FINLAND..........Pt I.

WARNING!!.

This article contains GRAPHIC IMAGES of a

Winter Wonderland from Norway and Finland that could be 

hazardous to your travel plans.

Viewer discretion is advised.

LAPPLAND, SUOMI.

E8 South of Kautokeino, Norway. *

Norway, leaving the best for last. 

Of course it did, wouldn't you know it.

I got some of the best and most spectacular shots of the Norwegian landscape as I was leaving Norway, go figure. Something to do with the light, or rather lack thereof up north in Norway at this time of year, but heading down south toward the Finland border the sun became visible for the first time in nearly two months for me. Goodness gracious, a great ball of fire. 

It didn't do anything in terms of warming me up. It was still -15 out and the windchill brought that down even lower, but it sure was nice to see. Everything had a warm glow to it like liquid honey. I was told that there's nothing much down here, and there isn't. Unless you're a nature lover like me and also happen to be a photographer as well. Then, in all honesty, you're in a photographers paradise is how I would best describe it. Provided you like winter of course.

E8 South. *

Snowfield, Norway. *

I've only ever seen photographs or postcards of these snow covered, gently curving tree branches and bushes in snowfields like this in southern Norway and northern Finland, otherwise know as Lappland. I was limited to my imagination and to other photographers images of these snow covered deserts, a landscape that looked to me to be out of this world. Crisp, white, snow crystals shimmering in the sunlight. The magical landscape of Lappland, conjuring up images of Santa Claus and reindeers, a land full of wonder and enchantment. 
A Winter Wonderland.
And now, here I was, right in the middle of it. 
Nature. There are times when it takes my breath away and leaves me speechless. Pinch me.

I have always loved and been romantically enchanted by snow and snow covered landscapes. Growing up in Dublin Ireland in the 60's and 70's we had a white Christmas every three or four years, and I vividly remember it was the highlight of my life back then. It completely transformed the inner child in me and made living in dull, overcast and dismal Ireland feel like a really wonderful place to be. For a few weeks anyway. One year we even got so much snow I made my first snowman. 
Snow and it's magical qualities was one of my escapes back then, so when I left Ireland for my first big backpacking adventure in December of 1977 at 16 yrs old, where did I go?. Zermatt, Switzerland of course, another one of my favorite winter places on this planet.

And here I am now, in Lappland, and not surprisingly feeling right at home.

By the time I stopped, and started again, went no more than 2 or 3 km, and then stopped again for more photos, and started again, and then stopped again for about the 20th time and got to the border of Finland it was already 1pm. It only took me 5 hours to travel 155 km (95 miles) and I still had another 300 km (180 + miles) to go. It would be dark by 2:30 and really cold by 4 pm. Not that it wasn't cold already, but I guess physiologically I feel it colder riding in the dark then in daylight, even thought the actual temperature might be the same. I know it does get colder when the sun goes down, but here in northern Finland it's -15 during the day and -20 at night. Not much of a difference once it goes below -10 really, cold is cold.

When I lived in Florida nighttime was my favorite time to ride, the sun went down and so did the temperature..... a bit. 
It was only 83°F at night instead of 92..........bone chilling.

Finland Border Patrol Station. *

Finland-Norway Border. Dec 2012.

I passed this exact border crossing on Dec 13th last year as I was heading north to Alta and Nordkapp, it was a little bit colder and if I remember snowing a little more too. As soon as I crossed into Norway visibility was pretty bad, it was like riding in a glass of milk at times, skim milk, all washy and swirly.
This time though on the way down from Nordkapp and Alta, it was a completely  story. 
Remarkably different.

About 75 km south of Alta, Norway the snow started to ease up and everything became a bit more visible. Once I got down to Kautokeino, Norway things were looking really good. The landscape was changing from hilly and treeless to flatter and tree filled, there are generally fewer species of trees in Norway due to ice age migration routes.

Niina from Arctic Knife, Kätkäsuvanto Finland. *

If you visit Norway from another country and make any purchases there, you are allowed some duty free or tax free items. Make sure you get a tax free claim voucher in Norway for when you cross back over the border. If you ride or drive and take the E8 south to Finland the first place you will be able to cash in your tax free voucher is Arctic Knife in Kätkäsuvanto. And inside Arctic Knife you will find (on which exact days I don't know) Niina. And Niina and Arctic Knife will cash your tax free voucher for you right there. Easy. You can also take advantage of the cheapest coffee and doughnut you will probably find in Europe. For 50 euro cents you get a coffee and a doughnut, and possibly another cup of coffee too, or maybe that was just Niina being nice to me. If so, thank you for the second cup of coffee and the hospitality Niina. 

For me, it was also a nice place to take a break, warm up and chit chat with Niina. It was a 260 km (161 mile) ride from Alta to Kätkäsuvanto, and another 260 km from Kätkäsuvanto to Rovaniemi, so I was half way there.

It was about 2 pm when I arrived at Arctic Knife and about 2:45 when I left, so sunset had already begun which meant a cold and dark ride to Rovaniemi for me.

But, as I started my ride south, it also meant that I was able to get the last of what the day had to offer as the sun dipped below the horizon. I was getting cold at this point and a bit of urgency crept in to my ride, I was eager to reach a warm clubhouse in Rovaniemi.

So as each Nikon moment came into view I had to consciously and out loud remind myself that I am an explorer, a documentarian, and if I do not stop at these moments in time to photograph and document them, then they will be gone forever, and in the end, at journeys end, I will have nothing but regret that I did not stop. And regret is something I can't and will not live with.

Muonio, Finland. Jan, 2013. *

Marttiini Knife, Rovaniemi, Finland. 

By the time I got to Rovaniemi it was a little before 8 pm in the evening and more than a little on the chilly side.

I left Alta at 6:30 that morning so all things considered 12 hours to travel 

500 km (310 miles) in winter wasn't all that bad. At least, even though I was cold and a little tired, I knew that night I had a warm bed to sleep in, much better than setting up a tent in -22.

Next on Wherethehellismurph.com:

Rovaniemi is a really nice town, and did you know it's the 
Official home of Santa Claus?.

Murph.

* Denotes clickable links that are actual GPS coordinates from the photo metadata, click it and it will take you to the exact spot the photograph was taken. Opens in Google maps.

NORDKAPP to ROVANIEMI, Finland.

"I should be there in no time, just follow the squiggly blue line", I mumbled. 
Only 730 km, easy. 
Under normal conditions. 

In any season other than Winter it would be. 
And without hundreds of twists, turns and mountain passes. 
Oh, and without riding on an Ice Hockey rink all the way down to Alta. 
AND without being a photographer too. 

Honningsvåg, Norway. Jan 2013.

I hadn't even made it 10 km out of Nordvågen when my Kodak radar, or in my case my Nikon radar went off for the first shot of the morning, a lovely image of Honningsvåg, the warmth of the street lights were contrasting nicely with the dull blue grey snow clouds that were rolling in and about to cover everything with a layer of the fluffy white stuff that I love so much. 
It's one of the things I sometimes struggle with, do I stop and take the shot or do I keep going. Sometimes I have to force myself to stop, which I shouldn't, but I do. I mean, when a 240 km journey takes me 8+ hours I sometimes feel like I'm going to need a helluva lot more than 7 years to get through my 
7 continents in 7 years trip.

Nordkapp Tunnel, 6870 meters (4.25 miles) long.

E69 South of Honningsvåg, Norway.

Being a photographer has it's drawbacks, namely, for me at least, there's not a minute goes by when I don't see something I want to stop and take a picture of, and that can be a bit of a problem at times.
On many occasions, usually at the end or close to the end of my days ride I have forsaken a shot or a location because I just didn't have the energy or enthusiasm left to stop one more time. Or because I just had to get to where I was staying for the night before it turned into the next day.
Or because it was just too damn cold to take off my gloves and take out the camera again while my fingers froze and then the pain set in to them after a few minutes of handling a cold bodied camera in -20. They get cold and painful really quick, and even though I have heated grips, once cold they're hard to get warm again. It doesn't happen immediately. They start to get warm, then the pain comes, then goes in a minute or two then all is good.

Basically that was the scenario all the way down from Nordkapp to Alta in Norway. I was initially thinking of heading east from Nordkapp to Murmansk in Russia, but had no idea of the condition of the road road from Murmansk to Moscow, so I wanted to leave that for another leg of the trip and wait until I had a little more info about it.

So instead I headed back to Alta for a week or so before I headed south into Finland and the city of Rovaniemi, the official Home of Santa Claus. I had wanted to spend a little more time there before I left the North of Norway for this year anyway.

Alta Church, Alta Norway, built in 1858.

Alta Cemetery with a 2 second exp. 
There's an accidental spooky feel to this shot, I didn't plan it that way. It was just so dark I figured a 2 second exposure would lighten the shot up a bit, and then I saw how it turned out. I didn't alter the colors in edit either. 

There were still a few places I wanted to photograph in Alta, the new Northern Lights Cathedral being one of them.

Controversial since it's inception, the residents of Alta questioned the need for a  120 million kroner ($21 million) church, which by now has run well over budget and has been delayed by a number of construction issues.

It was a spur of the moment decision when I just pulled up inside the construction gate of the Northern Lights Cathedral one evening. 

Well, at least it seemed like it was evening it was so dark, but then I checked the time and it was only 3 in the afternoon. One of the construction workers came over to me and told me I couldn't photograph there, so I tried to explain to him that all I wanted was a few pictures for an article. So he said "well, let's go to the foreman's office and see what we can do".

Upstairs in the office I was a bit of a celeb as the foreman recognized me from an article that came out in the local newspaper, Altaposten. That smoothed out any ruffles that might have been there in the first place and off I went with a hard hat and a Day-Glo orange vest into the bowels of the yet to be opened Northern Lights Cathedral.

The original drawing and design description, from what I saw look very interesting and definitely not your average looking Cathedral. According to the architects website there is an area inside the building where visitors and churchgoers will be able to observe the Northern Lights.

The Cathedral is slated to be opened this month and I'm looking forward to seeing if the final design is near to the original. If it is it should be quite a spectacular looking building.Have to wait until December to see it though, as I won't be going up there before then.

Amazing what you find in the hills of Norway.

3 Generations of Reirsen's are in this photo.

 I said my goodbyes to Bjorn-Erik and his Mom and left Alta early the next morning. It was only a 520 km ride and under normal circumstances an easy days ride. I had a great host in Bjorn-Erik and his family during my time in Alta and had a really relaxing stay. I wanted to spend a bit more time in Alta for a number of reasons, one of them being to go Northern Light hunting. For all the time I have spent so far up here in Scandinavia I have yet to see the Northern Lights. My last shot of seeing them is going to be Rovaniemi in Finland. Any further south than Rovaniemi and I'll be too far below the Northern Light belt.

The Northern Light Belt in Scandinavia.

And a Top of the World View.

Early Morning, Route 93 South, Norway. Jan 2013.

There's not a whole lot of anything between Alta to Kautokeino, just 130 kilometers of beautiful, cold and barren landscape covered in snow. 
Right up my alley. 

South of Kautokeino, Norway, a few kilometers before the border of Finland.

This is where I saw the sun for the first time since late November, 2012.
Riding south on Route 93 toward Rovaniemi, Finland I was approaching the Norway/ Finland border and there it was, right in front of me. 
"Hello Sun. Nice to see you. Been a while".

The further south I rode, the more beautiful the vista got. The sun, in all it's radioactive glory, was bringing everything to life. I mean, I enjoyed myself in Alta and Nordkapp, but until now didn't give it much thought that I never saw the sun up there. As a photographer it's an essential ingredient, one that can't be substituted with a flash or any other type of lighting. We need the Sun. My camera needs the sun.

On the other side of that green traffic light is Finland. I bade Norway and it's people a heartfelt farewell and thank you for all the wonderful experiences I had there. 

Now it was time to make some new ones in Finland.

Coming next week on Wherethehellismurph:

Welcome to Finland.

Murph.