Dwti Draig

It’s going to be a slow start to the morning as I recover from my lakeside wander at 12.30am. The moon was gorgeous; so full and shining down on the black lake. As I stood there I noticed two little hints of green aurora above me, a tiny suggestion of things to come. The display was not as good as the ones we saw in Sweden, there was only green, and no pink, but it was enough to keep me snapping with my phone, before going back to Dwti to try to wake Lyn. He chose to catch up on his sleep, so I returned to bed. 

I thought I’d use this time to try and give a bit more info on Finland. “Suomi on itso pohjoinen maa ja se on kaunis.” (Finland is a big northern country and it is beautiful.) I can’t write in Finnish about the trees as I haven’t learnt the word for that yet. I could talk about kaarme or nalle (a snake, or a teddy bear) but they don’t seem so useful. Finland certainly has a lot of trees and lakes and not many people. In fact, Finland has around 22.1 billion trees and 188,000 lakes. With a population of only 5.6 million people that means there are 3,950 trees per person, and one lake for every 30 people. How impressive is that? It covers an area of approximately 130,678 square miles, meaning there are 43 people per square mile. 

Finland is also home to about 2000 brown bears. That means there is 1 bear to 2,800 people so if the bears ever decided to take over I reckon the Finnish people could band together and overcome them. It’s unlikely to happen though, as they live predominantly in the north, in the vast uninhabited wildernesses, and they are notoriously shy, so I don’t think this will ever be an issue. 

I think the Finnish people are a hardy lot; they have to be to endure the hard winters, where the temperatures can range from -5 to -15 in the south with 8-12 inches of snow. Central Finland can experience snowfall of 16-20 inches by midwinter, and the temperature ranges between -10 and -20. The star of the show is undoubtedly Lapland, where we are currently. The temperature here can reach -40 in some areas, and they can have up to 24 inches of snow. Lapland also experiences Polar Night (kaamos) where the sun doesn’t rise for weeks, particularly in December and January, although there is some twilight during the day. It must look so beautiful in the winter, with the rivers and lakes frozen; ice can be over a metre thick. No wonder the Finns have a special word in their language called “sisu”, which is hard to translate directly. It embodies qualities like grit, determination, resilience and inner strength, that allow the Finns to endure hardship and push through their limits. Hats off to them in the winter; my sisu would need some serious help. 

It’s definitely a day for reflecting today. We haven’t journeyed far, only about an hour, from our lake park up to….. Another lake park up! This one is absolutely gorgeous. We are set in amongst the pine trees and have a view of the sunset and of the lake with its sandy beach. We had a late start to get here, after a freezing cold dip in the lake, which was about 10 degrees. That was nothing compared to the freezing cold shower we had after it though, as Lyn’s shower repairs need some work! He successfully stopped the leak, but had to reverse the hot/cold pipes, which means either the water is freezing, or boiling. Rather than scald ouselves we had a cold shower each. Cue brain freeze when I washed my hair. Needs must and all that! I also cooked up a fab lunch before we left. I had cooked up two salmon portions in the oven when we were on hook up in the huskey farm, so we had those cold, with smashed new potatoes cooked in the Ninja, and covered with parmesan, chilli flakes and oregano. They were yum, even if i do say it myself!

Having our main meal lunch time is one of the concessions we have chosen to make to make our travelling more efficient. We have plenty of battery power from our solar, and our engine, but Starlink definitely consumes a lot, so we don’t have it on all the time. Thanks to some clever work by Stuart of Orkney Overlanders our water heats up when the engine is running, so it makes sense to shower after we have driven somewhere, rather than heat the water to shower first thing. Similarly with our Ninja; it made sense to use it and then boost our battery back up with driving, rather than park up for the night when the solar is less or non existent. It’s all a massive learning curve for us at the moment, but we are getting there. We have a pretty good routine when it’s time to hit the road, as we have 22 knob closures to check, and 6 windows to make sure that they are shut, plus a sky light. We have adopted the Japanese train conductor style of point and call (“shisha kannko”) to check. Apparently pointing and calling reduces mistakes by almost 85%. As it requires co action and co reaction among your brain, eyes, hand, mouth and ears. If it’s good enough for the Japanese…… It does seem to work well for us, with no major mishap yet! It may sound crazy but it really does work. 

We are also getting more used to where things live. Buying 14 black storage boxes in Ikea in Sweden definitely helped. My clothes are now sorted into different boxes, clearly marked up on the front, using Lyn’s handy little wifi labelling machine, go check out Nimbots. I even have a box marked “out out clothes” but I haven’t needed to go into that one yet. Hell, there are days i haven’t needed to wear a bra, let alone my out out clothes! It’s all a learning experience, especially with clothing. I have lived in my crocs or my sandals, but I expect that will have to change soon as the weather is definitely getting cooler. I have found a need for a pair of non tie slip on trainers, as when I need to crawl through the gap between the hab and cab I need to take my shoes off first, as space is so tight, so tying up laces is a fiddle. Plus I’m lazy and it’s much easier to slip shoes on. I also need to buy M & S out of microfiber knickers, as they are both so comfy to wear and quick to wash and dry. Similarly my clothes need to get to be a lot more multi use and made of technical material. I’m certainly doing no ironing here, and Lyn’s Rohan clothes seem to wash and dry in minutes and look crease free. 

Talking of clothes, I am writing this from a new country! More to come on this in my next blog, but continuing on the clothes theme can I just say that today has seen me in jeans, a bra (with a T shirt on top, obvs!), shoes and make up! Yes, today has been an “out out day”. To be continued in the next blog!