"The Ossis - they are the toughest" - quote of a super nice Viennese contemporary on our way towards "Slettnes fyr" - the northernmost point of our journey and the northernmost lighthouse continental Europe.

Saturday 12.08.

One notices that the nights become increasingly rougher. It felt like one thunderstorm after the other passed over us, which even lasted until the early morning. After that it was fortunately over. In front of our tent we found a hidden puddle. Under the needles, which floated on the puddle neat water had accumulated. Fortunately not under our tent.
Except for this more or less adventurous morning not so much exciting happened. The landscape went through forest and over rolling hills and we drifted away with our thoughts more often. We headed for a shelter on the map, only to find that camping and staying overnight was prohibited. Apparently we are now in the campers' catchment area.... The problem was that everything around and along the road seemed very private and thus not suitable for spending the night. We were then but found. However, the place was rather bad than right but at least we could build our tent here protected.

Sunday 13.08.

That morning the tent was quickly dismantled again. When we pushed the bikes out of our strange hole back onto the road, suddenly two long-distance cyclists passed us! Very unusual! They probably thought the same and stopped. While we rode the next kilometers together, we chatted a bit. They were twin brothers, one is doing a carpenter training, the other wants to be a bicycle mechanic. They want to complete the line from Nordkapp to Istanbul in different stages over several years. This year, they want to ride from Helsinki to Nordkapp. The goal of the aspiring bicycle mechanic was to be the first to ride a folding bike to Nordkapp. In any case, we wish them every success with their project!

We drove on and headed for a restroom at the gold museum along the way. Seems like there used to be a gold fever here. In the parking lot we also immediately took the opportunity for a snack break.

Today we had at least one highlight planned: the northernmost planetarium, which we were going to visit! The Kakslauttanen Planetarium of theArctic Resort! The website was not very informative but we wanted to try it anyway!

The only problem was that we had to manage a few more kilometers riding on compacted sand to get there. Once we arrived, we immediately saw that it was closed. The whole complex looked nice, but was definitely not designed for summertime. A bit of a shame that you build something so amazing and then only run it half the year....
But maybe we found some info in the hotel place 4km away from the Arctic Resort. Right in front of the entrance there was apparently a woodworking workshop. Inside I found two Indians(?) running the whole thing. They explained to me politely that the whole complex actually works almost only in winter, because most tourists come during the snowy time. That probably means that we have to come back in the winter again. A bit sad we continued to Ivalo.

We went shopping before heading to our lavuu on the outskirts of town. There we found a nice lavuu with shelter and fire and everything. From time to time a few people passed by but most of them just wanted to go to the viewpoint up the long stairs. From our place we could watch the reindeer that passed by from time to time.

Monday 14.08.

Once again we were really lucky with the Lavuu. Since our tent was fittin well under it, it has not become wet overnight - which makes the dismantling much more pleasant.
On the way to Inari, we found a completely broken cell phone on the road, which we rather took with us, with the plan to dispose of the environmentally harmful battery on occasion.
At the K-supermarker we bought a few small things, before we went to the library in the Sami Parliament. Now you probably think we want to educate ourselves... Unfortunately, that's only half true. We wanted to fill up our power supplies again. And besides that, we wanted to learn a little bit about the Sami, who have their own parliament here since 1973. The building "Sajos" has also been designed extremely beautiful and inviting. There is not only a café and the meeting rooms, but also the library and a detailed exhibition. So while I sat inside and charged everything up, Tilman chilled outside and had one or two cool encounters. For example, an Austrian hitchhiker came by with her sign "To the North". Inari was now probably her final stop and from now on she is heading back home. For us, that will still take a while.

The weather was nice again, so we could continue our tour in the sunshine. For the night we had picked out a lavuu on the map again. But in the middle of the empty road, which became even emptier behind Inari, suddenly two cyclists came towards us. Kai and Ralf. Ralf accompanied his son stage by stage on his mission to ride the "European Divide Trail". Really cool! The two started from Kirkenes and want to reach Inari today. Both were super motivated and cool to talk to and a bit of the motivation spilled over to Tilman and me. With fresh ideas in mind, we all went our own ways again after about 30 minutes of chatting.

We could not find the first Lavuu and the second turned out to be unreachable. At least with our bikes. On the other side of the roaring river we saw a camper standing on top of the cliffs and after some research we knew that it is a park4night place. We thought: Where there is room for a camper, there is room for a tent! So we drove over the bridge and found a cool place for campers. Immediately we made friends with the Finnish-Swedish couple. In the past, both had always been on vacation with car and tent and knew how hard such a trip can sometimes be. Kindly we were allowed to put our cooking pot on their fire. At least until it started to rain. Then it became a bit uncomfortable and the two of them moved inside. In the meantime we tried our best to keep the fire going and to cook our food. With success! But the dinner we had in our dry tent!

Tuesday 15.08.

We woke up super late and also it took us a while to get everything together and sorted. When the Swedish-Finnish couple left, they gave us another pack of cookies - best breakfast!
Navigation was again easy. Just follow the one road. At a restaurant/motel we stopped and I asked in the smoky kitchen if we could have some water. A bit short-tempered I got the answer that behind the house there is the water tap. On the way out, one of the guests then offered to show me exactly where the tap is. Super nice! He asked if we also want to go to Nordkapp and when I denied and said we want to go to the northernmost lighthouse, he was in an even better mood :-)

We learned not to trust the signage on the way. 90km to the next village. And about 10 km later, it was according to the signs suddenly still 89km... but after another 10km it leveled out again and the signs showed the "right" distances.
The road didn't have much else to offer. A few reindeer, trees and even another tourer.
With the landscape we also let the drone rise again - and it's worth it! The forests, the lakes, the rivers - just incredible!

Despite the beautiful landscape, the driven kilometers slowly became noticeable and we still had so much to do until we would finally arrive in the north. So once again time for a "Wahrradgespräch". When we wanted to hit the road again, suddenly Tilman's chain brocke. Murphy's law. At least it didn't start raining and we were able to fix the problem quickly and continue. At Utsjoki , "our" lavuu was unfortunately already occupied by young people and we went to a hidden parking space by the river. With a premium view to the border bridge.
Tilman adventurously started the wood gas burner and it went off like anything else! Delicious dinner, nice view, what more would you want?

Wednesday 16.08.

When I had a look out of our tent at our premium parking lot campground in the morning, the antenna on the mountain had suddenly disappeared. The whole landscape enveloped in clouds and haze. Even the bridge that connects Finland with Norway was hidden.

Our first way today was to the supermarket or rather "market for everything you can imagine" to have a proper breakfast. At the checkout I was asked by a man if we were on the road with the bike. After all, it's supposed to rain all day today. Something you don't like to hear. As we drove on, for now, we stayed on the Finnish side of the border river "Tana". The road was nice and quiet and through the ups and downs, as it is known that paths along a river have, we also had the best view of the epic landscape that the river has formed.
In Nuorgam we filled up again at the k-supermarket. Strangely, there were more Norwegian license plates than Finnish in the parking lot in front of it. When I came out again, it had started peeing. Under the roof we had some snacks before we made the hard decision to continue our way in the rain. The border to Norway was a bit unspectacular, but at least we found a stone that said we were at the northernmost point of Finland. Stones don't lie, as we all know...

In the next town we sought shelter in a half-open library. But it is was no good, we have to continue anyway. Fighting against rain and wind we finally reached, after ages, the shelter with campfire, which was marked on the map. We were of course not the first and joined a Dutch couple and their self-built campervan. Time for something warm to eat and dry clothes! That lifts the mood already! By the warmth of the fire we could accelerate the drying process of some things. Nevertheless we hang them up over night under the roof. They could only become drier. After the Dutch moved on, we also set up our tent and snuggled into the warm sleeping bags.

Thursday 17.08.

After a stormy and rainy night, it took us a long time to get back on our feet. Our clothes were mostly dry but cold. Somehow, for once, we needed something warm for breakfast. So the wood gas burner was fired up again and porridge was made. This thing of stove is really ingenious and efficient! With only a medium sized piece of birch bark I could comfortably get the water boiling and the oatmeal warm. Around 11 o'clock we got away from our luxury place again and fought us up and down the Norwegian fjords.

At one of the eternal driveways, an angel from Vienna was sent to us. A white car stopped in a parking space a few hundred meters in front of us and seemed to be waiting. When Tilman got closer to the car, the man got out and had bananas and cookies in his hand. We started chatting and he told us that he just retired and now wants to do some hiking in Scandinavia. Very cool project! He actually always sleeps in his car and looks from day to day where he is going. If we hadn't said "no", I'm sure he would have given us half of his household goods. By the way, the quote of the day is: "Oh yes, the East Germans - they are the toughest!"
Maybe we will see him again on the road to Mehamn. We don't think he knows how good this encounter has done us again! In such rough conditions, it's just the little things that keep you going.
Did I say rough conditions? Well, it got even better. All the ups and downs were joined by drizzle and headwind. The route today was also mentally quiet exhausting, because we drove once across the inland and the landscape would have looked certainly nicer from a dry camper. Since my shoes were still not dry, I eventually lost the feeling in my feet from the cold. You can imagine that the motivation was very deep! So deep, that we are discussing to no longer drive to the lighthouse but immediately go towards the south. The route from here to the lighthouse is not better and we have to go on the way back, the exact same route, again!

In Ifjord we warmed up first in a café and exchanged shoes, because Tilman's were dry again. So we try to prevent a cold on my part. After a lot of back and forth we decided to drive on and look for a place for the tent. We ended up in the middle of a small birch grove, which was teeming with reindeers.

Friday 18.08.

Have you ever been woken up by the grunting of reindeer in front of your tent? Apparently, this only happens in the far north. Better than any breakfast television, we watched the reindeer from our tent entrance. Every now and then the honking of the cars was to be heard, if they stood once again to dozens on the street.
Altogether we had found nevertheless a very beautiful campground. Especially protected from the wind, which was good for a more restful sleep. The best way to refuel energy before the final sprint to Slettnes fyr! The route is not quite without challenge.

The first kilometers went up and down along the coast, but always very moderate, which guarenteed for really beautiful views! In Lebesby we refueled water again before continuing. Our next stop was a small toilet. You just have to enjoy the little things. The road there was also extremely beautiful! It went into a fjord and relatively flat, fortunately also with some tailwind. And what happens to appear in front of us on the road? The white car of our Viennese hero! He got out and greeted us with: "Do you want the good news or the bad news first? The good news was that he had fetched us two pastries " Wienerbrød" in Mehman - for breakfast. An angel! The next good news was that our trip would be worth it! The scenery is supposed to be breathtaking! The bad news: very windy and a lot of up and down. But we had already feared something like that.
Such encounters with way too friendly people sweeten the day and give us real strength to withstand the harsh conditions here in the north.

When we all went on again, there were only grins on our faces. The toilet was a bit more luxurious than we would have expected. With heated vestibule and a small socket for charging. A tempting place for a break!

It was hard to find the right point to continue, because so sheltered from the wind, in the dry and warm it was very pleasant.... Maybe we remember this place for the return trip!

Then began the climb to the first "plateau". Tilman's words:" hard but fair". At the top, a mystical landscape dominated by rocks awaited us. The vegetation was very sparse, so that actually only mosses and some grasses could survive. Not the moon, but almost. Then, behind the next bend, the headwind and the cloud was already waiting for us, through which we would probably drive the rest of the day. Pleasant is certainly something else. But we defied it all, because after all we had to continue. Patience and stamina were required. At a viewing platform, which was somewhat protected from the wind, we then took a break and strengthened us for the last kilometers to the marked shelter.

When we reached it it was just 16:00. Stay here or continue to Mehman? On the way in between there are guaranteed not many possibilities to put up our tent halfway protected from the wind. Up to Mehamn the distance should become also still a tidy ride. So we decided to stay here and set up the tent somewhat protected from the wind. Restful night is surely nevertheless something else. A hot broth warmed us from the inside, the sleeping bags from the outside. So we spent the night in this not so life-friendly area.