June 29: Day 59, Keminmaa-Rovaniemi
Finland is in a different timezone to Sweden. Breakfast closed at 0930, which was 0830 Swedish time, which meant setting the alarm slightly early. They had all the usual suspects - museli, yoghurt, berries, scrambled eggs, bacon, mini sausages, and meatballs. Actually, the scrambled eggs haven't been scrambled for the last few days; they're unscrambled eggs: which is different but not bad. Meatballs are the kind of thing you'd find at IKEA; all the same size and shape, suggesting they weren't handcrafted by the cook. They also had waffles! Pre-made, so they weren't so warm, but I'm still happy to have them. With jam.
I am forming some pretty bad breakfast habits. That was three substantial courses, and these days it's quite normal for me. Once I'm back in Amsterdam and not cycling six hours a day any more, I'm going to have to cut back on the breakfasts. A lot.
But today there's over 100km to go and the weather forecast suggests there's rain. Komoot said there was a 70% chance of moderate rain, which could mean anything; the local forecasts for Keminmaa and Rovaniemi suggested a couple of bursts of rain but it wasn't clear whether it was a drizzle or rainstorm. About all I can do is to make sure the raincoat was at the top of the pannier: if a monsoon shows up I'm still heading to Rovaniemi; I'll just arrive wetter and later from spending time sheltering under things.
It was a bright and sunny morning, I was half-hoping that the rain would be light, maybe so light it didn't actually happen. But there's a lot of interesting clouds around...
From left to right: my waffle, with options. Remember these? An armored mailbox. Some threatening clouds…
Today's route is to follow the river Kemijoki north all the way to Rovaniemi: there's a direct road and there's cyclepaths from about half way. There's a town a few hours in, where I might be able to get lunch - but last night I passed a supermarket so I picked up some things out of habit.
Things started very nicely; the sky was blue, the sun was out, the route was on a cyclepath. But the clouds weren't all white; there were some threatening dark grey ones around. A bit of light rain started; do I stop and put on the raincoat or keep going? I opted to keep going - the cloud wasn't that big, I figured I would get out of the rain again shortly. Not sure that was the right call; I was thoroughly wet by the time the rain eased up, but it was warm and once back in the sun I was quickly dry again. Likewise, the road was quite wet but drying quickly.
From left to right: during a sunshower. After the first burst of proper rain. Clouds ahead, promising drama. Looks like rain back there…
I'd been glimpsing lightning flashes in the east, but the thunder was quiet and distant, and hopefully wouldn't affect me. It was midday, so I was keeping a lookout for a place to stop for lunch - with shelter! After all this rain, I didn’t want to be caught in the open. The first thing I saw was a truckstop: I parked at the back, ate my sandwich while walking in circles to avoid the insects. And since it’s there I went in for a coffee and some calories and to warm up. I think they had a sauna? The idea of taking a sauna at a truckstop is a concept I can't easily digest.
Moving on. Not long after that the cyclepath started; the traffic was getting busier so I was happy to get off the road. The clouds ahead were merging into foreboding grey wall. But it’s still dry. Would it stay dry? Bring out some light rain? Or drop a monsoon for maximum comedy?
A few minutes later it was a monsoon, of course (I stopped under a tree and got the raincoat out) but the surprising part is that it served up some hail as well! I'd seen a few pebble-sized pieces of ice bouncing around when it rained earlier, but figured if I couldn't get a good photo of it then it wasn't worth noticing. Well, they were falling like raindrops now. They made a nice "clack" when bouncing off my helmet, and they were big enough to sting when they hit my fingers. I parked up under a tree to wait it out.
From left to right: Truckstop sauna…? Threatening clouds, but nothing’s happened yet! About a minute later: a lot rain suddenly happened. And hail.
After a while it turned from hailstones to fat raindrops so I headed off. The road was awash; there trucks going past throwing out so much water that I saw a car pull over as one went past. Glad I was on a cyclepath, far away from those problems!
That was the worst of it; the rain slackened off and eventually stopped. The cyclepath led all the way into Rovaniemi without rejoining the road, which is a great result.
From left to right: good graffiti on the way into town. And a reindeer sculpture. At the supermarket - this is the milk section. This is the window in my room; at least two layers of double glazing, with a blind in the middle for both subzero winters and 24hr sunlight in summer.
I'm staying in Rovaniemi for a rest day tomorrow. It's the last big town I'll pass through on the trip. It's a few kilometers south of the Arctic circle - I checked the sunset time, and the sun won't set for another week. So it looks like I'll be in 24hr sunlight for the rest of the trip.
What I’m listening to: “Gravity” , the title track to the movie of the same name, by Steven Price: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzPYvrGWJgA
Also “Shenzou”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYIXNsiVowI
