August 21, 2024
Day 51: Sodankyla to Kayramo
Wicked Wind Again
“There’s reindeer on the road,” Patrick says and continues, “They don’t mind cars only cyclists.” The reindeer stay on the road as cars honk and pass but then scurry away as we pass. We continue on a bike path out of town for about 6km. We can feel the wind already.
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And the wind continued all day to our destination. The road is flattening so that helps, but we feel robbed of any “free” kilometer having to pedal even on the decline. The scenery is still mostly trees, and as we go further south, there are more farms with cows in pastures and not just reindeer. As 20kms there is a souvenir shop, and again we are too early, the shop is closed. We sit at the table outside for our first food break of juice and donuts. Patrick leads the way drafting Rachel stopping occasionally at the pullout parking areas and the bus stalls. When we stop the wind doesn’t seem so bad, but once riding again you can really feel it.
Around noon the wind picks up even more. We stop at another souvenir shop and drink coffee. A French cyclist stops who must have been close behind us also pulls in. Traffic has been light today, but the road varies from good to pretty rough. Sometimes there is a narrow 18” shoulder, sometimes it reduces to only 6” and in some sections they decided to put in a rumble strip that shakes us up.
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It is a relief to see the sign for our hotel destination 3km ahead. As we pull into the parking area, we see the typical red Chinese paper lanterns hanging along the roof line. The hotel is Chinese owned and boy does it feel like hotels we’ve stayed in China. We have a key for the outside door. Then there is another door from the entryway into the hallway. Only the door to the toilet is open and blocking the entrance door. We get it sorted out and into our room. Pictures of pandas and Chinese landscape are on the walls. Shower and sauna are downstairs in the basement along with plenty of towels. It’s always nice to have full sized towels inside of our backpacking towels.
We enjoy a beer and relax until dinnertime and go to the restaurant and have Chinese dishes. Maybe our expectations were too high, the food is okay but not great.
Today is the last day sleeping in the Arctic. Tomorrow just outside Rovaniemi we will cross the Arctic Circle one more time.
Today's ride: 63 km (39 miles)
Total: 2,607 km (1,619 miles)
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