Home again home again jiggitty jig 25 7 28
After spending another 6 weeks in Finnish and Norwegian Lapland, the arctic north without a single night fall 7th June to 19th July...
Every day a challenge only more so than in 2024 when one has to concede not so much success as earlier, but still miraculously meeting the challenges! That, despite sticking to my work-out regimen of walking 10 000 steps a day and scaling perhaps on average 100 m of ascent!?
It started out well enough but for the fact I had a couple of weeks before lost my car's near-side wing mirror, when the usual lack of spares in Hanko for old Saab cars meant I couldn't get a replacement in time for my vacation. Instead, as one journied north from Kolari, the termnius of my car-train of 14 hours duration, driving my car northwards, and pulling in at Muonio to a familiar restaurant, as I backed my car into a narrow space on the end of several other parked cars, I grazed the adjacent car.
Not to add insult to injury, at which point I stopped the car to examine the damage, and proceded to enter the restaurant to find the owner of the vehicle, when the lady in question, must have been the most good-humoured recipient of the bad news of her damaged vehicle, because she proclaimed: "Don't be too concerned" upon inspecting the damage..."we're all on holiday" as if to say worse things happen at sea! lol.
Thereafter I journied forth to Kilpisjärvi, the 250 km only to find the camping site I had used frequently before was now closed for the the duration of my stay, owing to the men's toilets being vandalized by some young person, when for the time being men and women were having to share toilet facilities: Waking up the next morning in a single room without shower or toilet at the knock-down prise of only €79.
On this my first, potentially, walking day I decided to climb Saana with the difference the weather was either raining or threatening to rain and as I reached higher on the hill it became increasingly misty and for the first time it was as if I had the mountain to myself, seeing no people until I returned from the summit, when two young ladies came against me. But I was walking well and succeeded in returning to the Retkeilykestkus in the 4 hours start to finish, 2 hours each way, the same as on my last occasion 10 months before in 2024.
Then next day, on the spur of the moment, I decided to retrace my steps and return the 103km to Karesuvanto to meet Markku and his son Heikki, to get a replacement right wing-mirror and return to Kilpisjärvi the same day. Spending a second night at the Retkeilukeskus it was necessary to move into a more expensive room fitted with shower and WC, at a slightly higher price of €89/night.
Thereafter it was my intention to leave for Norway, when as intended to jump start my car, with an accumulator of questionable charge-holding power, I foolishly tried instead to engage my reverse gear, instead the intended usual 2nd gear, when the car stopped abruptly, if only momentarily, as I engaged to th correct 2nd gear, when the operation was only partially successful, the engine in turns firing and then failing to fire. Now when I needed help from a Car Service Engineer the receptionist of the hotel gave me Karesuvanto as the nearest location, 103 km away...
Cutting my progress to a summary of what followed, was perhaps symtopmatic of how my vacation was set to be more challenging compared to a year ago, punctuated with possible set-backs, but also a certain amount of success in meeting the challenges as they arose, and dare I say coming out on top?
1) In persuading my Insurance company to use my choice of Haulage (vehicle) Contractor, instead of their own, with a view to my own choice being able to correct the fault, with spare parts I guessed correctly they would have on site, they then could bring with them in the person of Markku, the now partly retired, to his owner-son of the garage that had expedited all my Lapland repairs these past 3 years;
2) Coming down with a chest infection this year, as last gave me a runny nose, which I tended with a dozen packs of paper tissues, only to get a soecond dose 2-3 weeks later when I visited Tromsö to collect my wife, and unlike last year I no longer had so much energy during the recovery period as last year, but more importantly my body did recover, so in this sense, I met its challenge;
3) And when by turns my car acccumulator ran down excessively, with help from Harry Olsen, my Campsite owner and others, being able to keep the car going: buyig a charger to partly meet this challenge, and in the end getting the problem fully diagnosed, to tell my battery (accumulator) in point of fact had a defective plate, which although partially accepting charge whilst the engine was running, was discharging its charge overnight, to present a series of minor challenges, all of which became solved with the purchase of a new battery.
Once joined by A-E my wife we succeeded perhaps better this year than last in the sense of being more contented to do smaller walks, this year being helped by the Camp-site owners Harry and especially his wife Sessil who made a new refurbished twin bedded cottage available to us for the knock-down price of €500 for a full week of 7 nights.
Every day a challenge only more so than in 2024 when one has to concede not so much success as earlier, but still miraculously meeting the challenges! That, despite sticking to my work-out regimen of walking 10 000 steps a day and scaling perhaps on average 100 m of ascent!?
It started out well enough but for the fact I had a couple of weeks before lost my car's near-side wing mirror, when the usual lack of spares in Hanko for old Saab cars meant I couldn't get a replacement in time for my vacation. Instead, as one journied north from Kolari, the termnius of my car-train of 14 hours duration, driving my car northwards, and pulling in at Muonio to a familiar restaurant, as I backed my car into a narrow space on the end of several other parked cars, I grazed the adjacent car.
Not to add insult to injury, at which point I stopped the car to examine the damage, and proceded to enter the restaurant to find the owner of the vehicle, when the lady in question, must have been the most good-humoured recipient of the bad news of her damaged vehicle, because she proclaimed: "Don't be too concerned" upon inspecting the damage..."we're all on holiday" as if to say worse things happen at sea! lol.
Thereafter I journied forth to Kilpisjärvi, the 250 km only to find the camping site I had used frequently before was now closed for the the duration of my stay, owing to the men's toilets being vandalized by some young person, when for the time being men and women were having to share toilet facilities: Waking up the next morning in a single room without shower or toilet at the knock-down prise of only €79.
On this my first, potentially, walking day I decided to climb Saana with the difference the weather was either raining or threatening to rain and as I reached higher on the hill it became increasingly misty and for the first time it was as if I had the mountain to myself, seeing no people until I returned from the summit, when two young ladies came against me. But I was walking well and succeeded in returning to the Retkeilykestkus in the 4 hours start to finish, 2 hours each way, the same as on my last occasion 10 months before in 2024.
Then next day, on the spur of the moment, I decided to retrace my steps and return the 103km to Karesuvanto to meet Markku and his son Heikki, to get a replacement right wing-mirror and return to Kilpisjärvi the same day. Spending a second night at the Retkeilukeskus it was necessary to move into a more expensive room fitted with shower and WC, at a slightly higher price of €89/night.
Thereafter it was my intention to leave for Norway, when as intended to jump start my car, with an accumulator of questionable charge-holding power, I foolishly tried instead to engage my reverse gear, instead the intended usual 2nd gear, when the car stopped abruptly, if only momentarily, as I engaged to th correct 2nd gear, when the operation was only partially successful, the engine in turns firing and then failing to fire. Now when I needed help from a Car Service Engineer the receptionist of the hotel gave me Karesuvanto as the nearest location, 103 km away...
Cutting my progress to a summary of what followed, was perhaps symtopmatic of how my vacation was set to be more challenging compared to a year ago, punctuated with possible set-backs, but also a certain amount of success in meeting the challenges as they arose, and dare I say coming out on top?
1) In persuading my Insurance company to use my choice of Haulage (vehicle) Contractor, instead of their own, with a view to my own choice being able to correct the fault, with spare parts I guessed correctly they would have on site, they then could bring with them in the person of Markku, the now partly retired, to his owner-son of the garage that had expedited all my Lapland repairs these past 3 years;
2) Coming down with a chest infection this year, as last gave me a runny nose, which I tended with a dozen packs of paper tissues, only to get a soecond dose 2-3 weeks later when I visited Tromsö to collect my wife, and unlike last year I no longer had so much energy during the recovery period as last year, but more importantly my body did recover, so in this sense, I met its challenge;
3) And when by turns my car acccumulator ran down excessively, with help from Harry Olsen, my Campsite owner and others, being able to keep the car going: buyig a charger to partly meet this challenge, and in the end getting the problem fully diagnosed, to tell my battery (accumulator) in point of fact had a defective plate, which although partially accepting charge whilst the engine was running, was discharging its charge overnight, to present a series of minor challenges, all of which became solved with the purchase of a new battery.
Once joined by A-E my wife we succeeded perhaps better this year than last in the sense of being more contented to do smaller walks, this year being helped by the Camp-site owners Harry and especially his wife Sessil who made a new refurbished twin bedded cottage available to us for the knock-down price of €500 for a full week of 7 nights.
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