After 15 days in Lofoten we return to the mainland via the tsjeldsundbrua “bridge” in Gausvik near Harstad. That night we sleep in Evenes, the most amazingly beautiful place that we know so far. we will stay here for a day. Enjoy, some fishing, a nice walk, take it easy, just great. That night of the quiet day I have another difficult night, at midnight I just get up, I look outside. What is that, green clouds, no, yes Northern Lights. I go outside with my complete photo wardrobe, a couple of test photos and yes, I have a blast, again great. After standing outside for an hour, back in bed, now I do sleep. After the day of enjoyment and the night of northern lights we move on, further towards Finland. Now we are going to drive a few kilometers, but it is going well. That night we sleep 1.8 km from the Finnish border. It feels incredibly wonderful to be back on my own somewhere. The last 3 weeks on the lofoten was a bit different. The next day we cross the Finnish border and it is rainy weather, not to say that it actually rains all day. Sirkka? Town? campsite? Washing machine, yes, after 3 weeks a campsite with all facilities, washing machine, dryer, shower and even the sauna is included in the price. They will have known that here. 3 washing machines with the same number of dryers will be run and soon we will enjoy a sauna, ok 44 euros, it is not cheap. But we use the 44 euros all the way to the last cent. By the way, the weather has become nice again. After our day at the campsite we head up the Levi where we take a nice walk and stay there for the night. The evening starts with a beautiful sunset, before being treated at night to our first real northern lights, whooowww. It is only a KP2, but it is beautiful, hoping for more. The next day we drive further into the Finnish lapland towards North, so we pass through Kittila a village that is noted as record holder for the coldest temperature January 28, 1999 minus 51.5 degrees. Outsjjjj, we don’t want to experience that. That night we sleep in a parking lot of NP Lemmenjoki to go for a walk the next day. The next day, and we step out into a vast nature reserve to the top of mountain Joenkielinen 536hm. Very nice walk through fens, forests sometimes it looks like dense forest, above 400 meters we are already above the tree line, beautiful even the rain cannot spoil the fun. And the best thing is that we only meet 2 people on the 16 km walk. This is fantastic, that peace. We sometimes dare to neglect that peace, the Noorderlicht fever lights up again, time slips past and in fact our time to see the Noorderlicht briefly. So, weather forecast check, where is the best weather, with the best chance to see the northern lights? Kirkenes, ok, 250km North. We get out of bed on time and start driving. 250km is a daily task at our pace, but we manage to find a place to sleep under Kirkenes in the afternoon. Beautifully no light pollution, great. Everything is being prepared that evening, a KP3 is predicted, and yes around 10 pm the Norwegian fireworks “The Northern Lights” are set off, wow here, wow there, wow is everywhere against the sky. Great, just great. The next day we visit Kirkenes. It is Sunday, so there is nothing to visit, so we drive another 70 km along the Russian border to the most northeastern spot in Europe “Grense Jakobselv”. where we spend the night and do a fantastic BBQ with a visit from the Norwegian border guard, actually 4 friendly soldiers who guard the border. For the time being this was the hunt for the Northern Lights. From now on it is mainly to the south, Finland, Baltic states, Poland etc, etc ……
