August 16, 2024
Day 46: Muotkan Ruoktu to Inari
Wicked Wind and Twice (!) Stopping for Coffee
“Are we stopping?” Rachel shouts back to Patrick. “Yes, let’s give them some business,” is the reply. We saw a café sign that had “Welcome Cyclists” on the banner. We’d already stopped for coffee at the junction… only about 5km back, but after complaining about not having places to stop for coffee, we definitely want to support local business.
We are on the road a little later than most days, perhaps, the time change does make a difference. Yesterday, we lost an hour when we crossed the border. The wind is lightly blowing already. The first 20km are tiring with climbing up to a ridge and seeing the downhill and the uphill to the next ridge.
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At the junction, we stop at a souvenir shop and have coffee and a waffle. It’s an eclectic type of place. The owner tells us about the Sami Music Festival in Inari this weekend, and somewhere else nearby where there is a motorcycle rally.
We turn right and now the road is going south and into the wind. The hills are getting lower though and after a while the road really flattens out. We take turns riding in front to break the wind. There are now more pine trees than birch.
Skies are with dark clouds and rain is predicted to start around 1pm. About 8km out, Patrick feels raindrops and puts on his rain jacket to keep his other jacket dry. But we make it to Inari Campground. It’s across the street from where the music festival is to be held, the Sami Parliament Building…we’ll see if this was a bad decision not to continue another couple kilometers to a different campground. We want to support this one, they are located “downtown” around an old school building. It looks a bit rough, but they have big plans to improve the campground.
We get the tent fly pitched just as light sprinkles of rain start. We “picnic” under the rainfly and then set up the inner tent. The rain strengthens then lightens up. We go across the street to look at the venue for the festival, and then back across the river to souvenir shop. Patrick is looking to buy a Finnish Puukko knife and looking at options. He had bought one 33 years ago on his biketrip to the Northcape and kept it in his tackle box for use when fishing. The tackle box got stolen from our carport and the knife was gone. There are many different options to consider.
Back at the tent just as another light rain comes through. Late afternoon, we walk to the nearby fast food restaurant for dinner and to the grocery store for some supplies. Back inside the tent, we listen to the intermittent raindrops.
The wind blew on us all day and Rachel says, “I feel beat up." The locals though must be grateful for the little bit of rain.
Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 2,334 km (1,449 miles)
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