I think I slept a bit better last night. A bit hard to tell because there was no powerpoint by the bed so I couldn't run SleepCycle for the night.
Pretty standard breakfast again.
Headed out around 8am. We headed one hour south east to the Ranua Zoo, which is an Arctic wildlife zoo which was super cool. Had a really great two hours there.
Entrance to Ranua Zoo
Ranua Resort at Ranua Zoo
American mink
Snowy owl
Photo by Mum
Great grey owls
Golden eagle
Honey buzzard
Ural owl
White fronted goose
Wild boar
Polar bear
Polar bears
Polar bear
Polar bear
Me with life sized polar bears
Photo by Mum
Three year old female brown bear
Three year old female brown bear
Dhole
Wolf
Lynx
Wolverine
Wolverine
Finnish forest reindeer
Finnish forest reindeer
Photo by Mum
Finnish forest reindeer
Finnish forest reindeer
White-tailed deer (or maybe roe deer?)
The Majestik Møøse
The Majestik Møøse
Reindeer
Then back into town to pick up the others that didn't come out. Had a brief false start getting away again because someone left their purse in the toilet at the hotel. Fortunately, like last time, they discovered just a few minutes out of town so we could easily go back.
The Arktikum from Ounasjoen silta bridge passing back through Rovaniemi
Then we just continued to drive north.
Had a brief pitstop in one little town with a very old wooden church, and ended up saying there for a full pitstop which took the full half hour for people to get through the single toilet we found. hrmm.
Sodankylä Old Church
Sodankylä Church and cemetery
Bridge over the Kitinen River in Sodankylä
Statue of a reindeer and herder in Sodankylä
Sodankylä Church
The only other stop was a drive up onto a small hill which had ski lifts at the top, and which overlooked Russia in the distance (43km away so probably not visible). There might have been a bottle of very nice Russian vodka which the entire coach shared.
Finnish countryside near Vajukoski
Finnish countryside near Vajukoski
Cafe Harianna on Lake Vajunen
Reindeer crossing the road near Etelärinne
Reindeer by the road near Etelärinne
Saariselkä Ski & Sport Resort sign
Photo by Mum
Ski slopes at Saariselkä Ski Resort
Saariselkä Ski Resort
Peter with the bottle of Russian vodka we shared
Cheers!
We saw the trees start to thin out during the trip, and as soon as you get just a little elevation you lose the trees completely and it's just arctic tundra. Not that it felt arctic at all - it was positively warm in town and even up the top of the hill it was windy but not cold. I just had my thin jumper on and I was fine.
And we saw lots of reindeer by the sides of the roads. No majestic mooses yet though (other than in the zoo this morning).
Reindeer by the road near Etelärinne
Then onto Ivalo to our hotel and dinner, which was a buffet dinner in the hotel. They had some very nice salmon and various sauces which were pretty yummy. But didn't have any dessert because the only option was pikelets.
Sign to Murmansk, Russia in Ivalo
Gold Digger Memorial in Ivalo
We also have a lovely view from our window tonight of the river by the hotel :)
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