Hotelli Kieppi Saariselka

... reach in front of you. They dig in about level with your leading foot, otherwise you risk tripping yourself up. The movement is just like marching, swinging your arms high to match the effort made by your legs. As I start to get used to the feeling I glide more with each step, especially on the level parts of the track, leaving the marching for getting up hills. My legs and arms start to burn with the effort on the steeper ...

... steep sides, of many of the hills in Scotland. Several slopes are floodlit, to encourage skiers in the long polar night. The resort is the centre of a network of over 240km of cross-country routes, including 34km of floodlit trails. Looking at the map for a wider view, these trails like to national trails, criss-crossing Finland, and even crossing the borders into Norway and Sweden. It also seems that crossing into Russia is ...

... flats I've lived in. From the outside, the cabins are just as you would imagine; rustic, frontier-living, straight from 'Little House on the Prairie'. Several steps lead up to a covered porch across the front of the building. The walls are constructed from thin logs stacked on top of each other, interlaced at the corners. The gaps are tightly caulked to keep out the frigid Arctic air. On entering, the front ...

... and airport closures. Bristol, Luton and, for a day, Gatwick all ground to a halt with the white stuff. It made me feel quite apprehensive that we were due to be landing somewhere to the north of the Arctic circle in a few days time. As the pilot announced our descent into Kittilä airport, I scanned the view from the window for any signs of the ground, and also above, hoping for a brief glimpse of the aurora, and ...

Despite the storm our train from Helsinki to Rovaniemi was delayed only for an hour. That was a plesant surprise actually, because some trains were delayed for many hours. Aino joined us in Tampere. She had been waiting for the train there for more than two hours, but she almost lost it... She was helping two traveller girls, whose flight to London was cancelled.... Well, she did catch the train and our journey began. We slept well in the train ...

... It was definitely cold but feels so amazing when you know you can scramble back over the snowy bank up to the warm and cleansing heat of the sauna. This was day 2 of sauna, but last night we couldn't swim in lake Inari because it is still frozen! Its quite chilly up here... and very light...

... in a ring of mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam. I have to say that the meat was extremely tasty and very tender with next to no fat at all. Very nice indeed. We took a short walk along the river after the lunch before getting back in the car and driving onto Sodankylä, 100 miles south. The terrain was fairly similar and flat with the same vegetation of pine/silver birch mix and lakes dotted around and about. We drove through Sodankyl ...

Ok, from Ivalo it was a little bit harder, even though it is much larger than Inari. Still, I managed to get a ride from the 152nd car in the 65th minute, from a very quiet Finnish guy who was only going as far as Sariselkä, some 40 kilometers south of Ivalo.

... I had never done it before and didn't know the tricks, so I just went to the roadside and stuck my thumb out, while doing some statistics to have an idea if it was feasible to go all the way to Helsinki or if I should give up. It was really easy to get out of Inari, even though it is such a small place (around 600 inhabitants), as on the 9th minute, the 9th car stopped to me and two nice women gave me a ride to Ivalo.

What an experience. A lovely quiet wedding; beautiful picture postcard scenery; deep snow so cold that it forms perfect stars. Apparently, this only happens after about -12 degree's? And of course, madmen in the middle of the night looking at the aurora borealis! http://www.saariselka.fi/eng/