A few days off at Kylmäluoma, Finland
Zagan the motorhome is being hammered with rain and rocked by apocalyptic thunder in the middle of a huge storm. We’ve got the steady-legs down but the thunder is still making him move, which is a first. We’ve retreated to a campsite for a few days, so while all of this is going on around us, we’re in a beautiful spot overlooking a lake at the Kylmäluoma area (N65.58525, E28.89866) of the Hossa-Kylmäluoma camping.
Zagan at the Hossa-Kylmäluoma Campsite in Finland
Charlie keeps warm during the storm
We’re about two hours drive away from the Arctic Circle, so while we aren’t actually experiencing the midnight sun here, it is light all the time (this storm is about the darkest it has been for ages) and that is playing havoc with our sleep patterns. Lack of sleep leads to grumpiness and being grumpy just isn’t any fun. So, after all the excitement of the wife-carrying championships at the weekend, we said ‘tar-ah’ to Richard and Jenny as we’re bound to see them again, and drove three and a half hours north to this campsite.
One of my vest tops has been sacrificed to make eye masks for sleeping. We’re at the top of the orange marker line, when we reach the line across between the eye masks, that’s the arctic circle just a bit further north we’ll have 24 hour sun.
Trying to keep ahead of the black rain clouds following us up the country, we were amazed to see the landscape finally change. No longer did we just see the trees on either side of the road for mile after mile, now we had the occasional slight hill which gave us a view of all the trees around us, spanning out for miles in each direction. A quick stop at the supermarket stocked us up with provisions and gave us a chance for a nose at the local produce – I love Lidl, but I also love a ‘true’ foreign supermarket.
I have no idea – but we didn’t stop as it freaked me out
Happy Jay with a litre can of bear beer
This place has trees everywhere, yet you can buy twigs in the supermarket!
All of those tree-filled miles of monotony were made up for in one minute when we had our first reindeer encounter. Having seen thousands of signs for moose, we finally spotted one the other day. Yesterday we passed a sign for reindeer and within half an hour there was a herd of them on the road (sorry about the shaky camera, I was so excited). Then individual ones wandering along the hard shoulder until we reached here, where we were greeted by a mother and baby reindeer walking down the road to the campsite.
Capturing the reindeer before the rain
Don’t be shy
Proper reindeer warning signs – pee on the road
Can you spot the reindeer on the road to our campsite
Mum and baby go for a walk
It has no write up in our Finnish campsite guide (link to a PDF of the guide is at the bottom of the page) but was on our route so we took a chance. How lucky were we, it’s only one of the best campsites in Finland and has awards to prove it. For €24 (without electric) we have access to free saunas every evening, the cheapest washing machines and dryers we’ve seen in ages, a cafe and a lapp hutt where you can cook over a fire indoors! Just chop your own firewood, which they provide along with an axe! It’s in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees and a couple of lakes and is perfect for a few days relaxing.
Not just reindeer here, camouflaged squirrels
Frisbee golf is big in Finland, there are loads of courses
Celebrating scoring as we’re rubbish!
Chilling out by the lake
Inside the Lapp Hut
We won’t be posting for a few days while we chill out here, sauna ourselves silly, clean out Zagan and get all the laundry done before our final push up to the top of Norway – exciting times ahead!
Ju x
PS – bonus video, we’ll be here a while until we perfect our wood chopping technique
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Enjoy your break – but will miss your blogs
Lots of deer on the roads round our part of the world, Isle of Skye. Did you know that they like to lick the salt (from gritters) from the roads in winter and graze the new growth after the verges have been cut in summer. 50mph max after dark but you don’t need to worry about that up there !
Licking the roads! Wow! Didn’t know that. Nah, light all the time at the moment. I usually only do 50mph anyway, but the distance between towns etc is enough to get me up to 70mph, need to keep an eye out for road-lickers! Cheers, Jay
Enjoying the blog as usual. Just lived through a big storm on Rügan Island. Have now crossed into Sweden and are starting the long drive to Nordkapp. Keep up the great reporting.
Thanks guys. Storms amundo up here, we can hear them coming from ten or 15 miles away, gradually getting louder until the booms are cracking the roof open. Charlie is not impressed. Currently planning for Lapland and Norway, bring it on! Jay