Inari, Finland - Polarsteps

Next up was Lemmenjoki National Park, admittedly after yesterday’s mountain extravaganza, a travel day suited us just fine. Lemmenjoki is one of the lesser known parks, all the way up north and away from the tourist centers. It plays a big role in the Finnish gold rush, and apparently you can still find gold there along the river. And, catering to lowlanders like ourselves, you actually do not have to hike up there, you can take a boat into the park. So, once we got settled in, Kjell wandered over to the reception of the campsite to ask about the times for the boat. Not too long after there was a Kjell running back to the van with two life vests. What happened you ask? At 16:52, he asked when the next boat would be. 17:00, the lady replied, but it will be the last boat of the season. Run to ask the captain (who does not speak English) if there were two places left, captain looked confused, other person nodded and gave him two life jackets, next up: convince Charlotte. Charlotte, at this time trying to put up the tarp, stopped all she was doing, also looked quite confused and ended up flinging everything into the van, grabbing the first things that came to mind and ran after Kjell who had grabbed some food and just in time we got to the boat. Pleased to see we had made it we started taking in the landscape, happy with the prospect of a relaxing boat trip. Relaxing it was not. Turns out that there are a couple of shallow rapids, which the boat could not navigate with a full load. So, we effectively had to run trough forest to the other side of the rapids. Ooof... The trip was beautiful though, ending up at a very nice waterfall.