We absolutely fell in love with our park up on the Barents Sea and ended up staying there for 2 nights. It was a pleasure just to sit in Dwti, warm and cosy from the gale force winds outside. The location and the weather made for a spectacular sight, with the waves constantly crashing, in whichever direction you looked, and spray launching high into the sky.

We had thought that dipping would be out of the question due to the safety aspect of it all, but found an easily accessible rockpool, deep enough to submerge in. It was definitely not my favourite dip so far, but Lyn loved it. We had to run to it in our dry robes, quickly disrobe and wade in, with the wind absolutely biting. I only lasted about 3 minutes, and didn’t submerge fully, and raced back to the warmth of the truck where we had the radiators on and the blown air heaters blowing. It was straight into the shower to warm up, and then chill for a bit. 

We went for a walk over to the old church, King Oscar 11. It was a very blustery walk, and the church was all locked up, but we did get to look in through one low window. It was interesting to walk through the graveyard too, where there was a mix of graves from 200 years ago until quite recently. We also walked over to a huge cross overlooking the sea. 

On the way back we got talking to a Norwegian border patrol guard. He was on his national service, and had been delighted to get this posting as he says it is “the best one’. He was with his mate, who was a local boy, who was having tea and cake with his family in a hut close to us. The guard was only too happy to chat, and it was interesting to hear about his life in this wild outpost. He said they love to make a fire and sit and watch “the TV’, aka known as the sea. They must be a hardy lot to thrive during the winter months here, when the weather can drop to -30 degrees. The road in is closed then to cars, and only open to snowmobiles. He said they do see Russian guards on the other side, and also have people trying to cross the river border. One bloke had recently been apprehended doing that from the Norwegian side, just to get a photo for instagram. He had a warning and a “hefty fine’. As the soldier said “you are being watched” and understandably so. 

The concept of national service is an interesting one, especially after the fierce debate about it in the UK during the last election. This young soldier was all in favour of it, and said that about a third of his year group were called up, and he was happy to do so. I am sure it must instil a sense of responsibility and pride, plus teach incredible lifeskills and forge life long friendships. 

After tearing ourselves away from this stunning spot we headed back down the 60km bumpy road into Kirkenes, where we parked up again in the port. The weather is awful; cold and rainy, so we are catching up on admin plus getting some washing and cooking done before we leave later to head back down into Finland. 

We left Kirkenes on Monday, after doing another super expensive little food shop. I was amazed to find licorice magnums there, so they had to be tried! They were delicious! We started to make our way back down into Finland, over the infamous bumpy road. It all seemed a lot easier this time as we knew what to expect and took it slow. 

We spent our first night back in Finland back at the little lakeside beach we had stayed on on the way up, as we had enjoyed it so much. Last night was spent on the shores of lake Inari, which is the largest lake in Lapland, and the third biggest in Finland. Tonight we are on the boundary of a Finnish National Park, in a quarry nestled amongst the pine forest. 

Our days have been spent being busy doing nothing, and we are loving it! After years of us both working, it’s nice to lose all that sense of urgency. I’ve had 2 years to get used to retirement, but it’s still new to Lyn. It’s strange to be able to do what we want, when we want, and wherever we want! Our days and evenings have been spent doing yoga, listening to music, reading and chatting, and it’s bloody lovely. We are trying to do not do over 100 miles a day, so the driving is far less, and the roads are now good. 

We have managed to discover Finland’s answer to the Swedish Maxburgers. These are called Scanburgers, and they are equally as good. They are so good I am ashamed to say we have had 2 in 2 days! We have stopped both times in fuel stations to get them, where they have little attached restaurants, and the best selection of cakes I have seen so far in Finland. We did treat ourselves to a cake/pastry starter today before our burgers were cooked freshly for us. No judgement please; that will come when I stand on the scales next, and yes, I did bring my Bluetooth weighing scales with me so there is no hiding from bad choices!

We had the most amazing display of the aurora last night. I had been constantly checking my aurora app for the forecast but it was not looking hopeful as the skies were so cloudy. I could see we had reached the “green zone” for activity so went to look outside. Cloud as usual. I came back in and could see that the forecast was at its highest in 30 minutes so I set an alarm for that time. Lyn scoffed at me for getting up to go outside again to look, but soon had to eat his words when I opened the door. Magically the skies had cleared, all the stars were out in force, plus a half moon. The real star of the heavenly display was the aurora though. This was our best display yet. It was all green tonight, and at one point a heavenly neon green rainbow arched right over our heads. At the risk of using the same words I used last time, it was constantly changing and ever evolving. We had to keep craning our necks and spinning around as it filled the sky. Seeing it shimmer over the lake was a real special moment that we won’t forget. Lyn had started to think the aurora was just a marketing exercise, so I think it made a special appearance just to prove him wrong. 

We had a lazy start today, and headed south again, with a Scanburger in Saariselka for lunch. We wanted to make our way to a national park to do some walks, but were later setting off as we decided to take advantage of it not raining and a still lake with easy access, so we went for a dip. The water temperature at 9 degrees was actually warmer than the air temperature at 8 degrees. 

We are now parked up in a forest, driving past a majestic reindeer. We enjoyed playing around with Dwti up the steep quarry tracks and learning what she is capable of. We took some video and got the drone out, although we have a lot to learn with it! We got talking to two Finnish men who walked out of the woods, so I got to practise my Finnish, although thankfully one of them spoke very good English. They loved Dwti and posed for photos with it. One opf the men said he is going to “ask Santa” for one. He is certainly  in the right place. I am cooking bacon so we can have sarnies for our walk tomorrow, before having a lazy night again. I could get used to this life.