After a three hour ride in the local mini bus, we arrived at Utsjoki, the last town in the north of Lapland and separated from the Norwegian border by a bridge over a wide river. 

We stayed in a kind of half-house, quite luxurious after our past lodgings.

 

 

 

 

We walked across the bridge over to Norway and returning to Finland were greeted by a sign in Norwegian – a language, which like the Scandinavian and Dutch languages belongs to the German linguistic grouping and can be understood, whereas Finnish is completely different and probably has its antecedents somewhere in Siberia. 

 

 

Behind the Holiday Camp (as it calls itself) – where we are staying are walking trails ascending the steep hills. The landscape here is quite different to that further south in Lapland. It is sparse, rocky with thin soil and the climate of course is extreme. The only trees that survive are small birches, their leaves already turning yellow.