Category: Tour de Laponie 2013

Today I didn’t have any hurry in waking up, since my destination wasn’t that far away. Of course at 6:30 I was already awake and ready to start. It’s always like this: when you don’t have to wake up, you end up being awake much earlier than you should.

I have to consider myself lucky: this has been the only full cloudy/rainy day of the trip (Norway doesn’t count: it rains once a day anyway). Last night (and today morning as well) has been very windy, and it left just a last hint of sun, just in time for a reindeer to say good morning just near my tent.

Sleeping at over 300 hundred metres was definitely a quiet choice, but maybe not the best in terms of temperature. During the night I had to add some clothes as the temperature went pretty down. However, the morning was sunny, as the rest of the day, so there’s always a positive side.

What a relief today, cycling without (too much) headwind! A completely different day, which didn’t start very well anyway.

Today it has been the first time during this trip that I had a crisis. I expected it much earlier, in the first days when muscles awake and start to shout: “We’re not ready, wait!”. Well, that’s somehow what happened today.

Supershort leg today, just to get back to Inari, where I left to the north just a week ago. The last part of Inarintie was quite flat, so it didn’t require too much effort.

Yesterday, arriving in Karigasniemi, I dropped by the border to ask the Border Guards if they know something about the road to Angeli:

One of the reasons why yesterday I wanted to cycle longer was to have a shorter day today. I’ve been cycling for 8 days in a row and sometimes it’s nice to have some rest. Or at least shorter legs.

Today it was a wonderful day. And not only because the weather has been perfect (warm and sunny in the morning, a bit cloudy and mild in the evening), not only because for the first time during this journey I broke the barrier of 100 km in a day (yes!), but because I found the most beautiful and rewarding route of the whole trip.

Today I’ll start with a picture: this was the weather in the morning. I woke up first time at 7 and noticed it just started again to rain. Rain itself is something you take into account when you do this kind of journeys. But one thing you don’t want is waking up, in your tent, and outside it rains. Because that means you have to pack a wet tent. And you know it won’t dry.