We had a very short 2 1/2 hour journey to reach Levi today and therefore had a casual start, sleeping in and taking our time over breakfast.
As we were packing the car and getting ready to leave the hotel we heard a strange noise. At the end of the road we could see a few reindeer jogging down the street! Whilst locals consider them a pest, to us it was an amazing experience. Bec was quick enough to get a video of them that you can see here.
We stopped at a rest area only 30 minutes outside of Inari on the banks of Lake Menesjärvi to have a look around. It was quite pretty, however we were very pleased that we had listened to some advice and brought some tropical strength insect repellent. The mosquitoes were vicious and there were lots of them.
As we got closer to the Lakes edge it was cool to see some reindeer footprints in the sand!
Finland is Europe’s most heavily-forested country, in fact 75% of Finland’s total land area is covered in forest.
It wasn’t long before we decided it was time for a coffee and it was lovely to walk through some big pine trees at a rest stop where we had morning tea.
Back on the road and only five minutes after morning tea we experienced an unexpected hurdle. The road went from asphalt and/or bitumen to an unsealed road. Within 30 minutes the road deteriorated so badly that we could only travel around 20 km/hr otherwise we’d have lost poor Peppe into the huge cavernous holes or popped a tyre.
It wasn’t pleasant, a bit stressful and once we got to Levi we gave Peppe lots of praise for getting us there safely.
Lesson learnt; in Finland you take the Highways!
Our hotel was a huge resort with a spa/wellness centre/multiple pool area. So after checking in we made our way there and spent the afternoon relaxing in the warm spa and pools.
Cool Stuff We Did 