always a pleasure to write a blog post for you
At this time, I’m back in my tent, writing the blogpost to all of you. In danger of repeating myself everyday, I really appreciate all of you that is following me and commenting, I try to answer all of you.

I did 110Km today, I know where my goal is for tomorrow, but I need to check how far it is.

I really recommend watching all the pictures today, just as yesterday, It’s a lot of history!

Pictures from today’s stage:
[showbiz ICT-DAY13]

GPS Data from today’s stage: