REPORTAGE, PART 2

14^th September
The morning was very cold for us (8°C), Jiri took his polar clothes, his special hat and gloves and was surprised why we are shivering: "Scandinavians can't bear more than you, but they are used to be dressed!" He was wrapped into the every last part of clothes he had with him. He observed us for a little while and then said something about fu...ing cold in Sweden and that in Finland is much better there. "Here is wet air, but before it arrives in Finland, it withered up." I compared the heat conductivity of dry and wet air and began to look forward to visit this strange land named Finland much more.

At 8:40 we got a SMS message: "Your rear wiper is working". Even if we want to look through the rear window, it was impossible due to number of packed things in the back of our car. At this moment, we didn't know that this conditions will last almost to the end of our trip.

SMS messages turned out to be a very useful communication instrument, just one problem was having a full battery. Thus, we had to use every chance to recharge it. Also landscape signal coverage for mobile phones was perfect, but without deserted mountains. Just painful thought about future payments appeared from time to time. But it is a far future, so we needn't be stressed now.

And we are driving further to the north, behind our cars the road is fading away.
 

We build our tents on the meadow between  trees with commander's post which quickly  took David as our boss.

In the evening overhead we saw strange objects. We don't say they are northern lights.

15^th September
In the morning was a terrible cold and one of us was defrost in the car (we don't know night temperature exactly, but the morning temperature was -5°C). Only Jakub, like a hero of this night, slept under the stars. The rest of group slept in tents and it must be said that it was the last Jakub's night outside. Then he slept only in the tent or in the warm car. Probably he realized what is better for him. Also several inhabitants were very curious and came to have a look at our expedition.

At half past noon we are crossing the polar circle. We notice that beyond the circle is colder than before and we are tasting huckleberries on the both sides. For me, there were no differences. A few kilometers behind the polar circle we found beautiful waterfalls on Kalixälwen river with the salmon highway:

I was very disappointed with Finnish customs officers, officers of the country, I so wanted to visit. On the country border, we had to get out of our cars and stay shivering in the morning cold without our hats and gloves. They were interested in small white little pills and were trying to find them everywhere. When they wanted us to show them engine serial number, at that moment, I was very angry for sure.

After we had driven across the mountains and were coming on the cost, the weather was changing rapidly. Outside were 13°C and autumn colored trees. We recognize the influence of Golf stream. We came into the little town called Alta and behind it we built our base for two nights just in one lay-by.

Our tents were located at 69° 59‘ 48‘‘ and it means that 70^th parallel was very near. We took our cameras and champagne and at 21:50 we reached it.

16^th September
In the next morning we wrapped our wet tents and we are still heading to the north. Secondly we are crossing 70th parallel, but now we didn't delay because for today we have a great plan to reach the most northern point of Europe - North Cape. North Cape is located on the island Mageroya, where one can get through the long toll tunnel. The tunnel was very sheer, up and down more than 200 m.

We are continuing our way to North Cape, we meet a herd of reindeers and we are taking a lot of photos. The wind is so strong that our cameras fall from tripods. The final place is located 60 km from the tunnel. As the weather is wrong we quickly make a common photo of the expedition and continue to tourist center with expensive postcards and small church. There was also a very nice projection of sunny North Cape.

In the small dungeon under center was a very nice exposition about old stories of conquering of this part of Europe. Also, there is a dinning hall with windows straight to the north. I'm sure that it must very strong experience sit here warm and observe the midnight sun.

On the road back, we are visiting beautiful town Honningsvag. We are driving to the same place near Alta and after sunset we see overhead strange lights through the small hole in the clouds. After, we realized that it was probably our first contact with northern lights due to data we got from Slovak observatory on the Lomnicky peak. It shows the solar activity and neutron flows.