Havoysund – Utsjoki – Rovaniemi – Home

So there hasn’t been a post for the last day and a bit due to the fact we were simply travelling to Rovaniemi. It was a long journey stopping off in Utsjoki in a very secluded cabin and then finding our house for the night in the city that is the gateway to the Arctic.

I will update a later post with details on the film but here are two photos from the last few days – from driving in near blizzard conditions to the car not being bale to get up a very icy road.

Leaving the Arctic Peak

Our stay in Havoysund has come to an end and its pretty warm here +5C (The coldest on record here is only -8C), it is warmed significantly by the sea. However the wind plays a big factor in keeping this town and Nord Kapp warm.

Our Flat is next to the harbour and directly outside our window is the Rescue boats:

Now this is predominantly a fishing town and nothing else – the odd tourist – the one expensive takeaway is town (220NK for Chicken Nuggets and Chips(£20)).

The only shop opened this morning and hasn’t been open our entire stay so our provisions are pretty scarce and a stop in Finland is a must when we pass the line into it. Things are very expensive here and this is something I cannot emphasize enough.

We went on a 8 mile round hike yesterday to the Arctic peak, I made it up and waited for the other chaps (10 minutes) and we made a cup of Bovril and tea at the end of the world. The wind is extreme in this part of the Arctic – hence the windfarms; the wind makes it very cold.

It took us around 8 mins to travel around the town and it was unimpressive to be perfectly honest, its not somewhere you’d come back to, but something you should definitely do as the experience is unparalleled looking out at the arctic Ocean. Our stay (2 days) is the prefect amount of time to come here for however you should stop up before you get here.

Onwards to Utsjoki.

The Long drive to Havoysund

I’m writing this late as we were driving all day to get to the region of Nord Cape. We are currently in the capital city of Nord Cape – Havoysund. This was around a 6 hour drive with stops to get here through very cold conditions – the coldest we have ever seen (-38.9C), interestingly we passed the point where Fahrenheit is lower than Celsius as -38.9C is -38.0F. At this point when you are outside, one deep breath hurts and makes you want to cough, if you breathe in through your nose the hairs freeze (To give you some kind of idea). Its nearly impossible to be outside without a good coat and base layer, gloves, scarf and a hat (you always travel with a base layer and outer layer on your legs in these conditions). It still amazes me that people live in these condition – admittedly they don’t go out much.

We saw fjords, tundra and open expanse throughout – as we got towards the top of Europe the Arctic ocean started to show its hand and the wind picked up.

Once we got to our base in our trek to the plateau of the world we realised that nothing is open here past 4pm (We arrived at 6pm) and even thought the town is larger than I first thought it would be its very quiet.

We walked around for a while a found the only take away place open where we purchased some generic fast food, as Norway is so expensive this cost the group around £100 collectively; in comparison this would cost around £20 in London.

After this we head back to our good flat in the heart of the town and played around with camera settings and compared ISO’s on various cameras whilst talking about our mission tomorrow.

The mission equates to seeing the Arctic Plateau and sledding – a good plan, don’t you think?

This shows the window icing up in the inside – not the outside. It also shows out thermometer.

This shows the sun in setting over the Arctic Ocean in the Nord Cape region on the journey up.

Anton makes the first mistake

So we are heading through security and Anton forgets that he has a bottle of Remy Martin in his backpack. So the helpful Gatwick attendant suggest he may be able to check it in rather than lose it. However because the flight is dead regulations allow that they charge him, when it is full they can’t. So that nice little bottle of brandy ended up costing him £84.

Better be good.

Whistlestop Tour over

Our quick visit to Rome and its sites is over and we are currently on the way to the airporto. 

Early taxi to get there for our 10:50 flight.

The food has been amazing and the drink also.

We have seen 1000’s of people in queues but always found a way around them be it a tour or luck but I don’t suspect that in summer we would be that lucky!

Some of the sites we have seen:

Vatican Tour sticker

That is all.

Vatican Musuem

We are about to embark on the museum tour for 2 hours and have so far been around St Peters Square and posted some letters from Vatican City. The queue for the basilica is ridiculous, But we get in through the back way with our tour 😉 definitely worth a 45 euro ticket. 

Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps and the Metro

We have made it back to our hotel to refresh and head out into the city, lots of footage obtained, coins thrown in a fountain (beyond me as to why), steps walked up to a school and Archangel Gabriel seen.

The churches in the city are breathtaking, like all of Italy to be honest but there is something special about them here in the home of Christendom.

One of the oldest churches in the world – The Pantheon, is overshadowed by a Macdonalds for some reason.

I’ve brought half a kilo of cheese, Parmigiano, for 7 euros. Some hams to snack on and pasta you simply can’t get in England.

Oh and I’ve had my first pizza of many for his short trip.

Wandering around before our hotel room is ready

So I thought I’d share some pics!

Musei Vaticani

We have landed in Roma and are on our way to Via Crescenzo where our Hotel is which is near the Vatican and the Castle of Angles. We have just driven past the above and will be here Sunday.