Day 16: North Cape  8C
We awoke to cold, wet fog. Just shows what it could have been like the entire trip. Of course today is USA Independence Day so to celebrate that and Canada Day on 1 July, our tour guide Signe has ordered waffles to be waiting for us at our first stop returning from North Cape. To achieve our 360km journey, we back-tracked down the E6 taking the opportunity of the inclement weather to doze contentedly on the bus accompanied by snoozy Norwegian music.

A bit of local news was that 5 men have built themselves wooden bikes and cycled from Helsinki to North Cape. They had just reached their destination as we left. I'm not too sure of the significance of the feat.

We learned that Norwegian girls are given a national costume on their 15th birthday. The costume is in the design of their father's region and costs around $US10,000. The costumes are expandable and are worn throughout their lifetime to every celebration they attend. Saves buying a new frock each time I guess.

Finns and Russians are still not friendly and we drove through 50kms of military area on the border with huge signs banning any photography. Norwegians still have compulsory military training for young men and women: 1 year for the army, 14 months for the navy and 16 months for the air force. There are about 800 trainees at the camp we drove through.

Our lunch stop was at the Sapmi Centre. (Sami = the people; Sapmi = the land of the people). This is where the Sami have their government building.

Shortly after leaving  there we arrived at Sven Engholm's Husky Farm where he has built a centre for tourists wanting to experience sledding tours. Sven himself has led expeditions to Spitsbergen, Siberia and Greenland, and won the longest sled dog race several times. He has established a centre with 85 dogs, 9 puppies and is expecting another 9 overnight. He sells the pups for about $US4,500 each. It was fascinating to watch him prepare a dog with its boots and harness to go into teams of 4 - 16 dogs each of which can carry panniers of 10 - 20 kilos. He has built very comfortable cabins for guest accommodation and has a man-shed that Peter so envied. After the tour and a puppy-cuddle we were treated to a decadent afternoon tea that we certainly did not need. Forget the diet. Enjoy the holiday.

It was about an hour's drive across the border into Finland to our hotel in the Sami Village of Ivalo. Finland is a totally different country with a different language (that nobody else can understand. It is most closely related to Hungarian) It uses only the Euro and has an hour's time difference even though it is the other side of the river. It was 4.15 when we crossed the river so the border guards had gone home for dinner. Finnish folk are extremely reserved and do not indulge in small talk at all. They speak when they are forced to but otherwise remain silent. We have experienced this already in our hotel. Finland has over 100,000 lakes many with heavily wooded islands of birch trees dotted throughout. There are more moose and reindeer here than people. It became a republic in 1970. Finnish folk are the heaviest coffee drinkers in the world.

The remainder of our tour is through Finland so I'll be able to tell you more over the next few days.