Letter from Utsjoki ( Lapland) 2008

Outing to reach Norway border, having climbed down the mountain on the left of the photo!
 

The word Lapland conjures up images of Santa Claus at Xmas time or Northern lights during winter season however my reason for visiting little bit of  vast landscape up there in Heavens above was simply to be with my friend Tuula (5W member) who had moved from a small town in Finland to retire in a small village in Utsjoki, the most northern place in the Northern Hemisphere. Tuula’s reason for moving to such a remote place on this planet was to live with nature and she certainly did so during my weeks’ stay with her.

We went out for walks in the forest, climbed a mountain (it seemed like a mountain to me, was probably a hill for Tuula) to the border of Norway to pick beautiful stones from the lake shores (not allowed but we did it any way!) and bring them back to decorate our homes, we went out for a picnic by the river side and nearly drowned in the freezing river; the sky was always blue, the air was always fresh and the river water clear for Tulla to swim ( not me); certainly seemed to me like living with nature!

 

I continued to enjoy my stay there and lived on salmon fish freshly caught and given to us by friendly neighbours, plenty of wild berries we picked in the forest for our pudding and drinks, lots of fire wood collected for heating the house at night and there was never shortage of water, in fact according to Tuula she only needed to dig a hole in the ground and fresh water would come rushing out; complete contrast to my time in the small village in Tanzania! Time and time again life is simply a bitch on this beautiful planet of mine. 

The most memorable time of my visit was when I had to catch a taxi from Utsjoki airport to Tuula’s home and my friend had given me the name of the taxi driver who would be at the airport waiting for me. There was nobody for me when I left the airport and I found myself out side by the taxi rank and asked around in English for a taxi to Tuula’s house, showing her address around which was written in English. I hired the first taxi man who nodded in agreement to my request and the journey became and it never seemed to stop on clear wide empty road with on other vehicles in sight. Suddenly, I started to  panic but  I had to remind myself that I was not in Indian taxi in India and I will not be mugged, raped and thrown out without my money or my passport ( I have never had that experience in India but the fear of being mugged etc..in India I carried around with me everywhere else); any way half way during my journey the taxi driver stopped at a café and I rushed into the café to speak to the girl at the counter who spoke good English. She assured me that I had picked up the right taxi man to take me to my friends’ home. As soon as we started our journey again, the taxi driver switched his radio on to listen to foot ball commentary and when I mentioned Man U. and England he suddenly remembered his school boy English and he started a conversation with me about football and other things in life, as taxi drivers do all over the world. After three hours (a similar journey from Coventry to London) journey of bumping into just the reindeers on the road and stop at the café I reached my friends home with a great sigh of relief. (By the way the taxi fare was not any what I would pay for if I hired a taxi from Coventry to London, in other words it was cheap ride)   

 

  My return journey was even more adventurous with the same taxi driver who had to be called three times to pick me up as arranged the night before my departure. To complete my story of an easy going life style of a taxi driver in Lapland, here is what I had to tell my friend when I reached home in Coventry: “I am pleased you asked about the taxi man. Well he drove me half way and then took 5 minutes break to have coffee in a cafe and I asked him when I shall be at the airport, it was past 11.30 am (the time I should have been at the airport). He said that, we will reach the airport at 12.00 midday and we had another 60 km. to go yet! Then after about 15 minutes drive, he picked up another passenger who was also going to the airport with me. Well, I then stopped worrying about the whole idea of being on time and left my life in the hands of my GOD. Throughout the  journey, we were held back by two trucks and it still took him 2 hours and 30 minutes to get to the airport and most people going to Helsinki had checked in and I did not have to wait at all at checking in counter  and the plane arrived on time and we left on time. So I made to the airport in time to board the plane, but if the taxi man was held back by more trucks then two, I would have come back to you for another night stay! ”