Basil team members Sarah and Tim celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary today. The other team members were baffled. Mabel and Melek have never been married, although Melek had fathered two litters of puppies before he joined team Basil, who quickly put paid to his lothario ways with a quick visit to the vet for the “big snip”. Basil is a confirmed bachelor although he did throw his cap at a Niesmann Bischoff called Helga, but he soon saw he was batting out of his league.
The morning was freezing again and the temptation to fire up Basil’s central heating was too great to resist. But as the day has progressed the sun has put his hat on, hip hip hip hooray.
We decided we would try to find somewhere to eat out for our anniversary, but being in the middle of nowhere we headed for our nearest town, some fifty miles away, Suomussalmi.
As soon as we left the campsite tension rose a little in Basil’s cab as his fuel computer said we were running on fumes and SatNav’s database said the nearest fuel station was in Suomussalmi! Some driving on flat roads brought Basil to his senses and we suddenly had just enough fuel to finish the journey.
En route we encountered a famous Finnish art instillation called the “Silent People”. It consists of a large field containing nearly 1000 of what are essentially scarecrows with their heads made of peat. We pulled over at the adjacent cafe and Sarah expressed the opinion that this was a publicity stunt to attract passing trade. I told her that the Silent People had been on display in Helsinki so they must officially be “art”.
Silent People
We went to have a look round and close up the effect was underwhelming. It actually looked much better from the road. The people running the cafe were very friendly and spoke excellent English so we had a cup of tea and one of their renowned pancakes cooked over an open wood fire. I secretly hoped this would not be our only meal out of the day.
At Suomussalmi, after a quick stop for petrol, we headed for the small marina where I thought there was a good overnight stop and so it proved. We parked up in the small car park which had no restrictions on staying overnight and was already occupied by two German motorhomes (64.885500, 28.918043). From the mention of a marina you we will know we are next to yet another lake, but this time the forest is at least 500 metres away!
Basil’s overnight spot – yet another lake!
A stroll into the town was called for to ascertain dining possibilities. We were sorely disappointed. This was a one horse town if ever there was one. It had a certain look of small town America. No old buildings, just square steel framed commercial structures, with no real town centre. We found a takeaway burger joint, two pubs (one of which was closed) and a down at heel cafe. I did go into the pub to check it out. When I came out Sarah said it looked seedy on the outside, I replied that the outside was twice as good as the inside. So instead we went into the local supermarket to buy some goodies for lunch.
The afternoon has been taken up with further research on Norway and we’ve had another stroll. On our walk we saw, out in the lake, two very strange looking craft. They were essentially log cabins on rafts with a small outboard motor on the back. One of them had a sofa on the rear “porch” with an elderly couple ensconced while a younger man drove the boat. This re-enforced the small town America feeling, because once in rural Arizona, I saw a pick up truck driving along the freeway with a family inside and a sofa, containing Mom and Pop, wedged on the back!
Floating log cabins.
Since arriving in Finland we have been confused by strange contraptions on metal poles which we have seen at various locations, including in forests. They looked to us like devices for containing winter feed for animals, but they never seem to be near farms. Yesterday we discovered their true purpose, because on our campsite was a golf frisbee course and these objects are the “holes”, you must get your frisbee into. We have a similar course on a grassy area next to us and we’ve seen several sets of youngsters playing this new, to us, game.
Golf frisbee “hole”
Sarah has just been on another short walk with the dogs and has discovered a pizza and kebab place only 200 metres away, with outside tables, overlooking the lake. The temptation of not cooking tonight may mean a doner kebab and chips with chilli sauce as my anniversary meal. Poor old vegetarian Sarah will have to make do with a greasy pizza! C’est la vie.
Lake cruiser moored next to Basil