We were hoping for blue sky and sunshine as we travelled south but we were disappointed. The night time temperature dropped to -10° and, day after day, we encountered rain, sleet and snow. The main roads were kept clear with snow ploughs and there were signs that the gritter lorries had been out.
We were warm enough in the truck but our grey water tank outlet froze solid in spite of having a heater in it.
Wrongly we assumed that the kitchen sink waste pipe was blocked so Tony performed an emergency plumbing re-route, which seemed to solve the problem. As the weather got warmer the outlet pipe eventually defrosted – Tony then had to reverse his plumbing work.
We crossed the border from Norway to Finland and we were in the land of rivers, lakes and timber forests. When the blue sky finally appeared, the silver birch trees shone brightly against the dark background of fir trees.
We resisted the temptation to stop at Father Christmas Village on the Arctic Circle (open all the year round) where one could enjoy a meal of a Santa’s burger or pizza. There was no snow on the ground to soften the appearance of the village which resembled a 1950s holiday camp.
After six days’ travel we arrived in Helsinki, the capital of Finland from where we planned to take a ferry to Sweden.
