ABOVE THE ARCTIC CIRCLE.......

Wednesday 8th June 2016

When I said that the drive to ARVIDSJAUR was the last of the long drives I had missed that today's drive to INARI was 205 miles. This was going to be the first scenic road that we drove but with 100% cloud cover about 20ft. above the trees,driving rain and a fierce NNE wind we saw nothing. The wind at INARI is off the lake (Finland 's largest) and is coming at 20mph from the North Pole. It is very old and snow forecast from 23.00 tonight. And who forgot to pack the snow chains ?. Fortunately we are here for 3 days and it should clear up by Saturday but tonight will be interesting as we are 2 ft from the waters edge and the waves are splashing the van now. As I struggled to get the silver screens on the velcro tab securing them round the door mirror ripped off and needs stitching back. Some gaffer tape now holds them in place.
We also failed to spot any herds of reindeer for which this road has an unwanted reputation for reindeer motor accident fatalities.... our notes state quite explicitly that killing reindeer is illegal and if you do, the first thing you have to do is ring the police to report yourself before phoning any other agency. Apparently there are 5000 reindeer killed by motorists annually as they sleep on the roads for warmth.....which is why all local cars have 3 or 4 spotlights on a bumper bar to pick up the eye reflections during darkness.
So we are now approximately 200 miles above the Arctic Circle and the scenery is still bloody trees except the lakes are bigger and the last 20 miles from IVALO was hillier and twister.
We stopped at a roadside craft shop and I bought a little handmade ethical thingy for all the Bowdidge males which will be revealed in July.  Bet you can't wait and you'll never guess......
Anyway we're off to yet another reindeer farm tomorrow. ...I don't know why, bu it includes lunch which may be a reindeer steak.....
We are just 50km from the Russian border (actually passed a signpost to Murmansk ) and have been warned that there is no border post at Nellim,   a pretty Lap  village worth visiting but driving on past the village is likely to cause an incident. We have albeit out of date Russian visas which cost a lot of money and I'm very tempted to try and get my money's worth......