Hitchhiking to Cape Nordkinn 2012/08/26

Hi everyone. I’ve been on my way through the travel for a week now. In this week I already  managed to get to Cape Nordkinn, which was my destination. But lets get at it in chronological way shall we. The very first rides I had in Lithuania-Estonia were coming quickly and I could say effortlessly. In less than two days I got to Tallin, where it rained all the time, so there was nothing much to do while waiting for my ferry to Helsinki. Luckily as the ferry left Tallin rain stopped or maybe we just left the rainy weather behind. It was a nice ride in the sea that I spent above on the deck appreciating the open space of sea and sky. In Helsinki I spent a lot of time figuring out the way outside the city, which was humongous in my opinion. Especially complicated were streets in old town. Still I somehow got on the right road and walked out of the city to the very edge of the town, where I spent the night camping.

Next day I had a disastrous start with hitchhiking out of the city premises. Traffic was intensive but I had no luck with rides for some 6 or 7 hours. Then a woman came up walking to me and said she saw me trying to get a lift for a very long time now, so she promised to pick me up soon and went away. And soon enough I had my first ride in Finland. I was asked to write how far I went that day. While I had some troubles with motorway limitations to hitching on the shoulders and the necessity to walk an extra mile or so to the right place on the entrances to motorway, I still managed to get as far as Pyhajarvi. There I got with a ride with Noora and Miika, who offered me to stay for the night at Nooras parents Anitta and Matthias house. So I got a nice chance to refresh myself for the following part of the trip. In the morning I visited the largest bell museum, which was located just by the road E75 that I was going up North. This second day of hitchhiking I started quite well, but got stuck near Oulu. At first I got a short ride from Oulu to some dead place traffic-wise – at least in the direction I needed. So I hitched the ride back to Oulu, but from the I got another ride to that same dead place. I felt quite stupid at the time, but still there suddenly appeared a car and I got another short lift, which got me far enough as to get away from the motorway part of the road. The following hitching was more simple. Although it was starting to rain a bit. In hope of saving myself from the rain I took out my little umbrella, but it immediately broke in not so strong of a wind. Anyway I got a ride soon, so all was well. When I got to Santa Claus Village and the start of Arctic Circle just after Rovaniemi town where I shopped a bit, I met another hitchhiker – Dima from Ukraine. Since we were heading in the same general North from there, we decided to hitch together for some time. We also met yet another hitchhiker from Italy there, but he seemed very unexperienced, so we instructed him a little on how to hitch and soon enough he got a lift. That day I and Dima reached Sodankyla town, on which outskirts we camped, while talking a lot about traveling and such.

The following day we hitched to Kiilopaa tourist point, where we at first had quite expensive meal for 8 Euros then left our backpacks to keep at the same place, where we ate and went hiking up the Kiilopaa hill, which proved to be an exception in overall Finland landscape so far which mostly consisted of forest and lakes. Although I wish lakes would have been more obviously noticeable, and not be hidden by that same forest most of the time. Kiilopaa was 546 meters hill with rocky surface at the top and a nice view over the landscape for dozens of kilometers. On the side that I came up from South it was just forest and further North it was more barren with some little bush vegetation in some places. That day after saying goodbyes with Dima we parted at Utsjoki at the border of Finland and Norway and I continued to Tana Bru, where I camped for the night.

On Thursday I was finally hitching up some less than a main kind of road. Traffic was low that far in the North. After a couple of rides I was stuck on some fjord and did a lot of walking there. Luckily scenery was beautiful and something different altogether from what I saw so far. When another ride finally came up, on the way we stopped to look at some rein deers in the fenced area. I’ve seen some already in Finland, but only from a moving car. With another ride in a truck I was finally moving North on Nordkyn Peninsula. When I got to Mehamn town I checked the map of the town on the stand at the outskirts in hopes of finding where the hiking trail to Cape Nordkinn begins. While doing that I was approached by this woman named Kristine, who was later very concerned about my intentions of hiking since she saw I didn’t have proper hiking shoes. I took a phone number of the information center of Mahamn from there since she insisted and went hiking for those few hours of daylight I still had. That night I spent in a very nice place between the rocky hills by the lake. Saw some rein deers again, but this time in the wild.

In the morning I realized how really difficult it was to hike on all that rocky terrain. There were stones after stones after stones – some of which were standing and pointing the sharp edges upwards to where my feet were. I had to always concentrate on where I was stepping on not to misstep and trying not to have any injuries. Some hills I had to climb were quite steep, but I still managed to get to my destination and what a compensation of all the efforts – I saw the very first sandy beach up here in the northernmost place there is. Quite a magical place I could say. And from the northernmost place looking down was a spectacular view of the sea washing up some interesting rock formations. All in all – it was definitely worth it. After a half an hour of appreciation and all I turned around and went back. That day after a few more hours of hiking back in a more easy route this time, I again stopped for the night near one of the so many lakes in those hills. Being all alone there had a very nice feeling. 

Next day I finished the remainder of that easy route back, which took me 8 hours compared to the initial 10 hours of random hard route that I went first by following just my compass. When I got back on the road I texted to the information center that I’m back and safe. To which they replied happily thanking me for informing them. While hitchhiking the rest of the day I got to Lakselv, where I got a lift to Alta, where I was later invited to stay for the night. Furthermore I was dared to take a swim in Barents sea. Then it was already late in the evening around 10 or 11 pm. Well I took up on that dare and did just that 🙂 After a short swim when I was still drying up on the shore an aurora appeared unexpectedly in the sky, so for the first time now I could enjoy that kind of view. Later I had a chance to wash myself and my clothes as well. So it was refreshing after two days of intensive hiking. And of course I took the chance to write some stuff about this trip here. Next destination will be Rambergs white sandy beach on Lofoten archipelago, which is famous for it’s natural beauty in Norway. Anyway, now I’m moving South… more or less. I will post all the photos and some trip statistics when I’ll be back home. Too lazy right now to work on it 🙂

Hitchhiking to northernmost point in Europe 2012/08/17

This Saturday (August 18th) I will be setting of for a hitchhiking trip to Cape Nordkinn in Norway. The tip of that cape is a northernmost land based place in mainland Europe. I have 3 weeks in my disposal for the trip, so I’ll try to get around Scandinavia overall if possible. It’s been a while since I last hitchhiked abroad. Hope to have a good time. If there will be a chance to update the blog I will do that on my way, but ultimately I will do that when back home in Lithuania.