(Used to be) Living in Luleåland: Nordkapp 1

My first trip out of Luleå was up through Lappland (the northern end of Finland) and Finnmark (the northern end of Norway) to Nordkapp, the most northern end in Europe. Why? Because it is there, and there isn’t so far from here. Also, my mate Tim had a stopover in Helsinki on his way back from a conference, so he extended it and got himself to Rovaniemi. With all places of interest a long drive away, we decided to go to the place of interest straight upwards.

I hired a VW Polo, requested studded winter tyres in case we got snow, and drove a couple of hours through Swedish forest to get to Rovaniemi and meet Tim. From Rovaniemi the route we took was up along the west side of Finland through Kautokeino to Alta and on to Nordkapp. Coming back we came more inland, through Karasjok to Inari, and back to Rovaniemi via the market at Sodankylä. Each day was a long day of driving, with not much to stop and do along the way. Fortunately Tim accidentally brought his little Belkin FM transmitter along in his bag, so we could play music from my MP3 through the car stereo. I tried to buy one the day I left but at the 3^rd electrical store I visited was finally told that not only did they not have any, but they were actually banned from sale in Sweden due to some law against transmitting on FM without a licence. If anyone has ever used one of these things you’d realise how ridiculous this is – the things are so pissweak they can barely transmit further than 1m, so I can’t see how they could interfere with anything. So it was good to be fanging it through Finnish forests with the phat funky sounds of Betty Davis blasting through the speakers, and the audiobook of Jon Stewart’s America: Democracy Inaction providing a few laughs. Much better than the Finnish talk shows and radio plays.

A typical Swedish forest:

Rovaniemi is the home of Santa Claus, and the big tourist spot is described as a “very kitsch Santa centre”. There is also the post office where all the mail from around the world addressed to Santa goes, as well as a Santa Technology Park, specialising in sleigh and related transport technologies and beard growth dynamics. We didn’t check Santa out though, as we needed to get an early start on the 1000km drive. But knowing our luck, and the fact that September was after the summer holiday season, Santa was resting and it probably wasn’t even open. We did stay at the Hostel Rudolf though, and eat breakfast at the Hotel Santa Claus.

A typical Finnish forest:

And a typical forest in Norway:

OK, so I might exaggerate a little, but for the first few hundred kms the scenery hardly changed. In some areas the trees were shorter, in other spots the pine disappeared, but overall it was largely the same. When you get far north though, the fir drops out leaving just shorter and shorter birch trees, until they are just gnarly shrubs barely hanging onto existence in an almost barren wasteland. They are extremely hardy, possibly even something I could grow without killing. They are found almost all the way to the north. But the scenery was beautiful, the lakes in Finland, the land of a thousand lakes. Here’s one of them:

Tim looking for a spot to answer the call of nature

Why did the reindeer cross the road?

Dunno, I never got to ask them. Although they aren’t afraid of steel killing machines hurtling towards them at 110km/hr on the roads, as soon as a car stops and a slow moving and squishy human approaches, they scatter. Fortunately screeching brakes were not involved any of the times we had to stop for deer. Reindeer herding is still practiced by the Sami, the traditional nomads in the area, and many signs warned that we were entering “areas of reindeer husbandry”. Black cloths hung by the side of the road also indicated where Sami had crossings for their deer.

Compare the reindeer to the moose below, and you can start to see why cars sold in Europe must pass a 'moose test' rather than a 'deer' test, which the first Mercedes A-class hatchback didn’t pass. This tests how easily the car rolls over when swerving to avoid a moose. It is not as critical to swerve and avoid reindeer, which being small get pushed under the car if you hit them. The moose is a lot bigger and has long legs, so if you do hit one you hit its knees and the massive body comes crashing straight into the windscreen. It’s especially bad if you hit the horny front end, so I’ve been advised to swerve in the direction of the buttocks. Moose are a big problem in winter, when they come to the roadside to lick the salt off the road put there to melt the ice.

Tim exerting Crocodile Dundee-esque mind control on the moose.

Tim failing to exert mind control on the moose.

Furry on the inside, too.

A real Norwegian road, minus fir trees.

Norway basically has all the mountains in Scandinavia, and eventually we came to them. The mist was due to the numerous small waterfalls cascading down the mountainsides. Sorry, didn’t have good pics of them.

A lake near Alta. Lots of camp sites were around, and in summer it would probably be a great area to paddle around.

Norwegians have a Hobbit-like fascination for planting grass on houses. These grass mounds and the red cabins are a hotel, where we would have liked to stay, but like most hotels, souvenir shops, museums, general tourist attractions, restaurants, and even whole towns, it was closed for the off-season. The summer tourist season is short but intense. I don’t know what people do in the other towns that don’t have ski fields for the winter tourists. In Alta we were told the town economy is based on service industries – “everyone cuts each other’s hairs”.

Alta’s 4000 year old rock art, uncovered in 1978 when building works for local houses disturbed the covering of dirt and moss on these rocks. The houses are still literally next to the rocks, which is now a UNESCO heritage site. The pictures tell stories of reindeer husbandry, fishing in hide covered boats, feasts, the playing musical instruments, and the hunting of (and by) bears. The paint was added by archaeologists for emphasis.