Safe Return Doubtful

There’s a big old car park at Pallastunturi that dates back to before there was a Lapland Hotel at the end of the road, just another few hundred metres on. It is the site of the old hotel, built in 1938 and destroyed by German troops in the Lapland War in October 1944.

The space is ideal for campervans and motorhomes. I’ve been there twice now and it’s difficult to imagine it busy, as there’s so much room. It has a good view of the surrounding mountains and forest, and from its 450 metre altitude a few across the National Park also. Reindeer are used to visitors here, and it seems they get fed also, as they are not bothered about approaching people and even dogs. 

From there it’s about a twelve kilometre circuit, initially along the long distance trail from Pallas to Hetta the E6, 50 kilometres in all, that can be gravel biked also. At a pass, it’s only a kilometre across to the peak of Taivaskiro, at 842 metres, and then heading south to the peak of Lakukero, at 762 metres.

The latter, from where I took the video and encountered the herd of reindeer, is much less rewarding, as it’s the top of a ski run, with heavily eroded ground on the side of the hill used for skiing. 

Overnight the weather changed as forecast, though the rain was much slower to arrive than predicted. Its tardiness enabled me to finish the book I was reading, a rare 750 page epic, which has taken me four days, then head out with Roja for an hour in drizzly conditions with cloud almost low enough to cover us. But we were back before the rain arrived properly. 

I drove south for an hour to Äkäslompolo where I filled up with water and used the supermarket. I was here also two years ago. Then is stayed up on one of the ski car parks, but on the day I left, found a better place at a hiking car park. So that is where we are now, sharing with a German truck, owned by a Swiss couple who live in Finland. I’m usually very put off by these huge converted trucks, but Roja made the peace, immediately befriending their spaniel. Despite the truck, we got in well. It turns out the truck is new to them, and they are on a shakedown trip before heading off around the world in it, first to Africa, then to South America. Initially though, they were headed to Norway, and wanted some advice as to where to stay; they were also keen hikers. 

I had expected areas like this to have lots of mosquitoes still, but there are actually less than there were on the Norwegian coast. It could just be that it’s been very dry, and I am still 225 metres up, so it is cooler at night, but only a minimum of about 14C. It could just be that they haven’t noticed I’m here yet.