Pole to Pole
Day 20: Karasjok to Ivalo

We cross the Norway-Finland border at a sleepy hamlet called Karigasniemi. The Japanese couple, who have been clutching documents for the last half-hour, cannot believe that no one wants to see their passports. I look, in vain, for signs of Finnishness. There's a Shell garage and a café, with a Mercedes outside, serving pizza. The only locals are clustered around a Space Invaders game.
There are quite a few more Mercedes on the ninety-mile run down to Ivalo. Many of them are towing hefty caravans on their way north, to the lakes and forests for summer with the mosquitoes. Finland strikes me as more obviously affluent than Norway. They even seem to have more reindeer, and the bus, when it's not stopping to deliver mail into makeshift roadside boxes, is pulling up to avoid them. I'm told that the reindeer, now that they are shedding their winter coats, are tormented by the clouds of flies and mosquitoes and find relief in the cooling wind that blows down the highway.
Choose another day from Pole to Pole
PALIN'S GUIDES
- Series: Pole to Pole
- Day: 20
- Country/sea: Finland
- Place: Ivalo
- Book page no: 40
Bookmarks will keep your place in one or more series. But you'll need to register and/or log in.
RELATED LINKS
- All vehicles
- Day 2
- Around the World in 80 Days
- Day 5
- Full Circle
- Day 3: South to Darra Adam Khel
- Himalaya