36 deg C

We took the day off today, swam in the lake, sunbathed and enjoyed the 36° C temperatures.

who'd have thought...

Living in the UK has turned Kerriann into a wuss (Aussie expression meaning wimp) and she was moaning about the heat and mosquitoes all day – as an Aussie you would think she would be used to these things.

By the way, if you have a dirty Dickie, rub it with some soggy jeans and the dirt comes off a treat. As Graham cannot do nothing for more than five minutes we decided to wash the insects off Dickie’s bonnet. No mean feat with the number of mozzies they have flying around here. Dickie’s grey water was duly emptied into a bucket and we attempted to remove the carpet of dead insects that coated his front. Regular cleaning cloths were not up to the task but rags from Kerriann’s old jeans were ideal for this unpleasant job. And now K has a lovely pair of miniscule denim shorts which she will have to hide from the fashion police if ever they come calling.

As Mr Fluffy presumed Scandinavia would not be hot in the middle of summer he did not bring a pair of swimmers, so instead, has to go swimming in his undies. We have to wait until women and small children are clear of the area so as not to terrify them with the sight of his undergarment-clad form. Graham has experience in this area. We visited Iceland in October last year and he did not think it necessary to take a coat. We had to make a quick purchase when we arrived to near zero temperatures.

We are still having problems sleeping – we either open the vents and put the mosquito blinds in place and stay cool but have daylight all night or we close the vents and blinds and get hot. This 24hour daylight can be a pain in the backside where sleeping is concerned, especially when the aforementioned backside is being bitten by mozzies.

Seas and Lakes

The temperatures reached 36 degrees today, hot even by Kerriann’s Australian standards, so we headed for the coast and spent a pleasant afternoon on the rocks fishing. I caught nothing but weed, but Kerriann caught a record breaking fish with her new rod. Yes, she has got the fishing bug and now has a smart new rod.  The record I refer to above was for the smallest fish ever caught with a fishing rod – it was considerably smaller than the lure used to catch it. It was lovely catching a few rays even if we didn’t catch any fish (other than Kerriann’s tiddler of course).

catch of the day

The aire in the village, Skeppsmalen, was a bit of a building site and the Surströmming (rotten herring for human consumption) museum was closed so, despite our massive success at fishing, we decided to move on a little down the coast

Kerriann’s navigation skills, along with Tommy the sat nav, have brought us to a lovely aire run by the local community in Nordingra, a small village in the High Coast National Park.  We can park next to a sandy beach on a lake – they suggest we leave a donation of £5 in the box provided. The grass is cut, a fresh water tap is provided, there is a small jetty with a ladder for swimmers, a barbecue/ fire pit is ready for use with spare logs in an adjacent pile.  How nice that the community cares enough to maintain such a lovely place for visiting motor homes, caravans and tents. We have gladly popped our donation in their box with a thank you note.

good rocks - no fish

There is a Finnish couple in a caravan next to us who seem to be ignoring the ‘no camping’ rules (that is you don’t put anything outside your van like chairs etc unless you’re on a campsite) and have erected a full awning with flower pots, barbecues, etc. There is a small tent with two people in it to our right and that is all. Quite a surprise as it is middle of the holiday season and it’s such a nice spot.

not bad to wake up to

The midges, however, are having a field day now that the sun is dipping slightly lower in the sky. Graham has finally succumbed to the lure of ‘Skin So Soft’ (secretly known as ‘Man So Hard’) and has been spreading it liberally on his badly bitten person with no more protestations of a reduction in his masculinity for using such a ‘girly’ product. We are both a tad sunburned today so hopefully this will turn into a luxuriant bronze shade before too long.

Graham savaged by wild beast

Kerriann has been trying to persuade me of the advantages of acquiring a small canine friend to accompany us on our journeys around Europe. The tour of the Huskies was part of K’s scheme but it didn’t work – I watched as the semi-wild beasts eyed up the smallest member of our group (a two year old child) with evil intent.  

wild beast close up

Yesterday, after parking, we went to inspect our (free of charge) campsite. Passing the van parked next to us I was suddenly aware of a chained dog lunging towards me – the chain was too long and before I could avoid it the savage beast had sunk its fangs into my leg (well given me a little nip actually). The injuries were so severe that the red mark showed for over an hour. So why would we want our own aggressive animal in the van with us? From what I have observed they smell rather a lot and seem to enjoy rolling in the remains of rotting animals and other unmentionable smelly substances. They leave hairs in the furniture and mud on the floor and they stink when wet.

wild beast alert

Finally they require exercise. Much as I enjoy a good walk, I like to do so on my terms not those of a dog who will probably prefer to be out and about ridiculously early and in inclement weather.

Every morning I have the job of emptying Dickie’s dunny – that is enough for me! The thought of picking up newly laid, warm and smelly deposits from a dog revolts me as does wandering around the countryside with a bag of poo!

Kerriann who, as you may know, always looks on the bright side of life ignores these problems and has developed a ‘small dog noise’. Whenever she sees such a creature she gets excited and says ‘we could have one of those’, and makes a particularly irritating ‘aaaawwwww’ noise.

I will need more convincing.

Luckily Mr Fluffy gets me to check his entries before I put them on the blog so I have right of reply. We have met several extremely cute dogs on our trip, particularly those of the bichon frisée type who do not shed fur and are very lovely of personality. They are small enough to fit into Dickie nicely and would make a lovely smiley face out the window. He is very fond of Stella and Louie (who belong to our friends in Boscastle) and I am still on my mission to add to the Godwin King family. Our next trip over winter may very well have a new addition.

By the way, the lady owner of the slightly nasty animal was very apologetic and took great trouble in coming to our van to let us know Lewis Hamilton had won something. We were extremely grateful for this information and put on the appropriate excited faces, smiling happily at each other with the thrill of this fantastic news. We still have no idea what he has won but the lady seemed pleased that she had made our day after her dog tried to bite Graham’s leg off.

………………………………………

get big or get out

Whilst wandering through the woods yesterday searching out ancient burial mounds and an old stone labyrinth Kerriann was worried that we would be attacked by the local population of wild bears. I found her a stick for defensive action should such an incident occur. It seemed to comfort her to some extent but she had read somewhere that the best defenc eagainst bears was to ‘look big’ so every 5 minutes our progress was hindered by K raising her arms in the air and attempting to look aggressive. It must have worked as we managed to escape the forest un-injured apart from a few insect bites.

I actually heard a TED Talks about making yourself big in the bathroom before an interview to give yourself confidence. This could be taken a number of ways but actually means you stand with legs spread, arms up and making your body as big/tall as it can be. I think it works as I felt confident I could defend myself against any bears that came my way – especially with my special stick.

 

walking the labyrinth

Gammelstad Church Town

Woke up to 36 degrees in Dickie this morning as we were unable to open any windows due to the midges. The 24 hour sunlight means we need to close all the blinds but their design means they have small holes along each side. The determined mozzies would be able to get in and as Mr Fluffy is covered in bites it is not a great idea to subject him to further threat. I have renamed 'Skin So Soft' as 'Man so Hard' in a vain attempt at getting him to put some on. It seems to be working so far. 

steps into hayloft at Hagnan outdoor museum

Visited the UNESCO World Heritage site of Gammelsted outside Lulea  today. It's a 17th century (or earlier) town made up of cottages where parishioners, mainly farmers who lived several km away, would stay when they had to attend church. It was very interesting to see the little houses preserved and a guide told us about them in great detail. Am loving stencilled walls!

doesn't look very exciting but it is

There was a lovely church in town (obviously) which was quite uninteresting on the outside but very ornate inside.

ornate bench end

small piece of the altar

There is an open air museum, much like the Weald and Downland in the UK, where they have relocated century old houses and had people dressed in appropriate costumes. I got in trouble for stirring the bubble water as I a unable to read Swedish for 'please do not stir the bubble water.' I was also unsuccessful in my attempt to make bubbles.

at least I can wear a summer frock again

We are now parked up near Javre and plan an archaeological walk tomorrow as there  are supposed to be several neolithic sites around here.

Wldlife

The wildlife got bigger and bigger as the day went on.

Starting with mozzies, we then moved on to Huskies. Our tour of the dog compound was meant to start at 10am but, not realising Finland is an hour ahead, we arrived late at 1015. Luckily we had a very pleasant guide who welcomed us warmly and introduced us to a large number of the 429 sled dogs they have at the Harrinivan campsite. I won’t list all their names but there was a set of young dogs named after the members of ABBA and a Star Wars tribute group. Yoda was particularly lovely and we met some of the new pups.

Moving on from the dogs, we left the site and headed south along the E8.

looking glamourous

young pups wit adoptive grandmother

A group of reindeer slowed the traffic for a couple of kilometres and we managed to get a quick video (click the link). We had several other encounters with reindeer as we drove south.

We are now in Kalix on the North West Swedish coast where we were entertained this afternoon by a Jet Ski race and over flown very closely by a helicopter who we assume was filming the race. It’s a lovely sunny day and there is a very different feel here to the Finnish wilderness which is only a couple of hours away.

watching the jet ski spectacle

Our diet has been pretty bad today. On crossing the border to Finland we decided to pop in to one of their supermarkets to grab a loaf of bread. We could hardly contain our excitement when we discovered that their food is (relatively) reasonably priced – crisps were reduced from £4 a Norwegian bag to just under £2 – so we went a little crazy buying chocolate, crisps and all the items of junk food we had been deprived of during our weeks in Norway. A pint of beer with dinner was still £6 though. 

Mr Fluffy has his own brand of Finnish bread

MozzFest

‘I’ve never seen you move so fast!’ Graham is obviously very impressed with my murderous actions. Growing up in Australia has been the perfect training.

It’s 630 am and the last half hour has been spent swatting and, dare I say, killing about 50 mozzies which spent the night supping on Graham’s person. Last night it was frustrating, if a little amusing, to watch Mr Fluffy nicely try to catch each mosquito in a plastic cup and kindly let it out the door (whilst letting 7 others in).

Refusing to spray himself with Avon’s Skin So Soft (as it is too girly), he has woken up with lovely big bites all over his arms and legs. I, of course, being unafraid of girly things, have gotten away with one or two small bites on my ear. (Thank you, Donna). Mr Fluffy even refused the more masculinely-named Mygg Stop as, in ever-optimistic mood, he would not believe the ‘myggs’ would be a problem.

He was wrong.

After a sleepless night punctuated with high-pitched buzzing and biting (from the mozzies not Mr Fluffy) Graham has now moved on and is actively seeking out and destroying every midge he sees with cries of ‘I’ll get you, you little bastard’, and ‘There’s more of the bastards, where the hell are they coming from?’ The Mygg Stop is being sprayed liberally around the van and the Tiger Balm is smothering the bites. Glad to see my Aussie sensibilities are rubbing off.

We were hoping one or two would pose for a photograph but I’m not sure they will survive the killing spree long enough …oooh I hear the click of the camera. Perhaps he’s having a break from the spree. You think you’ve got them all then another squadron comes in for a counter attack.

final moments

If you are thinking of coming to Finland in July and parking by a fly fishing river – DON’T. We’re heading for the coast.

A Night at the Museum

After enjoying the Alta rock carvings and looking around the museum yesterday we went back to Dickie and tried the external wifi aerial. Hooray! The free (museum) wifi meant we could catch up on emails and write the blog in the comfort of Dickie and we discovered that we could watch Top Gear on-line via Norwegian TV. With all of the above advantages we decided to spend the night in the museum car park along with a couple of caravans and three other motor homes. Don’t you just love the Norwegian attitude to motorhome parking?

This morning we filled up with free fresh water at a local garage and eventually found the Alta LPG supplier. We paid 50 Krona (£5) to a camp site to use their chemical toilet and grey water disposal but as we have not paid a penny for overnight camping for over a week we don’t mind.

entering Finland

So with full LPG tank and Dickie’s dunny clean and devoid of nasty content, we set off for Finland. The Finnish roads seem better than those in Norway, fewer bumps, good lane markings, very few cars or trucks and even fewer interesting features.  We have been spoilt with gorgeous scenery over the last few weeks and we were a bit disappointed by the scrubby mile after mile of low, mixed woodland interspersed with the odd scruffy settlement.

The Samis are of course a nomadic people, rather like us at the moment, but they are rather better at reindeer herding than us - not that we have tried it yet.

We are staying at a camp site in Muonio and had some rather dry shavings of reindeer with mash and lingenberries for dinner in the café. Kerriann has booked us in to visit the local husky dog slay team in the morning …… watch this space.