What’s going on, it’s been awhile since the last time i wrote here. We have been active geocachers last year with over 1100 caches in 2019!

So what else been going on? Been slacking with writing a lot, but decided that it’s about time to write something. So here it is, trip report from our lapland tournee.

We had plans for lapland already in 2018, but that trip was cancelled and we spend it in the cottage mostly.

We had some problems because we couldn’t decide first, when are we going to lapland. Either early june or early september. June would be good, since no insects and temperature would be good, around +10°C. Temperature would be same in september, but smallest insects might be really annoying. Also biggest thing was the tourist season, which might be the case in the fall. Autumn colors are awesome in the lapland and there will be lot’s of tourist too.

So we decided to go there in june, since it would be much convenient for us. Also the Midnight Sun Geocaching mega-event was a major thing for the decision.

We spend a week in the Saariselkä, during that week we drove to Kaarasjoki (Norway) Karigasniemi and Inari. Then the next week we were in Pallas, Levi, Oulu and on our cottage.

Our friends joined us a bit later, they came to Saariselkä for few days. We picked them from Ivalo airport.

So the day finally came, our vacation was about to start! I bought a train ticket to my girlfriend, because our older dog Enni is quite stressed out in the car. So this would safe time and would be easier to her.

So this first route was around 800km long, took the Jessi (younger dog) and started at 9am. Goal was to arrive same time to Oulu, where i arrived 5 min before her. On my way, i logged some caches, mostly unknown caches which we had solved before.

We booked a private room from AirBnb from Oulu. That was quite cheap, so we had some concerns about beds and stuff. But this was really good! Friendly hosts and it was a cozy room indeed. After we settled in, we went for a walk and logged some local caches.

After a good night sleep, we drove to Tankavaara, which locates near the Sodankylä. I met my friend Heikki there, which i haven’t seen awhile. He was working as a photographer here.
Tankavaara has a museum and sightseens about goldmining. Here you can find views and information how pwople dig gold long time ago. Also they have build a small village which reminded me about American style villages in late 18-century.

Finally we arived to Saariselkä. Got the keys to the apartment, which was in the center. So short walk to all shops and restaurants. Price was cheap too, since it wasn’t the tourist season yet. This meant also that some places were closed too.

Went for a walk and logged first GeoTour caches too. The published this GT just a week before and we were 9th people who got names in the logbook. So it almost felt like ftf (first to find). First day was really rainy too, we got soaked.

Second day started cold, we had snow! Luckily it melted away in few hours. We had summer tyres on. We finished the GT, all 12 caches were found and logged.

So wanted the geocoins and bought them from local outdoorstore. Only 500 have been made them. And there will be almost 1000 geocachers later in the week, so needed to be fast to get mine.

Our friends arrived on wednesday, 2 days after us. Before that, we already logged quite a few caches. And walked to top of the hills like Urupää and Iisakkpää. We drove to the Kaunispää, but to the others we had to walk. Views were amazing. Also the temperature was great, between 13-18C.

At the Urupää, we noticed a beacon. In the cache description was a warning not to go nearby, since it has a strong pulse. This beacon is for the planes and it has a strong pulse which causes severe injuries.

Next day we had a trip to norway, via Ivalo, Inari, Karigasniemi and our destination Kaarasjoki.

Also met my girlfriends relatives on our way too, who live in Ivalo.

Near the Karigasniemi has a really nice place for a dayhike. Sulaojan lähde has few kilometers of trails and great views. Also the water is really pure on crystal clear. Worth to visit!

Kaarasjoki wasn’t so appealing city, what we expected. Althou views were great on our way there. So we log some caches there, ate in the museum yard and finally we wanted a unknown cache to have a triple caches (Tradi, multi and unknown) but unfortunately, the one we tried was too complex and multipoint, also lot’s of bad english so we gave up. Maybe next time.

Midnight Sun Geocaching was a fun event, we got all the LabCaches and saw friends too. I think there was almost 1000 people. Took a part to Cito cleaning and couple of meetings too.

Our friends left in the end of the week and our journey continued also.

We got recommendation to drive throught the north, via Pokka village. After this drive, we thought that next time we will drive via south… first it looked really nice, but the asphalt road ended. Then we had to drive 50km in this partly really bumpy gravel road. And there wasn’t much to see.

We were really happy after we got back to the asphalt. Arrived to the destination, Vuontisjärvi cottages.

We had a bit fun, when we got inside the cottage. It looked like we were back in the 80’s! Old washing machines and so on… but hey, everything worked. We were the only customers there, exept the was some group of youngsters. I think they left next day.

Small hikes nearby but we had plans. Pallas ws really nearby, so we drove to the nature center and hotel. Huge climb ahead!

It took 2,5 hours to get top of the Taivaskero. Trail was really rocky, but still easy to walk. Last 500 meters had a really rocky trail, so needed to be a bit more careful. On the top, awesome views and far. Weather was quite nice too. We had a lunch on the top.

Dogs were dead anfter this, so did we….

Levi area is a huge place for skiing, hiking and so on. There is also a lot’s of services like drugstore, restaurants, bars… we drove the top, and amazing views opened up Might be a bit difficult during the winter, since it was a steel climb to there.

Met my friend there so we had a lunch.

The last place was our favorite. Särkitunturi was around 45 min drive away. Only 2,5 km walk to the top and there is a small lake! Wanted to swim but seems the insect season was about to start… there was a lot of blackfly’s which is a really small and bites a small pieceoff from the skin. The didn’t bother us  much, mostly just hang around. But dogs bellies were slaughtered! So we were tehre just 30 mins and left. Poor dogs, their belies were totally red from biting and blood.

I wanted to spend a moment in the hammock, but those little things were so annoying that took only the photo….

It was time to head back to south. We had a room booked in Oulu’s spa. So we left quite early, since we had quite a few geocaches which we wanted to log on our way. We had problems to find them! Got more dnf’s (did not find) than whole year.

At the Aavasaksa, drove tot he sightseen place and great views from there. I also bought some reindeer meet.

Enjoyed swimming in the spa and some walking in the beach. It was warm and cozy. Too bad this trip was almost over.

Took almost 11 hours to drive to the cottage. One reason was that we logged a lot of geocaches on our way. But it started to be quite late so we had to hurry that we get there before dark. Cottage is in a small island, so we had to be there before dark.

Spend a week there relaxing. Goo weather, sauna and some bbq. Good recovering from the trip.

4610 kilometers behind when we got back home. I drove 99.99% from it but hey, been working as a trucker for 18 years. Nothing new to me to be behind the steering wheel.

This trip report could be more detailed but this is what i got… i need to improve my english skills too. But hopefully you enjoyed.  🙂

More photos :

https://pixabilly.1g.fi/kuvat/My+vacations/Lapland+2019/