Eurosully

18/10/2025

🚐Another parkup on our own. Dark skies, very quiet!

🌨️The route we took today west across Lapland to get ahead of the really cold weather and snow. Just a sprinkling to date.

❤️Our parkup this evening had another couple of occupants too!

17/10/2025

❤️Our wildlife experience today was with several beautiful Siberian Jays.

👀After a few fleeting glimpses over the last few days, we finally had a chance to see them properly today.

🌲We are in Lemmemjoki National Park. As we walked through the beautiful forests we’d just remarked that we hadn’t heard or seen a single bird. Not a tweet.

🪾We then heard and watched a pair of greater spotted woodpeckers and thought that would be it.

🧡But shortly after, we walked into the territory of a group of Siberian Jays. With flashes of orange as they flitted from tree to tree, suddenly they’d flown right into our path… or rather, we’d walked straight into theirs!

🦮They are known to be curious and fearless birds and as we stood quietly, they came and landed on the ground only feet from us, foraging, not bothered by us or the dog.

🫐They usually forage in small groups in a defined area, stock pilling berries for the winter by sticking them behind loose bark or in the Beard Moss that hangs from the trees. They’re also partial to spiders, insects, slugs and won’t turn their noses up at a bit of left over animal carcass.

🧡It was like they’d formed a foraging line and were advancing through the forest, perpendicular to the path we were on. Several minutes later and they’d moved on, their orange wings catching the low lights of the sunshine.

Andrew caught some lovely images and videos- credit for this picture to him!

17/10/2025

❤️Last night we had out best Aurora night to date. At 9.45pm there was nothing… and then the next time I looked at 10.30 it was something else.

💚The sky was covered from east to west with arcs of light that danced above our heads.

💚Very visible to the naked eye, although not as green as the photos suggest, but you could see the rippling of the curtains and watching the movements of the arcs was captivating.

💜The aurora was quite active, constantly changing we definitely saw arcs, bands, curtains, rays and coronae. We got a few glimpses of pinky purples too.

😍We watched it for over an hour, before the clouds came. You could still see a hazy green above the clouds, and when the skies cleared later the aurora was still there. I woke at 5am and had a peep outside and could still see arcs.

Getting ready for another show tonight!

16/10/2025

❄️Our first snow! Well…a few moments of flakes and they were gone!

🚐We spent last night at a nature reserve carpark on a road that cuts through 2 wilderness areas. These are exactly as they sound…they are large, remote tracts of land mainly in Lapland, created to protect wilderness character and support Sámi culture and traditional livelihoods, including reindeer herding.

🚐So far on these roads we’ve seen zero reindeer because there are fences either side to protect the animals. But there are also no roads through the wilderness areas for us to try to go and find some.

🫣However, we’ve found 1 tiny short road so that’s what we are on tonight, in a small carpark. It’s been mainly a gravel road, but very doable.

❤️No reindeer, but we did get our first good sighting of a ptarmigan, part way between summer and winter plumage- very pretty- and had quick sightings of the beautiful orange flashes of Siberian jays.

15/10/2025

🚐We’ve driven down the 970 road today following the Tenojoki (the Teno river) from Utsjoki to Karigasniemi- this is touted as Finland’s most beautiful route- it was stunning but even more so if we’d done it a few weeks ago in the autumnal colours.

💦We were going to spend the night in Karisgasiemi, but moved a few miles to Sulaojan springs- Finland’s largest springs and a sacred place for the Sami people.

🥾We did the short hike around the spring which took us into the Kevo Strict Nature Reserve, which is an even more protected place than a national park. Not even berry picking is allowed. We only saw 2 crows the entire walk so that nature is very protected indeed!

❄️Now we wait for the snow coming in the morning!

14/10/2025

❤️We stayed in Vardø again last night and for our last day in Norway we had a wander around the town as there are a few notable things to see:

1. Drakkar Leviathan sculpture representing the sea, Viking ships, myths and whales - stunning.
2. Steilneset- an unbelievable memorial to the 91 people exectuted for being witches or sorcerers in the 1600s. The lights and flaming chair are lit 24/7.
3. Large sculptures of a puffin and walrus
4. Beautiful harbour
5. The Globus radar station monitoring space junk.

❄️Now in Finland ready to explore the western side of Finnish Lapland…and the snow will be with us in a few days!

13/10/2025

☁️A cloudy and dull start to the day, but what a beautiful place to be in!

🇩🇪We hiked up to the German gun battery on the hill behind the village of Hamningberg, which will have been strategically placed to defend the Barents Sea. There were several remains of gun emplacements events and the tunnels which led to them.

🎣Before WW2 there were around 700 residents who lived and worked in the fishing village. The Germans didn’t destroy the village as the retreated in 1944, which means it’s one of the best preserved pre-war villages in Finnmark- most of the others were destroyed.

⛴️However, the village was abandoned in 1964 because they couldn’t get a bigger pier built to support bigger vessels- the houses are now only summer homes. It was deserted when we visited, with just 2 vehicles seen in the village.

🚐This parking area only opened in Sept 25, and true to form for the Norwegian Tourist routes, the toilets are beautiful (although closed at the moment) and even the parking area is landscaped to create half moon BBQ areas.

13/10/2025

🐻🐻🐻🐻Bears, bears, bears 🐻🐻🐻🐻

🧸Our vlog about our bear experience is now live on YT. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did…well almost as much, as obvs being there was unbearlievable.

The main reason we came to Finland was to go bear watching on the eastern border. With some logistics around dog sitting sorted we headed to the Bear Centre ...

12/10/2025

❤️Today’s drive from Vardø to Hamningberg on the Varnager Scenic Route has been the most dramatic and beautiful road we have ever driven (to date). These photos don’t did it justice, but hopefully the vlog will!

🚐The single track road took us past huge jagged cliffs, sculpted rock forms and we felt like we were driving on the moon…apart from the tarmaced road of course!

🪨Little wooden homes, each uniquely designed and coloured, were built into little alcoves created by the jagged rocks.

🌊And then…the beaches! Turquoise seas and white sands, even on a cloudy and gloomy day like today.

🌍We feel like we are at the edge of the world…except we are in a newly constructed visitor carpark, with toilets (closed) and sheltered BBQ areas next to a very small colourful village…and we have amazing WiFi…and 1 more motorhome!

11/10/2025

❤️Oh how stunning the Varanger Peninsula is- stunning little fishing hamlets, miles of wilderness and rocky shores.

🍰We explored Vadsø this morning, spotting Eider ducks in the harbour and enjoying cake in a cafe. An interesting looking church and a statue celebrating how the Finnish immigrants have helped the town.

🚐It’s been a beautiful drive down to Vardø where we are now for the night- on the way here we enjoyed the walk around the island of Ekkerøy- one of the oldest fishing villages on Varanger and with a history of German occupation in WW2. We had a look at the old fortifications with ammunition bunkers and the cannon emplacements where cannon ‘Paula’ sat.

☁️We are now at mainland Norway’s most easterly point and will enjoy exploring tomorrow. It’s a good Aurora forecast for tonight, but alas the clouds have rolled in.

…and day 3 without a reindeer sighting!

10/10/2025

🇳🇴 We’re in Norway for a few days!

🚐We are driving the Varanger Scenic Tourist Route around this stunning peninsula, because we got snowed off 2 years ago. Needless to say, the weather is much better this time!

🌧️We’ve had a drizzly day, but that hasn’t stopped us stopping off at the view points on our way to Vadsø, where we are now, parked overlooking this small town from the island of Vadsøya, just across the water.

👀We are here to find Stellar and King Eider ducks (if they’ve arrived yet) as we are unlikely to ever see them on the UK as they are rare migrant visitors.

🤞It’s going to be a lovely day tomorrow so keep your fingers crossed.

🫣Oh…and we haven’t seen a reindeer for 2 days and I’m getting withdrawal symptoms so we’re hoping to see some soon!

09/10/2025

💤Someone struggled to get out of bed this morning after the pub last night!

🥾The weather felt rather arctic this morning at only 4C but we soon warmed up with a short walk in Urho Kekkonen National Park to the Aurora day hut where we saw our first Siberian Jay- too fast to photograph though. This hut was heated, had a viewing platform, toilets, bins and a BBQ area- all for free use by anyone (not the hut in the photo!). It’s a remarkable way of life in Finland and being outdoors is positively encouraged...and resourced!

🚐We then continued north, where the scenery got more barren, the autumn colours disappeared and we only saw an occasional car- the E75 road is stunning. We drove through Inari, the Sami capital, without stopping, as we’ll be back in a few days to explore the rest of northern Lapland.

But today, we left Finland and drove right up into Norway, which is where we are now.

🇳🇴Why Norway? Well, we’ll be spending a few days on the Varanger Peninsula as we didn’t make it this far east back in 2023 because of the snow. We just need to finish the north: it’s a tale of ducks, witches and a strange dragon!

❤️This is Tana Bru bridge which changes colour - we are parked in the new service/picnic area right next to the bridge.