hiidenkonttibeta

Another fine morning. During the normal morning rituals (making coffee) I saw a reindeer swimming by. At first it looked like a duck with a duckling; after consulting my brain a bit further (the coffee was still brewing) I dismissed that option since ducks don’t usually have very big antlers.

A swimming reindeer looks like a different animal compared to a running reindeer – a running reindeer looks like it’ll stumble over it’s own legs any second. If you want to see applied chaos theory in action, watch a reindeer running for a while. But be cautious, walking may be hard afterwards. A swimming reindeer, however, glided past peacefully and majestetically, head and tail held high:

This was our last day here (our visits are always so short..), so the rest of the morning was spent cleaning up, packing, and installing some wiring for the solar panel system. The spotlights were to be screwed into the walls through their inch-thick bases with the supplied inch-long screws. Sunwind is so very clever.

It was a little windy on the boat trip back to the car. Even a few drops of water spilled in the boat, and as a result all our bags and the clothes we were wearing were wet. My turn at the wheel.

We had lunch at the top of Kaunispää. Afterwards there was a little time for wandering around, and I took photos of this little reindeer:

I continued driving to Sodankylä. So much reindeer on the road that the mailboxes and other stuff started to look like reindeers in the end. Coffee, switching drivers, next stop was the Arctic Circle.

There was a sign post showing directions and distances to some cities:

Only 7340km to 東京! But I had left my compass at home, maybe next time. There was of course a lot of Joulupukki this and that around, I only took one photo:

Uneventful ride to Tervola. More coffee. Switching cars again, and we continued towards Oulu.

For 10km or so, that is. Apparently Skoda “Faabio” Favorit didn’t like being left behind when we had fun in the north. Tuomo noticed there was something funny in the behaviour of the car, and stopped on the nearby bus stop. A smell of something appeared, as did a lot of smoke from the right front tire. It was too hot to touch – the brake had locked, stuck. We had been warned about this possibility.

It was 22 o’clock on a Sunday evening, but luckily we weren’t in the middle of nowhere. After we had tried a few tricks I called my cousin who lived a few kilometers away and asked if he could bring us some tools. Luckily he was at home and after he arrived I found out that he knew a lot more about cars than I had thought. When he got the brake unstuck we drove to his place where he attempted a quick & dirty repairing but the available parts weren’t tough enough for this kind of usage:

The tire was able to turn, but braking was only possible using the handbrake – otherwise the brake would lock the tire again. We drove back to Tervola to spend night there.

A lot of thanks to Sami for helping us out in the middle of the night in a heavy rain!

Oh, here’s a good chance for new superstition. If the first animal you see in the morning before drinking any coffee is a reindeer swimming in a lake, be sure to check the car brakes.