Rovaneimi

Late breakfast after terrible night’s attempt at sleep. Nothing planned for this morning so we head up to the two shopping centres which are very close by at 10 am when they open, with the intention of doing some serious retail therapy. Unfortunately the clothes I liked didn’t fit and I wasn’t going to buy anything just for the sake of it. SB had the same problem with snow pants that were on sale so we didn’t have any success with clothing purchases. However as we are truly in a winter wonderland, we aren’t fussed by it all.

We are on a train tomorrow so pop into a supermarket and buy a sandwich each for lunch on the train tomorrow. Then we look in a few more shops but nothing really takes our fancy. We bump into Captn D and Foggy soagree to meet up soon at a nearby little cafe that SB and I spotted earlier. As we leave the smaller shopping centre, in the mall is the equivalent of a soup kitchen. There were local oldies everywhere, who clearly had come to town fir the free soup. The local Lutheran church hosts free soup for everyone, once a month for 8 months of the year. They were given out large styrofoam bowls of what was clearly home made ham and pea soup. It smelled delicious but I wasn’t hungry so declined thesoup, but it was a lovely scene, and clearly much appreciated by so many people. As SB and I were headed to our cafe we passed D and G in the soup queue!
The little cafe was a delight. It was very cosy and had a big assortment of different Santa, gnome and Christmas themed figurines. SB was like a woman possessed. Every new item I pointed out to her resulted in her wanting to take it home. In the end, after much deliberation and going and frying and taking way too long to decide (!!!) purchases were eventually made. As much as I loved many of the items, I just couldn’t work out where I would be able to put them on show in my home, so didn’t put my hand in my purse other than to purchase a lovely hot latte and cinnamon scroll. Captn D went a little berserk with purchases too, but seemed to have a list of people to buy for, so it remains to be seen if the intended recipients ever receive their little gifts, or they remain the property of Captn D.
But back to the hotel to pack cases ready for a very early departure tomorrow and then back in the lobby for our pre booked optional snow mobile safari at 1.30. OMG. I had the best time! Suiting up was quite and effort, and our lesson on how to operate them consisted of this us the accelerator and this is the brake. Don’t touch anything else... and if the snow mobile tips over, keep your feet on the rungs! I was happy to drive first so SB was my pillion passenger who probably had to hang on for dear life as I was in my element. Fabulous scenery across a frozen lake and then through a forest, but no ability to take photos whilst riding.

There were a couple of Chinese people also doing the ride and they were immediately behind the leader. As we came around one bend, they crashed their snow mobile and both fell off. They were okay, but it added to the excitement. I must have frightened poor Shiny Bright as when we were underway again I was falling behind the snow mobile in front of me and I was complaining that I had it at full throttle and couldn’t go any faster. Little did I know then that they are able to cap your top speed on them and ours was set at the slower speed. Bugga. Anyhow, at the half way mark we all stopped and had warm berry juice which hit the spot nicely. I will have to get some of Captn D’s photos as she was working up a storm with her camera whereas I was happy to drink my hot drink and just pose for photos! The view over he frozen valley really did take my breath away.

Time to change riders and I am now SB’s erstwhile passenger. Poor thing, we had barely been riding a couple of minutes and ahead of us, one of our group went to high into powder snow on a bend and tipped the snow mobile over on its side with them pinned under it. That sound horrendous, but because the snow was so soft, they literally fell into a soft sponge and were absolutely fine. A few of us, me included got of the now mobiles in order to help life it off if them. That was a task and a half as we were each wading through powder snow that meant ideas sinking into snow with each footstep about a foot! Poor Foggy took a couple steps and reckons he was waste deep! But we all managed to get to the overturned snow mobile, right it and get Carol and Frosty out of the snow. I’m sure this made SB rethink her speed as we then were underway again at a very safe distance and speed. Once we were out of the forest and back on the frozen lake, we were each asked if we wanted to go back to base fast or slow. SB opted for slow, and that’s when I realized that they can limit the speed of the machine as we were already set at the lower cap speed. The snow ride was often bumpy and wereckon that it has simply got to be good for the figure, all that bouncing. Back at base, it was time to disrobe and head back to our hotel, which was literally just across the road.
SB announced that I was a natural on the snow mobile, and my ‘go faster, go faster’ will be playing in her head for some time. She clearly is the better musher, so between us I reckon we have snow travel covered! Back in our hotel room, time for a much needed Irish coffee and then we are off tonight at 5.30 to go to a Reindeer Farm, which is an optional tour that Kelli arranged for us.
Have just returned from the Reindeer farm which was really interesting. We even had a ride in a sled led by a reindeer. SB was in charge of the sled and she turned out to be a very reasonable reindeer driver, even if most credit went to the reindeer who knew to go around the track once and there would be lichen and hay waiting for him at the end! We had salted reindeer, mashed potatoes, carrots and a berry ‘jam’ which was really nice. The fellow whose property we were on was exceptionally informative about reindeer herding and all it entails. His family have been on the property for about 500 years and what he didn’t know about reindeers wouldnt be worth knowing.
Back to our hotel, a final hot cuppa for the night and I’m ready to fall into bed. You will have to come back and check this page later for photos from the reindeer farm as we have a 4.30 am wake up call in the morning and I am overdue my beauty sleep! Goodnight.
(Am currently on the train to Helsinki. There is excellent wi fi on the train so am able to upload photos during the 8 1/2 hour trip!)