Arrival in Norge!

Much colder and snowier here, and more expensive! I wanted to try Norwegian beer as we haven’t before and this set me back 19 quid.

On to our campsite! 

Ivalo to Enontekiö

Our time in Ivalo has come to an end and we are starting to go to bed to get ready for our trip tomorrow.

The skies are clearing and the temperatures are plunging in the next few hours, its around -8 now and will be -20 by the time we get to Enontekiö. A fierce wind has been here today and yesterday evening; bringing the temperature down to around -13 so if its windy tomorrow it will feel very very cold.

We trekked into the forest last night to see how far we could get and went around 2 miles in total, very difficult with full camera gear and 4 foot snow drifts, obviously the other guys were not carrying gear and still struggled!

Today we filmed and went onto a frozen river, the Ivalo river to see what it was like. But all in all its been a pretty easy day, exploring the local town with all 4 shops and generally running around in the cold. Steve and Anton built a snow cave and realised that in the 10 minutes getting hot and taking their gear off within 2 minutes of stopping they were freezing again.

So far the diet has been Fish and bread as its all that really exists thats any good. You can have cooked food but it is all convenience food such as burgers, pizza or chips. They don’t really sell any Finnish food in this part. Probably, as all the people you meet are generally tourists for the northern lights, do not have any cold weather gear and stay inside all day until the tour. So here for 1 or 2 days then go – the guys we have met haven’t seen it due to heavy cloud cover – but its clear for the next few days!

They must think we are mad being outside all day. It seems that we are by far the most outgoing and loud in the whole town, leaving people cursing the British no doubt. (Anton gets bundled with us). It does strike me as very odd that they do not go outside to enjoy the environment.

A long trip in the car tomorrow then to enjoy a very remote part of Finland where, safe to say, we will no doubt be the only tourists.

 

Just a quick one…

I’ll update a much bigger post tomorrow however tonight we have trekked a few miles and driven to Russia. Found out that fish is ridiculously cheap compared to every other food and shops don’t open Sundays.

Oh and Thor broke his Crampons.

The Drive to Ivalo.

A long drive today and not much to do in filming or experience wise but we have got to the part of Finland I enjoy, barren and cold. 

We are in a camping resort with a few nationalities which is good and interesting for conversation. We lit a campfire at around 7 o’clock and people kept flooding towards us to talk! The first chap was from Taiwan travelling on his own and doing a world tour; after quitting his job as a lawyer. We then got Germans, Americans and Indians to name a few! All receiving a warm welcome and good conversation. 

Five hours later we hit the ‘restaurant’ and had terrible food when three of the chaps only received chips when they wanted sausage and chips. After the meal Anton firmly let the lady know she had messed up which then upset her…a little too harsh in my opinion but there we go! 
It’s getting colder and a full day in one space is going to be great for filming.

Currently however we are all deciding what’s best – the minus 12 air outside or Steve. Russel shows us his thoughts below.

Until tomorrow morning! 

Look what I found!

From Scotland to the arctic.

The First Day

After getting lost and nearly doing double the distance to get to our first place of residence (thanks to Steve) we arrived at our Cabin which was spectacular in terms of accommodation in Finland.

It has a private Sauna,

 

an Indoor Furnace

and full decoration throughout (a rarity).

Rovaneimi, albeit having an airport, does not have a lot to do. We found one restaurant and had this: Im not too sure what it was to be honest but was edible and not stupidly expensive.

 

There is a museum but we are leaving that to the last day as to not leave us with nothing to do. And then thats it! The drive tomorrow is around 200 miles and we are planning to use all the daylight to do it as driving in Arctic conditions at night is not something i wish to repeat in a hurry and especially with a choice.

But we are going ahead with the film and getting some great footage, this time it will be done and we are already editing it! Proof below!

Gatwick to Rovaniemi

And so the next adventure begins, from a small wagamama in the heart of the south terminal to the Arctic city of Rovaniemi. We sit, slightly tired, in anticipation of a our breakfast – which is surprisingly good – a special menu that not many wagamama’s do.

Our flight takes off at 5:50 – the first flight out of Gatwick, so there shouldn’t be any delays.

Camera’s are ready and batteries charged. It should be a tepid 10 degrees FARENHEIGHT when we get there, so i’ve

only taken a coat for the first part.

Tromsø and the trip home

As i write the rest of the guys are getting their gear ready to go home and fly from Tromso to Oslo and then on to Gatwick. We fly in the morning and are about to go to sleep.

Its been a great trip and will have many fond memories from all the places we have been not to mention the conversations that have happened.

Never would i have thought i would have been out on a lake in -25 taking photos of the sky and my beer freezing in the pocket of my jacket – Or, for that matter, seeing someone stick their tongue to the metal prong of a headrest in a car.

Lots of video from this trip and I will attempt to make the film in the coming months.

Ill hopefully update a post at the airport but our flights are pretty close together and may be when back in England.

Heres to you Norway/ Finland and Sweden.

 

Finland

After being ere less than 24 hours we are leaving Finland and the temp currently is -17 F or -27 C and it is very cold, last night we saw the best Northern Lights show so that is now definitely ticked off of our list.Temp:

Lights:

We now head back to see the delights of Tromsø and on the way pop into Sweden as we are going a different route, this way we would have done three Countries in one trip!

Tried to do a post last night but it was too cold as the electrics were sluggish.

We have unfortunately learnt that the cable car in tromsø is shut for maintenance until March so will have to see what else is on offer.

Now I’m going to warm my feet up.

Our Last full day in Alta

We have been into Alta today and visited the Museum, which was small due to most of it being outside and covered in Snow and Ice.

Last night we visited the Igloo Hotel and had a jacuzzi and Sauna, good footage was obtained but sadly the cloud stopped usfrom seeing the Northern lights for a second day in a row.

We haven’t done much today but have captured a few aerial shots with the drone and tried to collect shots we have needed previously. A little bit of a slow day in preparation for our trip to Finland tomorrow.

Tonight we hunt for the Northern Lights for the last time in Alta.