Today was a long bus trip. I traveled around 400 km and was on the bus for
around six hours. However, not all of this was actual travel. We spent a lot of
time at the terminal loading up and ended up with far more than the bus had
seats for. So they put an extra bus to run to a point were enough had come off
the main one for them to swop across. In the end not many did and my bus
continued with less and less on board. I think when it left Inari, where I got
off, it only had four or five still on board. Yet it still had five hours
travel left as it was heading to North Cape and at least one Asian youth was
heading that way.
The bus was comfortable although the seats were a little narrow, especially as I
had some one next to me for part of the trip.
I went to the railway station to catch the bus as it was the first loading point
and was just down the hill from the guesthouse. I watched the very long over
night express from Helsinki arrive and the scores of passengers head off up the
hill. But not all. About 25 to 30 gathered at the bus stop to wait for the bus
to arrive for 11am departure. It then drove five minutes to the city bus
station where it began to load more up to its 11:45am departure time. By then
it was obvious that there would not be enough room. The girls who had come off
the train and immediately grabbed two seats so they could sleep had to change
their plans. Finally about 10 minutes late and we were off. Along the way the
bus also served as a local conveyor and picked up local short ride passengers.
Some sat on the step at the front.
We went out to the airport as that was also a pick up point but no one was
there. This is the 'Official Santa Claus' airport and like the Santa Village,
it is right on the Arctic Circle. There was even a metal sculpture or dashing
reindeer on the hill top beside the terminal. Then on past Santa's Village
which looked almost deserted today and on out into the countryside.
Most of the journey was similar. We drove through almost continuous Taiga
forest.
At times we glimpsed lakes or rivers but mostly there were too many trees to get
a good photo. Sometimes we went over rivers and with both them and the lakes I
often got the impression of a hydro dam somewhere out of my sight. There were
often farms with small areas of grassland. There were lots of usually small,
houses amongst the tres which looked locked up and empty. I decided that these
were holiday homes. Many of these houses had lots of character although they
tended to follow a similar design style.
Suddenly as I glanced down a driveway we were passing; there it was, a real
reindeer ambling along the drive as if it owned the place. It was not very
large but had a full set of antlers. Latter on, about two hours later on, I
actually saw reindeer number two eating beside the roadway. And that was it. I
missed photos of both so I sat with my camera ready for the next hour or so –
but no more deer came into my sight.
(It is actually now exactly midnight here in Inari. Out the window I can see
clearly across the village. There is a faint sense of sun shining but not as
strong as it was 30 minutes ago when there were quite strong shadows.)
Besides the various small towns we called at there were also a range of tiny
villages and sometimes a stop in some isolated country spot. Once we drove int
a collection of large flash buildings which turned out to be a ski resort. All
quite new I expect judging by the quality of the roading and style of
buildings. Construction was continuing. There was a community of log houses
which I guess would be rent able. Once we drove out onto the highway again I
noticed that the vegetation had changed from forest to open lichen ans tussock
grassland with individual scattered trees. There were also fences at the bottom
of the small slopes to stop skiers (I would assume) from sliding out onto the
road. At one point there was a mound of snow or ice about 40m long and perhaps
3m high. The remnant of winter? The ski area was not dramatically high or in
fact much different from the other landscape except for its vegetation. I
assume that is must be just that little bit higher and perhaps a little more
exposed. Anyway it was interesting to pas through the area and resort village.
There were lots of lakes and several times I realised that the road was running
along a causeway between two parts or the lake. That was quite unusual I
thought. We drove into a small lake side community which stretched along the
shoreline, to drop a passenger off. Not a great density of houses and mostly
along the shore side of the road. Each had a lot of space around it and I guess
that in NZ some developer would be busy infilling with expensive housing and
motels which in turn would so increase the land value that the orginal owners
would have to sell.
At each town where we stopped for a longer break, ranging from 15 to 35 minutes,
the bus company had nice clean facilities and toilets as well as a cafe and
space to sit. That seemed to be another aspect of the service which was
considered normal.
The last break was in the town of Ivano and although Irani was only another 30
minutes or so we still had the have the 35 minute break. As much for the driver
as for anyone. The ride from Ivano to Irani was mostly around the winding rocky
shores of the lake which Irani is located on. This is the largest lake in
Finland and I am told that it is often impossible to see the opposite shore
even from the middle of the lake.
How's this for organising? The bus stop is right at the steps and door of Hotel
Irani. It is not a large hotel but is obviously quite a busy spot in the small
village. A friendly welcome, fill in the government required form which gives
away a lot of my personal details and then up to my room on the second floor,
which in NZ we call the first floor. A small twin bed room with a tiny ensuite.
The beds were the smallest size singles but that didn't seem a problem when I
actually did go to bed.
The hotel is located on the lake shore but my room looked out over the road.
Once settled in I headed off along the road to visit the SAMI Museum. This was
set up to explain about the local indigenous culture which are the traditional
reindeer herders of Lapland.
There was a temporary exhibition on SAMI drum making, a shill which a local lady
has been reviving. There were ar least 50 examples on display each with a SAMI
design which often looked like rock drawings. I thought that it was an
interesting display and there were even pictures to show how to make them.
The permanent exhibition was a bit of an overkill of photos of local animals and
clime conditions during the year. Interesting but just lots of it. There were
also examples of indigenous life and the impact of more recent human contact
with them.
One smaller room was a display of local design, mostly women's clothing which
was pretty stylish. I took a picture of an antler which had been broken up then
joined with silver loops to make some jewelery which stretched across the body
and wrapped around it.
Outside, spread around the grounds were examples of an organised settlement in
the area built in the mid to late 1800's. Mixtures of log cabins, court house,
barns and food storage huts, some off the ground on a high single pole and
another where the outside walls were built onto the floorboards to stop animals
poking them up from below. The also had a hay storage system where a shelf was
raised high on poles and too high for reindeer to reach. They didn't have
actual hay barns.
It was a very pleasant walk both ways around the lake shore. Perhaps 15 minutes
each way.
Although it was now 8pm, the sun was still shining as if it was mid day.
Back at the hotel and time for dinner. They serve dinner until 10pm so I had
plenty of time.
Local foods are the specialty here so I decided to 'blow the budget'. First
soup: Smoke reindeer with cream of blue cheese was the soup I chose. For a main
it picked salmon with white fish, vegetables and mushrooms. Whit fish is fresh
water fish and I have never found fresh water fish to have much flavour and I
don't think this had, although it was dressed with a butter garlic sauce. But
now I can add it to the list of fish I have eaten. Desert was a cloudberry
tart. Cloud berry looks a bit like a yellow blackberry which has only partly
developed. It has noticeable tiny seeds or pips in it. They seem to be about
the size of a small finger nail. But I decided that it was the highlight of the
meal.
I took a photo out of the window at 11pm to show how light it was with the sun
shining. I took another about 12:30am which was less bright and more dull but
still the light to photograph by.
But the highlight was around 12:05am when I went down to the dinning room and
looked out across the arm of the lake at the midnight sun. There was a
colourful cloud display, a bit like a sunset except that the sun was not
setting. It stayed just above a line of low hills. So I took lots of photos are
various settings to get the range of impressions. Some from my cell phone were
on the blog by 12:30am.
Then off to bed and sleep until around 4:30am when the phone went with a text to
say that the parcels I had sent back to home had arrived. An early start to the
next long day and of course, it was already light.
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