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The Great Escape!

Saturday 14th February

Route choice Inari to Kirkenes via hitchhiking. (More pics to come)

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The hitching isn’t a huge success.  We stand on the road side for an hour 20 before the cold and toilet needs drive us to the petrol station.  Then back out for another hour. There really isn’t much traffic and it seems to be mostly families.  Hitching on a Saturday was probably a mistake. We know if all else fails we can get the 16.55 bus to Karasjok but we text Horse Satu and ask her if she would like to drive us north for a fee.  Bizarrely she actually has time off and agrees.  Hurrah! So we wait for her in the petrol station.  She calls back and says she can’t take Rocky over the border but she’ll take us to the border town Naatamo.  It has 3 shops and a motel.  It’s a lovely drive.   At the border town we all have coffee and cake.  There are loads of cars here with Norwegian plates and we ask the guy at the till – he confirms most of his customers are Norwegian.  It’s cheaper here than in Norway.  Satu takes Rocky for a walk.  And we start hitching.  It’s 4pm and if we want a room in the motel we need to book in before the receptionist leaves at 6pm.  Finally at 5pm, 2 men originally from Sudan, stop and give us a lift to Kirkenes.  Result.  By 6.20 (7.20 Finnish time) we’re booking into a hotel.  A big ‘Thank you’ to Horse Satu for driving us north – without you we’d have been stuffed.  Yes we were supposed to be couchsurfing but I’m ill.  My hands hurt, my throat hurts and I’m feeling really cold.  By 8pm I’m fast asleep.  Happy Valentines Daz!

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Sunday 15th February

Kirkenes

A lovely breakfast followed by a walk down to the port.

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There really isn’t much here and most of its closed because it’s a Sunday.  We toy with the idea of the King Crab safari (£140 pp) for 3 hours: skidoo ride, fish for king crab then cook and eat it.  Then consider the snow hotel visit with dinner.  But in the end we decide just to enjoy the comfort of the hotel.  I’m still feeling poorly and the thought of being out in the cold isn’t attractive!

2 replies on “The Great Escape!”

Got a bit of a cold but feeling good. Lovely on cruise. Fabulous food, fun tours and lovely and relaxing. Sailing along 26km strait of Raftsundet as we speak. Arguably the most beautiful part of this voyage (so the brochure says). How are you guys?

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