March 26: Inari to Bugøynes
Our next destination was on the Arctic Ocean, in the Finnmark region of Norway, north of Finland.
2259
Passing by the sign for the Angeli road toward Vasatokka. The odd symbols in the Sámi name for Angeli are a capitalized version of ŋ, which denotes the "ng" sound in the International Phonetic Alphabet and apparently in the orthography of this Sámi variety.
2281
Here's a further-along part of Inarijärvi.
2305
OMG REINDEER GOTTA STOP AND SAY HI TO THE REINDEER and that's what we did.
2334
Dude is flexible.
2338
Roadside reindeer tracks.
2341
More of 'em.
2342
Graffiti'd reindeer. (These marks are like brands, showing which herdsman the animals belong to.)
2357
Very, um, laky.
2360
The day was already fading and we still had a good distance to go.
2374
Almost tundra.
2382
A roadside public concert stage. (Just kidding. I have no idea about this.) — Edit 3/26/2019: looks like there's wire fencing receding from both upper "gates" as well as to the left in foreground, so it seems to be a junction of fenced regions — having to do with reindeer maybe, to keep them in or out? The between-parallel-fences passage seems much like an international no-man's-land, but this is still inside of Finland. The wooden structures also seem similar to those in the border photos below.
2389
"Norja" is Finnish for Norway. Getting close!
2415
We stopped at this supermarket/gas station at Näätämö (which seemed to be about all there is to Näätämö), just before the border. What a bunch of big cuties off to the right there!
2417
Nice twilight. It was fairly cold, but not as frigid as one might expect.
2420
A map of the area, inside the K-Market.
2428
The border, delineated by this wood fence.
2433
Oh yeah, there we go. I'm not sure what the bridge is all about. UPDATE Jan. 2013: Sources suggest that this is a footbridge to allow people to cross the border on foot, which would otherwise be difficult due to the surface of spaced steel pipes (see previous photo) that are placed in the road to prevent reindeer from crossing. The logs of the bridge are also spaced out to prevent the reindeer from just going over it instead, but they provide a surer tread than the steel pipes in the road. (Thanks Tore!)
2440
A customs house; we expected that we were supposed to stop there and show our passports, but it turned out we didn't need to at all.
2464
Once in Norway, the landscape seemed to become immediately more hilly and rocky.
2466
There was scattered settlement about.
2487
Still quite a ways to go.
2492
Finally, THE ARCTIC OCEAN. It was pretty incredible for all of us to see it for the first time. These are some fishing pens or something right near the surprisingly sizable town of Bugøynes (Pykeijä in Finnish), where we would spend the next two nights.
2503
An impression of the harbor, down the road from the village.
2504
Again at the harbor; the village is across the water to the left, and the city of Vadsø is across the water to the right, its lights visible here, much further away.
2508
Here's the house we stayed at. It was very cozy.
2512
I had the top bunk here.