Following a delicious breakfast of bacon and scrambled eggs, away again by 09:15. Loaded up and set off....up a 1:3 muddy ravine to get out of the campsite. We soon had our heart rates bouncing as we span furiously from rest.
Planned mileage today around 55 miles ending at a campground at Pyhanta, Finland.
Headed off Southish on route 879 following the shore of Lake Oulujarvi. We kept getting tantalising glimpses of the lake through the trees as the road was separated from the water edge by a thin ribbon of woodland.
Eagle eyed Tracey was credited with our first Bear siting of the trip when she spied one amongst the trees. I stopped to take a photo and grew increasingly suspicious when it failed to move for five minutes. Perhaps it was in training to be one of those statues you see along the Champs Elysee....?
Stopped at a supermarket in Vuolojoki for morning snacks, 30 or so miles into the ride. This is definitely a 'One Whore Town' and even she had been abducted by Space Aliens....
Back on the bike to intersect Route 28 and then turned West for Pyhanta 25 or so miles away.
Good cycling conditions, warm, sunny, light traffic, few real hills and a cross wind from the North that we were sheltered from for much of the time.
Arrived into Pyhanta on schedule at 15:30. Shopped for groceries and left town looking for our evenings campsite. Oh dear.... Well, we looked and we looked and we couldn't find it. Possibly as the little tinker was no longer where it should have been. Another Michelin faux pas methinks...
We spent a good hour rummaging around in the woods looking for a suitable wild campsite until we decided to press on to the next marked site 20 or so miles away.
We fuelled up on some of the goodies we had purchased, to avoid carrying more than strictly necessary and made a bid for freedom.
Despite temperatures that continued to climb and flagging legs, we bashed out the last 20 miles in just over an hour arriving into our alternate campsite at 18:30 with just over 90 miles on the bike computer for the day!
A very quick, monosyllabic dinner was had before an early night and impending unconsciousness took over...
Total today an unexpected and hard 91 miles and 290m of ascent. Total trip 758 miles.
More Southerly ramblings to follow.
Back soon. Miles & Tracey.
