Into Norway

Travelled:316 km
Stay : Norway - off the 98, 20km out of Ifjord,  looking out at the beautiful Laksefjorden N70.41673 E26.73040
Visited: Lapland, Norway

We woke up with a start at 5 am due to the water pump turning itself on and the sound of water gushing. Our first thought was that the temperature had dropped below 3°c and the hot water service was automatically draining. We quickly turned off the pump and found out the issue was with a disconnected pipe in the toilet. Luckily Mark could easily reconnect it and all was good again. The plus side was that it was snowing, covering the trees, creating a peaceful wonderland. 

Later we ventured into Inari,  which is Finland's most significant Sami Centre. The Sami are the only indigenous people of the EU. Out of the 75,000 Sami population, 10,000 live in Finland with the majority living in Norway. Traditionally they lived off the land which included reindeer herding,  fishing, hunting and making handcrafts. Now it is mainly in tourism and services keeping their traditions and language alive.Unfortunately the Siida museum was closed today so we continued on our northward journey. 

We stopped in the border town Utsjoki but only filled up with desiel at €1.50/ltr (30c more than general prices in Finland). We checked the lpg.eu website which stated thd average pricd in Norway as €1.60.
Our border crossing went without a hitch, choosing the 'have nothing to declare ' lane.  Phew! all our wine and beer was not confiscated!  

We have travelled 5,322km to the Norway border in 3 weeks.

Clever pole picker upperer!

We drove on the E6 following the river along the Finnish border until Tana Bru. There were plenty of motorhomes at the cross intersection.  We were happy to find a free service point that was well indicated.  We calculated the desiel price to be a couple of cents cheaper here too. Oh well can't win them all!

As we drove on we were already amazed with Norway's scenery along the waterways.  

Heavy duty equipment here!

But then we went over the Ifjordjellet pass of only 370m, but we experienced a landscape as never before.  

Passing Ifjord we turned up the 888 only to be greeted with a sign showing snow chains.  Feeling unsure we doubled back and asked a fellow at the road maintenance depot and he said the pass to Gamvik was pretty snowy today and it would be best to wait until tomorrow.  So we drove a few km along the 98 and chose a nice spot to wait out the weather which changed every half hour or so. Let's see what tomorrow brings.