Dwti Draig

At 6pm last Saturday, we eventually got Dwti started to make the long journey north to the Arctic Circle. Exactly 1 week later, at 6pm Saturday we crossed the border from Sweden to Finland. 2 Hours later we arrived at the Arctic Circle. We would have made it here at 6pm, if it were not for an unfortunate incident involving some mud!

We had parked up in a seemingly idyllic spot for the night in Sweden, right next to the sea at the edge of a forest.

The journey had been painstakingly slow as Lyn navigated his way carefully through the trees on dirt tracks. The night was quiet, and we woke early and decided to head on. We made our way back up the forest track, only to find we were well and truly stuck in the mud! This was not the Arctic Circle; this was not where the story was supposed to end!

Lyn sprung into action and braved the mosquitos and got out. I followed him, not exactly dressed for our bitey friends, as I was wearing three-quarter length trousers and crocs. No judgement allowed, please! Lyn started hunting for rocks or branches to put under the back driver-side wheel which was stuck the most. He then got out his snazzy tyre inflation/deflation kit he luckily bought in May at the Van Life festival. A quick little chat with ChatGPT suggested lowering the back tyres PSI down from 100 to around 40, so he did this, as I vowed vengeance on every mossie that dared to come near me, as I shovelled mud from under the wheels.

He jumped in to try again. Hearts in mouths  he started up, as I stood alongside to advise him what was happening. Luckily it all worked and we were free. Phew. I daresay that will not be the last time it happens, and it’s all a good learning curve. 

We carried on the road, planning to make it up to Harparanda which is the Swedish town at the border. We have been here before, and know it is the best place to do shopping before heading into more expensive Finland. I got very excited when I could see “Tervetuloa” on the shop front, which I could translate as Finnish for “Welcome’. Go me, and go Duolingo!

The supermarket was huge, and our journey around it took ages as I stood in front of everything with my phone for Google Translate and XE to convert the prices. Sweden does not use the Euro, like Finland, but instead uses Krone. Eventually, we were done, once Lyn prised me away from the huge pick n mix selection!

Then it was onto the biggest Ikea we had ever seen next, which was virtually next door. In fact I googled it, thinking it must be the biggest in the world, but apparently not; that one is in the Philippines. This one was still massive though, at 185,000 square feet. I felt as if I walked every single foot of them, as it was all on one floor, and we walked through all the furniture etc to get to the storage boxes we wanted. I’m sure there must have been an easier way, but if there was, it was well hidden!

We fuelled up, as diesel is cheaper in Sweden, and Lyn got chatting to two Finnish blokes who pulled into the fuel station just to admire Dwti. Then, it was time to cross the river and enter Finland. Much like the last time we came, the roads were fast, straight and empty, lined with beautiful forests each side. We were treated to the most amazing sunset. We had about 2 hours to go before we reached our final destination; a fictitious circle and a man in red.

We pulled into the huge parking lot at Santa Claus Village at Rovaneimi. This place is Xmas Disney on steroids, even in a snowless September. You want a Santa Burger? You got it? 

We wandered around at 10pm, like a pair of weirdos, marvelling at just how many ways they can commercialise the big man himself. The main shop was just closing as we got here, so we could not buy a pair of Santa oven gloves, or a Santa apron, much to our dismay, but we did wander around, listening to the Christmas music and peering in the North Pole Post Office where all the letters to Santa arrive. We also, obviously, had the obligatory “straddle the Arctic Circle” photo, as it is painted on the floor as a physical white line, with its latitude co ordinates of 66 32 35. We drove over the Arctic Circle 5 years ago when we travelled by motorhome to the Lofoten Islands in Norway, but had taken a different route, directly up the river that borders Sweden and Finland. We crossed it by ferry on the way back down. I have been above the Circle by air when we flew to Tromso in Norway to run a Polar Night Race, and Lyn has flow over it twice when he ran a Polar Night and a Midnight Sun race. This time, however, we plan to go much further north.

I sit writing now with my mushroom coffee. We are still in Santa’s car park and need a chilled day today. It’ll be a chance to get ourselves a bit straighter and organised; time to fully utilise the 14 storage boxes we bought yesterday. We’ll probably have a little look in Santa’s gift shop before we head north and leave Rovaneimi. Believe it or not, Rovaneimi is the largest city in Europe. It has an area of 8000 square kilometres, but only a population of 62000. The logging sites and gold opportunities attracted thousands here in the 1800s. Today it is the capital of Lapland, so has the administrative centre here, along with the University of Lapland. It also benefits hugely from tourism. It was bombed almost completely in WW2. When the city was rebuilt by the Finnish architect Alvar Aaltor he rebuilt the footprint of the city in the shape of a reindeer’s head with the city roads forming the antlers, and the sports centre the eye!

I always find it interesting to look at the history of a country. Finland was a part of Sweden in the early 1800s, but Russia defeated Sweden in a war in 1809 and took control of Finland. It became an autonomous Grand Duchy under the Russian Empie, which meant it could still make some decisions, but Mother Russia was in charge. By the early 1900s many Finns wanted independence. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, when Russia was weakened, Finland declared independence. This led to a civil war between the Red Russian Boldheviks and the anti communist Whites. The Whites won and Finland became a republic. 

The Soveiet Union attacked again in the Winter War of 1939-1940 as they wanted more land. The Finns put up a strong defence but had to give up some territory in the peace deal in 1940. It wanted to get its lost land back in 1941 and joined forces with Nazi Germany when Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Finland fought the Soviets again, but eventually had to make peace again and lost even more land. It lost territory, about 10%, but did not lose independence or sovereignty. It also had to pay reparations to the Soviets after the Continuation War of 1941-1944. Finland stayed neutral in the Cold War to avoid problems with its powerful neighbour, and was careful in its foreign policy, signiong agreements with the Soviets whilst maintaining independence. It joined the EU in 1995 and NATO in 2023.