After the unintended long hunt of a camping spot yesterday, I slept incredibly well on the banks of a small lake. Motivated by aggressive midges I dismantled the tent as rapidly as I had pitched it. When I was back on the road I soon realized just how underwhelming Lake Inari is as a camping destination compared to its surroundings: I must have spotted five excellent sites for camping near the road before I reached Kaamanen eleven kilometers later. The lakes had sandy shores again which are readily accessible from the road.
In Kaamanen I found the supermarket permanently closed but a small cafe was open and I spent almost three hours there charging stuff, editing blog posts, and of course drinking coffee. I discovered Finnish cuisine in the process and as a consequence my new favorite food item is a kind of sandwich made of flat, white bread with meat and scrambled eggs in between. Everything the body needs! Outside I chatted with an Italian guy with a lightweight setup. He turned out to ride the NorthCape4000 as well but took it more slowly than the ones I'd met so far.
The legs thanked me for this extended rest by carrying me to the Norwegian border in no time. The terrain rose ever so slightly until it hit just over 300 meters of altitude. The road was in near ideal condition, there was little to no wind, and gradients only rarely exceeded two percent -- compared to the past two days, today I was flying up the hills of Lappland.
After Kaamanen I had no opportunity for resupply until Karigasniemi, 80 kilometers further to the west. The supermarket there would close at 8 p. m. so I hit the pedals with force. Thanks to my newfound legs I made it there in time and even had some minutes to study the Finnish equivalents of common goods. Too bad I'm far from the coast now, just one day out of the country and I already miss delicatessen like the caviar and mackerel in a tube.
Just outside Karigasniemi I crossed the border back into Norway and began to slowly climb out of the valley of the Inarijoki river into that of the neighboring Karasjohka, both tributaries of the Tana. When I arrived in Karasjok, site of the Saami parliament of Norway, I had a funny, wet sensation for an instance that turned out to be a slight rain shower. It was the first occurrence of rain ever since we camped in Skutvik. An apt conclusion to a rather short day in the saddle.
gps tracks
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