Day 15 - Visiting Santa

After my stinky experience at Nordkapp, I decided it was bath day so made a short day of it and went looking for a campsite equipped with a washing machine. Rovaniemi seemed like a good place to head for as it is the only big place for hundreds of miles around. It is also where Santa 'Officially' lives.....in this nice big Christmas theme park open all year round. Tasteful. The entrepreneurial Finns have spotted a use for all that snow and winter darkness. I went there looking for an Arctic Circle photo opportunity because I couldn't get one going north as I was on a ferry. Not quite what I was expecting.

One the way there, I saw lots of roads like this....one mile is the same as the next. Lots of mild bends, mild hills and millions of trees. One thing Finland is not short of is trees. Apparently 69% of the country is forested and there are 187,000 lakes. That means a lot of mozzies.

The endless forest is enough to make you do strange things.. I have been told that the Finns are a pretty taciturn lot. So far, I can't confirm or deny this rumour but certainly nobody is walking up to me and saying hello at gas stations.

At the campsite I met this incredible Japanese chap Nozomi Watanabe who is touring the world solo for two years on this little bike. A little 200cc Yamaha Djebel which looks just about perfect for the job. I might take a serious look at one for a trip in the future. He left Japan in May and has so far traversed Russia and next he heads south to South Africa via the eastern side but not before he heads down to Spain, Portugal and then back up southern europe and then through Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Israel.....ll the way to Cape Town....Then over to South America and up to the US.....you get the picture. He will have one hell of a story to tell by the time he is finished. He has a blog at www.4wanderer.net if you read japanese.