Country: Finland
Distance travelled: 365km
Weather: Sunny and warm

There is an hour time difference between Norway and Finland. I remembered this morning when I compared my phone with the van clock and suddenly we found ourselves eating breakfast at lunchtime. It was lovely in our quiet little spot, I even braved the mosquitoes to hang the last of our damp washing out in the sunshine to dry for a while.

We drove for a while, having fun mispronouncing the road signs which were in both Finnish and Sami. The undergrowth is lusher now than yesterday, covering the sandy soil so prominent even just yesterday. Eventually a halt for lunch was called at yet another lake. Finnish lakes generally seem to have at least one sandy shoreline and between the sunshine and all this water, I have an incredible urge to go swimming. The knowledge that the water is quite cold and that I would probably be carried away by the mosquitoes has so far put a hold on that idea. I’ll see how I go further south when we reach the real Finnish Lakes District.

I felt like a siesta after lunch, so we climbed into bed, Mark deciding to do some more photo processing while I napped. Three hours later he woke me saying it was time to move on. Further down the road I decided it was time I tried driving on the right-hand side of the road. Northern Finnish roads are smooth, with few sharp corners and clear line marks. We were a fair distance from any large towns where I would have to worry about intersections and there was few cars traveling in either direction on the road with us. Seemed like a perfect time. Unfortunately driving a vehicle 2.14m wide on the ‘wrong’ side of the road is a little trickier than I realised. Maybe I’ll try again tomorrow.

Eventually pulling into Sodankylä in the late afternoon rain that had started, we went mad in the first Lidl we have seen in more than two weeks. Pantry stock that had been left to dwindle in expensive Norway were back in the trolley plus a few treats that hadn’t been considered since we reached Scandanavia. We headed on, turning toward Kemijärvi on the E63. Now we were looking for a place to park, so frequent before Sodankylä, but there was nothing for more than 30km apart from small widened areas of road not suitable at all. Eventually we found a spot that got us off the road, above a lake with another motorhome. It was open to the road and not as level as we would have liked but it was home for the night.

No campsite photo, here is one from last night