Lapland in a Motorhome : in search of Reindeer

Lapland in a Motorhome : in search of Reindeer

Morning, bud. You getting up? Hello and welcome back to our super mega little Arctic YouTube channel. A channel of very stylish, masculine beards. He’s embracing Father Christmas look, which of course is quite apt because we are in Lapland. If you’ve watched the channel for the last few vlogs, you know that we’ve traveled up the east side of Finland and just spent five days quickly nipping into Norway. But we’re back in Finland now and we’re heading down what is described as the most beautiful road in Finland to get to explore the rest of Western Land. Tuesday morning and I’m tired of telling truth. Seems I’d rather be living lies, living large, and living loose. You say it does matter that we all just die the same. But there’s this burning coal inside of me saying I’m to blame. To align my heart and mind is no easy path to take. Well, this route has so far been glorious. What a stunning road. So, we’ve made it down to this beautiful little nature reserve. Down the most beautiful road in the whole of Finland, allegedly. Now, it was very nice, weren’t it? It was. It was stunning. I bet it would have been even more beautiful two weeks ago when the leaves were still on the trees. but beautiful nevertheless. Anyway, we are at this nature reserve. It’s on the edge of what’s called the Kevo Strict Nature Reserve that there are only a couple of trails in because of the importance of the wildlife. But we’re going to do this very edge. We’re going to do this very short nature trail because the snow is on its way tonight. Yesterday in Norway, we had a brief glance of some tarmaggan in the field and also a few groups of snow buntings, but they were fleeting and they were gone. So, we’re on the lookout for them today. So this area is Finland’s biggest natural spring is very sacred to the Sammy people. Long days of silence or was it you just screaming? How we have you always film this. I look like a old lady. We are knackered. If you were an OS would put you down. Our first snow. Just a little sprinkle. It’s an icy start today. We have had some snow. Just a fluttering and now it’s gone. But it’s very icy and very very bitter cold. Well, it’s not that bad. Our van is so snug with a diesel heater. It’s just I wish we’ done it ages ago. And it’s also warmed by my love. Anyway, the plan today is not to go very far. We are trying to get into a bit of wild space. We haven’t seen a reindeer. We’ve seen one reindeer in the last eight days. So, I really do want to see some more. And in this area, the roads seem to have fences along them, which is fabulous because it means there’s no wildlife getting squished. But there aren’t many roads into the countryside because they’re classed as wilderness areas. We find one tiny little road that we can get down. So, we’re gonna go and find out whether we see any reindeers. Leave it all in the city. Taste my lips out in the rain. I know it’s such a pity your face is as pretty as your name. Though it hurts to leave, I’m telling you, it’s meant to be my dear feelings fade when we just spotted a tarmaggan and it’s hiding behind a tree stump over there. Keeps popping its head up. Leave it all in the city. Oh, it’s off. He’s not seeing it. He’s in front of him. There it goes. Too fast for me. Too fast for me. I’ll turn your world around. I lost myself again, didn’t I? I think I lost myself in you. I think you lost yourself in me, too. Yeah, you lost yourself in me, too. Uh oh. I’m going to cause a scene again. Uh oh. Cuz I don’t know how to fake it. I know. I know you’re not coming back once you leave. So before you leave, just hear me out. Even though I don’t know what to say. No, hear me out. I want to keep fighting if it means you’ll stay. Ooh. It’s like we’re in the same book, but we just can’t find the same page. Ooh. So, take another good look before you go and throw it away. Hear me out. Just hear me out. Hear me out. Just hear me out. We were out that night dancing, dancing till the morning, you were glorious of you. Well, good morning from a very frosty middle of nowhere wilderness. Um, is that’s its official classification. Although to be fair, it’s only I don’t know about half an hour away from the main road in it. But there you go. Um, something amazing happened last night, didn’t it? It did. And we were in bed when this amazing thing happened, didn’t it? It did. And you woke me up and you were like, “Look at that. It’s amazing. Something just popped up out of nowhere. We I’ve been going out all night checking this flipping aurora cuz it was supposed to be good. All right, won’t mention that other thing that popped up and then I gave up. We were watching telly and I thought I’ll just have one last look and oh my word, the sky was lit up. It was amazing. Still not very green like you see on the photos with the naked eye, but certainly enough to be able to see all the swirling and oh, it was just the best one we’ve had yet. The sky were full for about an hour and the photos are a bit of a fib really. The camera sensors and phone sensors exaggerate color, so it’s not as vivid green as you see. It was more like a silvery pale green, minty green, I would say. But it were here for about an hour all over sky curtains and shafts and all sorts of things. And then finally after about an hour I decided I’m going to do an amazing time lapse video. Um and then clouds come and it went. Just took ages faffing about setting up. So that’s a disappointment. But it was amazing. Weren’t it? It was. However, it didn’t actually go. It was just the clouds covering it because later on when the sky cleared, it was still there. And at 5:00 this morning when I peeked out of the window, it was still there. So, it was fascinating to watch and it’s going to be another good one tonight with even clearer skies. So, we are going to get the time lapse set up earlier. Yes. So, the plan for today is to nip down to Inar, which is the Sami cultural capital of Finland, get some supplies, get stocked up, and then we’re heading back out into the wilds. We’re going to spend a night in Lemon Yoke National Park. Well, just outside it because you can’t stay in a national park. Obviously, you’re very uh they’re very well prepared. So, you there’s always somewhere to stop just on the border. So, you can be close and walking or driving, but you’re not breaking any rules by being in the national park overnight. One thing we are struggling with at the moment is resource management in terms of our waste and water. There is nothing in this northern bit. So in another couple of days we found one place to go to over in Mona. It means nothing to anyone watching this you fumbling around a word. Anyway over that way and we’ll get to there in a couple of days. Yeah. Fortunately we know we know how long we can manage. So with our waste water freshwater um usually the restricting factor is um is the chemical l but we’ve got two cassettes. So we we can usually go between pit stops for five, six or even seven days if we have to desperately dancing dancing to the morning and glorious Summer feeling. We live forever every night. Hearts beat like we are kids. Sneaking out by the back line. Running through golden fields. And our bikes are the hottest of rides. We jump feet first from the pier and feel alive for the first time. We were out that night dancing, dancing to the morning light and you and me. Yeah, we were glorious. Infinity in the stars. We sit and wonder what we’ll find. Tonight will be who we are and feel alive for our whole life. We were out that night dancing, dancing to the morning. You and me. Yeah. You need to know. We feel alive for the first time. Well, another national park and another quiet overnight and another night when we’ve been totally on our own in the dark. It’s crazy. It’s only It’s like there’s only us here in Finland. There was one car on the car park overnight cuz uh because of the network of trails and the wild huts where you can stay and people might leave the car on a car park for three or four days and hike trails staying in wilderness cabins. So one car and us that was it. And speaking of not seeing anything, where are the reindeer? They have all disappeared. When we came into Lapland two weeks ago, we were seeing deer next to the road every time we drove. And I would say for the last at least a week, we’ve seen two reindeer yesterday. That’s it. They they’ve all been rounded up uh and eat and turned into souvenirs. They have all been rounded up. We think this is the time of year when the herders do round up the reindeer and they use GPS monitoring systems to track the herd and what they’re doing is collecting them in ear marking them with unique cutings which sounds a bit grim but they use some scissors to cut different shapes into the so if that was their ear they will make specific patterns so that they can recognize them in mix herds and they then sort them into ones that are going to be used for eating and they call about a half I think of the reindeer herd over the the 12 otherwise people like us wouldn’t be able to buy reindeer memorabilia in the gift shops or reindeer sausage sausage cuz we like sausage on this channel. So we are hoping that sausage the herdsmen finish their jobs quickly before we leave Lapland because I really do want to see a big herd of reindeer other than the ones and twos we’ve seen on the roadside. So come on that land. Get your reindeer back out on the fields. I I’m not that bothered to be honest. So yesterday was the first day of like consistently cold. So it fro it were freezing overnight and then yesterday during the day it never went above freezing. So I’ve been picking up a a low engine oil warning on dashboard for van and and I know what it is. I’ve not I’ve not lost lots of oil is the cold weather. So all oil gets claggy when you turn your engine off. It doesn’t all sort of seep down into oil pan where all sensors pick it up or you can get condensation in your dipstick tube and things like that that all affect the the the readings that you get into your dashboard. These are notoriously inaccurate anyway. Little blobs on your dashboard that tell you how much oil you’ve got. So, I know even though it’s showing low oil that I haven’t lost hundreds of milliliters or liters of oil in the last day or two, but it just makes sense to check with a dipstick, which I’ve done, and everything’s fine. But to do that, I just I fired engine up just for a couple of minutes to get a little bit of heat into it, but not so it’s all thin and runny, and then turned it off, left it for 5 minutes, and um give it chance to settle in oil pan. uh in sump and um and then check it and it’s it’s all right. It’s it’s it’s about halfway in the in the gauge. So, it’s probably actually in reality it’s still got its normal amount of oil in it. Might have burnt a mill or two in the last couple of thousand miles. So, it’s fine. Only problem you’ve got is some of these vans, the Fiat ones don’t even have a dipstick because they just rely on the sensor. So, I don’t know. I don’t know what you do there. You just got to be careful not not to overfill it. But before you commit to putting more oil in, just see if you can find a leak or anything. And if it’s not, if your engine’s born dry, no leaks are all, it’s going to be it’s going to be bit cold. But I’m all right. We’ve got a dipstick, so I’m I’m happy enough. And the other thing I’m watching out for is uh my tire pressures because I have a tire pressure monitoring system and the first frost is when it affects the pressures and it might falsely underread tire pressures. It hasn’t yet, but the first frost is when every car dealership across UK gets phone calls from customers kicking off cuz the TPMS system’s faulty or they’ve got a slow puncture in the brand new car. When it’s not, it’s just the cold makes air pressure lower. Um, so the first frost is when when you notice it. So, little tip, tips for Andrew, the non- mechanic. I’m the least mechanical person you would ever want to meet. Enough said. So, now we are heading west. The original plan was to go west, do a quick service stop at Muno, and then head north into that little finger at the top of Finland, but the temperatures there are set to get to minus 12 over the next day or two. So, we’re not doing that. We’re going to get the services done and then start heading south and head for the ski resort instead where it won’t be as cold. And we are expecting at least 40 km of this main road to be potholey and grally. Nice. Gas. Got my bags in the back. I got nothing but dreams and I’m okay with that. I never listen when they tell me to stop. I got energy to burn. I love a few from the top. Yeah. I got to keep on moving. I got to keep moving. I got They’re just about to walk past. They’ve come from up there. That little hell. And we truly believe, you know, we living. Yeah, we dream. No need to worry. We just chasing everyone. So why you still here in the morning house got you falling but I’m still staring at morning think we both know where it’s going but I’m stilling this has been an interesting park upon it by standards in Finland it’s it’s not the prettiest But actually, it’s a really good park up. We just we’re just on a layby. But overnight, I think one car maybe after midnight came past and it’s now 11:00 on a Sunday morning. I think two or three. But it set back enough and we were sat there last night and you looked out at window. There’s reindeer eating grass near van. How cool is that? And they were and they were back this morning as well. So you open your blind and there’s a reindeer there. That’s well cute, isn’t it? So So as a as a means to an end, it’s it’s been it’s been really good. near water, near forest as you always are. So, what can you say? And last night was going to be a spectacular aurora. All right. It was red across the board, but too cloudy to see here. So, we had to make do with some beautiful lit up clouds instead. So, we’re now going to get to Muno services, and then we’re going to go and see a very special reindeer. When we left here yesterday, we were heading out to see a massive, massive thing. And well, I’ve got to say, I was a bit disappointed when we got there. It’s not what I was expecting. We were going to find a special reindeer at Aka Slumpo. Aka Aka Slumpo. And it is robbing the reindeer. Anatomically correct on a large scale. He had a massive tallywhacker. After we’d done our services at Mono, we drove to see the reindeer down a beautiful forest track. It was well smart. However, the night before, for the first time ever on our weather app, we’ve had snow warnings and uh temperature warnings, wind warnings, etc. We got an ice warning and we and and it it just didn’t make sense cuz we know it’s cold. Um and it had been cold overnight. It been minus I don’t know 3 or 4 or something like that. But at that point it was plus two but the road and it was like I don’t know at least 30 km passing places. It just became very icy traction control ABS. It became a bit of a chore to drive. And I can see now why already, even though there’s no snowy or anything like that, a lot of locals are driving with studded tires, which we do not have. Even though I know, yes, you can buy some things that you screw into your tires and they become st tires, but I didn’t buy any cuz I didn’t want to be in that position where I needed them, blah blah blah. Anywh who, it influenced the rest of the day. So, after seeing Robin the reindeer, the plan, in all his glory, the plan had been to stay in the area and go up the local mountain on a gondola. It was dog friendly and we thought that would be a lovely day out. However, the weather forecast for the following two days was extremely cold – 6 – 8 overnight. And the roads over here don’t get gritted. They sometimes get sanded to improve grip, but it’s not about melting any ice. Why is that? Why does not salt? Because it doesn’t work effectively beyond minus 7 melting ice. Science fact. So, we changed our plan. We continued on and we headed for where we are now, which is to see the real reindeer. Oh, also to look at property because we might buy a house here. No, we’re not buying a house here. And we are now at Roanime to see Father Christmas. No, not as double here. I’ve got a part-time job, just one day a week as being Father Christmas. So, with all me joy and me whornness. Yeah, part-time as a Grinch, I think, as the auntie Father Christmas. Anyway, we arrived last night. It was all lit up. It was all very Christmassy. We went out for a rather expensive reindeer burger. We at reindeer sauteed and burgered. And we got burgers with price. Well, they were well expensive. But we’re staying at the Santa Village, which is right next door to sort of the main Santa Land. We’re in a free car park that’s designated for motor homes. There are no services. There aren’t even bins, but it’s free and it’s very safe. It’s just a level hard standing. It’s brilliant, actually. Yeah. And right across from us, we can see all the little cottages that are We’re going to buy one that are for higher with Christmas trees outside all lit up. €199 a night now. So, it’ll go up very shortly. And we’re just going to go and have a little lazy day pottering around Santaland, being festive cuz I love Crimbo. That is uh to let Santa get onto the roof to deliver your presents. But um the tape at the bottom, that’s elf and safety. Let’s go and see how the other half live. So, two years ago tomorrow, we came here on our last land adventure and it was a totally different picture. It was covered in snow. We stayed over the road there at the air. 37 uh €37 an hour. Ouch. But we needed electricity then. We needed resources and our water was frozen. And we didn’t have any water actually. I see. No, the water froze in the filler neck of the water tank. We filled up with water, but it it won’t take anymore because any water in the filler neck had frozen. It were about – 10 – 12 during the day. It were like crackers. But it made this place actually look like Christmas. Whereas it made my cockals look like shriveled up peanuts. But now it’s not so snowy. We’ll see what it looks like. It’s very busy with a lot of work at the moment. There’s lots of machinery here. It’s not the prettiest at the back end of the place because everyone says I’m negative. Listen to this. We’re in the happiest place in world and she’s picking fault week. But they’re getting ready for the holiday season. So, let’s go and see what it’s like without snow. And that’s where you go to meet Father Christmas, which we did last time we were here. Even Buddy got to go. So, it is free to go and meet Mr. C. You just pay if you want the photos and video. So, we could technically go and see him again. Ho ho ho. Merry Christmas. Thank you for staying at our free caravan park. Christmas House restaurant offers tasty breakfast, buffet, and lunch every day. We know cuz we’ve just had lunch. We just had lunch for what were €18 each. And there was a starter like three mains. You got what you want? Help yourself. There were salads. There were cheese and biscuits. There were desserts. Coffee juice. $1850 mega. This is what a deserted Santa village looks like at night. And a big shout out to Paul Harper for outing us on Facebook and revealing our secret identities. Much discussion has been had about this um well I call it my beaver look and uh because you like it, don’t you? No. But it’s very tickly and uh but part of it has been to try and increase the number of uh female viewers that we have because we’re quite low on female viewers. Only 20% of you are females. Uh so I thought this extra sexual appeal might help that. But also whilst we were at Santa, I thought, you know, we’re not getting as many gazillions as we thought we would by now. So, I might do a little bit of part-time work in the old Father Christmas department. So, uh, but it it’s soon to come off because it’s not going to be cold anymore, is it? No. And next time, Gary, please just make us a little bit slimmer. Now that I’m older, all the joy of Christmas time is smaller. I have seen tomorrow that the world is full of pain and sorrow. Take me back to Christmas as a kid. When all I see about it’s snow. We like snow. What? It’s snow. Get ready. Christmas. Well, what a difference a day makes. The snow eventually came quite unexpectedly as well cuz we’ve been checking the weather forecast and we weren’t expecting snow last night. So, we are heading south to get out of the snow. The rain is going to come today and we’re going to be in positive temperatures for at least the next 3 or 4 days. We just need to get off this car park. Christmas when all I cared about was opening my gifts. Take me back to Christmas as a kid when I dreamed so big and had no old regrets. Christmas as a kid five rain day then there was nearly one less nearly took one out then it stepped in front of me it just ran right across the road and the other four were on this side and of course one of us wasn’t I wasn’t looking. Just looking out for reindeer. Andrew sporting his new hat. That’s my penis that you were handling. It’s not your pocket knob. We have escaped the nasty cold weather, but not the Santa Christmas spirit. And a lot of people are getting a little bit confused with the timeline as to where we are. The the simple truth is we’re a couple of weeks on the vlogs behind. So when you’re watching this, it’s it’s already happened. It’s history. Um so if you want to see literally live, then daily Facebook and Insta Drab um is accurate. We’ll put the links here. So if you want to see if you want to see on the socials. And if you notice on this particular episode, we have got reindeer back and we’re dead suited. And we think we’ve sorted out the reasons why we have that little bit of a gap in scene reindeers in the north. So these are our theories and we hope our Finnish viewers might be able to confirm this. So although we’ve no snow, it is flipping freezing with this wind. It’s arctic. So after another quiet night, we are now heading off for our daily activity, which today is going to look for Arctic wild animals because in the wild, like true wildlife photographers, explorers, sometimes it’s easier just to go zoo. I’m about to get it started. We that I’ve waited. This is the place I’m most excited about. This enclosure because we’ve come all this way and I am going to have a closeup look of the beaver. Like an animal. like an animal. Go war like an animal. Go wild. Go wild. I’m a machine working every day. The hardest. The hardest. Super human vision. Got my eyes on the target. Unleash. I’m a beast. Got the whole crowd. Party. Make a sing. Going to get loud. Real proud. Show my teeth. Go wild. Go wild. Like an animal. Like an animal. Like an animal. Go like an animal like an animal. Go wild. Go like an animal. Like an animal. Go wild. Go wild. Like an animal. Like an animal. Like an animal. Go like an animal like an animal. And that is it for this vlog. We hope you’ve enjoyed looking at Western Lapland. We now have a few little jobs to do because we have to fill up with LPG, which as we told you right about when we started planning this meant a trip to Sweden. So, we’re heading south into Sweden to get the gas, which also means another trip to the vets. I’ve already got gas. See you next time. Thanks as always for your bounce.

Before watching please check it’s not been dubbed- we had a technical glitch! Go to your device settings and select Turkish as the audio language and it should be our voices then! (Don’t ask!)

In this vlog we are back in Finland (after a few days in Norway) to explore the western half of Lapland. We are on the search for reindeer, visit another National Park, get some brilliant viewings of the aurora and visit Santa Land…do we eventually find reindeer? You’ll have to watch to find out!

If you’d like to follow our adventures check out our playlists so far:

Our European Adventures

Lancashire to Finland Autumn 2025

Lancashire to Greece Spring 2025

Lancashire to France Summer 2024

Lancashire to Lapland Autumn 2023

Lancashire to Belgium and Luxembourg Spring 2023

Lancashire to Catalonia Autumn 2022

Our UK Adventures

Lancashire to the North East of England

CAMpRA aires

Lancashire to Yorkshire in a motorhome

Cumbria and Lancashire in a Motorhome

Lancashire to Scotland in a Motorhome

Techy stuff and life on the road

Our Motorhome Life

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