Day 3: Saariselkä

My morning got off to a good start today with a breakfast treat of a Karelian pasty. Tim absolutely hates these local specialities, which consist of a rye crust with a filling of rice, but I think they're great

When we stepped outside after breakfast it felt seriously cold. Look at this huge pile of snow outside our apartment!

We set off along the main road, towards the starting point of the walk we'd chosen for today. It was a bit cloudier this morning and we couldn't make out the fell we'd been able to see in the distance yesterday.

We were out a bit earlier than yesterday and we could see the sky was still tinged with the remnants of sunrise.

We found this beautiful viewpoint near one of the main hotels.

There were some people out skiing on the tracks below where we were standing.

A little bit further on, we came to a rather unusual structure. This was new from last year and marks the beginning of the walks and ski trails in the Urho Kekkonen National Park.

I was relieved to read that I was more likely to win the lottery than to encounter a bear or wolf in the national park!

Our plan for today was to do the Aurorapolku walk, which is the easiest of the available winter walks. 

It starts with a nice downhill stretch...

...before you cross over this bridge and officially enter the national park.

Parts of the trail after that are flat...

...but there is also a reasonable amount of uphill.

So despite the fact that the walk is only a few kilometres, it can feel quite tiring in places.

We passed some really beautiful scenery though.

There were benches where it must be nice to sit in summer...

...and lots of wonderful snow-covered trees.

We know from previous visits to Lapland that most of the trees which are bent by snow in winter will bounce back again in summer. This one looked like maybe it wasn't going to make it!

The national park is one of the biggest in Finland and extends eastwards from Saariselkä, all the way to the Russian border.

We met a few groups of other tourists, but mostly it was a really peaceful walk in the wilderness.

As we began to loop back round in a circle towards Saariselkä, there were some beautiful colours in the sky.

I was starting to feel rather cold by this point, though.

We climbed back up through the village, past huge piles of snow, and popped into the supermarket for some more supplies.

Once we got back to the cabin I could see why I'd felt cold; the thermometer outside our door looked like it was showing minus 24  

It was a lovely walk but it was nice to get back inside and warm up a bit