Can we get to the northern border of Finland? (bikepacking through Finland final part 4)

It’s time for the last push! Two beginner cyclists and two bikes are making their way all the way to northern Finland. In this final part of the series, we face heat, rain, mosquitos and reindeers (!!!), and we don’t stop. Come with us for the last few days.

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MUSIC courtesy of Epidemic Sound
Dear Society (Instrumental Version) – Loving Caliber
Colorize (Instrumental Version) – Thea Tyler
Coming Home (Instrumental Version) – Gamma Skies
Feels like Summer – Staffan Carlen
Had Me at Hello (Instrumental Version) – Aiyo
I’m With You (Instrumental Version) – Pastis
Mountain Air – Cody Francis
Move (Instrumental Version) – Loving Caliber
Stubborn Bastard – Honeycutts
When All Is Said and Done – Isola James

We had cycled all the way from Helsinki to Lapland. Something that a few months ago seemed downright impossible. So now it’s time for the final stretch. Can we make it to the northern border of Finland? In this final episode of our bike bagging trip, we face heat, rain, mosquitoes, reindeers, and not to be traumatic, our own demons. Come along for the last days of this adventure. [Music] We have been so lucky with the weather. Yeah, we have not ridden in the rain. There was this there was the one 30 minutes of like little Yeah. And that’s rain and that’s it. Otherwise, it has been amazing weather. Now, we just got into this uh supermarket. We are sitting under this. So we are not in the rain and there’s like tables here as well. So amazing. We are going to have a big fat break in here. We still have 30 more to or something. 306 I think 26. That’s doable. Hopefully not in rain though, but like we’ll see. And also my the rack on my bike is now all right. Like I tightened all the screws. There’s no cafe nearby. So we stopped at the supermarket and we realized we can make coffee here ourselves. So that’s what we are doing right now. [Music] I’m really in need of a rest day and I just want to go to a bike shop and like fix the rack of my bike and like I just hope we can get to Roan to be honest. That’s like all I want and then we have an Airbnb booked there. We can relax, go to shower. That would be nice. Okay, we are doing it. 24k more and the rain is even inverse and there’s also thunder but the rain gear is on. My rain covers are matching my jacket. Did you see the lightning? Are we ready? I think so. We also have lights now. Leon has the back light filming your bump. Can you see? I have the front light. [Music] my bag for tonight. I’m going to sleep on the beach tonight and thank you. Our second rest day dawned. The priority of this day was to of course fix my bike and there was a bike shop right opposite our apartment. These guys were so helpful and my bike was good to go in no time. I also bought some extra screws just to be prepared. [Music] Hello, we are shopping. I’m spending all my money. I need new earphones because I mine broke in the rain yesterday and I need a lightning charger. This smells so good. Oh, I don’t think so. What do you mean? I don’t know. I feel like that just gives me a headache. Okay, let’s smell soothing nature. Also some topsis. So Q-tips. That smells in English. Soothing nature, guys. No, that gives me a headache to be honest. Girl, that’s good. No, you’re just weird. Why are we like this? Why did we decide that this was a good I don’t know. I really don’t. Okay, now you got to smell this. We are also getting some nettle curry because that sounds so bloody good. I’m excited for that. Yeah, me too. We need a mosquito net for you. Otherwise, you will and a watch. Yeah. Still, if somebody wants to donate the watch [Music] I’m done. [Music] I want to eat that. I would want to eat that, too. [Music] You were supposed to go and swim in the river. There’s absolutely no possibility that we will do that. We are just falling asleep in this cafe. Are you ready to see where we are right now on the map and it’s official? We are going to util. Can you see the pool points there? We already booked a cottage here for the last night. Uh, this is the official northernmost point of Finland. But you know what? I think this is pretty good. I’ve marked all the like gas stations and cafes and stores where we could have a break. And that’s it. Let’s [ __ ] go. But today we go nowhere. Airbnb tour. Our bikes are here. Beautiful. And then it’s this chaos and Leon dead on the bed and all our stuff we tried. Luckily we could try on the balcony. Now it’s raining but like our sleeping bags were wet. Everything was basically wet from yesterday. So now we need to pack all of this again. Need to pack all of this again. Uh I can’t even deal with this. We washed everything. It’s another exciting day in this household. Because Leon is going to taste the national drink of Finland, also called as Luna, which is long drink basically. We have my personal favorite Bible flavor. And then Leon took this one, passion fruit flavor. I actually haven’t tasted this myself, so I’m excited to try that. Also, for some reason, Leon got this super huge one for me because she wants to get me drunk. And then for herself, this tiny teeny tiny one. All right, stop flirting with my camera, please. [Music] Oh, there we go. [Music] Mhm. It’s good. [Music] How hungry are you? I’m always hungry. [Music] Okay, we are going last 5 days. Oh, green light. Last 500 km. Sorry for the angle, but we are going. We are on the road again. It’s the last 5 days. How do you feel? Great. Like a fresh person with new butts, new legs. Let’s [ __ ] do this. There we could be swimming, but we are riding. Earlier on this trip, we had met an Austrian man cycling to North Cape. He said that on a cycling trip like this, you go through a week’s worth of emotions in one day. I found that to be spoton. In the morning, you could be excited and full of energy. Then you have to climb a hill and feel frustrated. You complain. Then suddenly the sun comes out or you see a beautiful lake and you are so grateful. Then you’re miserable again and all you can think of is breathing in, out, in, out, pedaling left, right, left, right, without hands. No. Speaking of hills, after leaving Rovenami, it was a lot of up and down, especially the up part. [Music] Should I just spin with the cars? I wonder on the road. I’m going to keep going like that. What the is this up then? Up. Oh my god, that was the longest hill we have done so far. [Music] But after the torture, it was time for the reward. It felt surreal to have cycled all the way from Helsinki airport to the Arctic Circle. We had a bit of a photo shoot here. [Music] We made it here. Do you want to go to meet Santa Claus now? Yes. Duh. I still need a new garment watch. Santa Claus, where are you? You know what? It’s time to go. We’ll meet Santa next time. I think he’s on a summer holiday anyway. Five more days and then we are inuki and I’m never riding a bike again. I mean we’ll see. You can go. [Applause] Okay. Okay. So, we found this very retro looking shop. And today we are a bit late. It’s already almost 2:00 p.m. and we have only done like 27K or something. Oh well. Oh well. Get where we need to. Also, look at this beautiful like there were um tables there, but it’s in the sun and it’s very hot. It’s 28 a.m. today. So, we found this chair table. [Music] Today is hilly hills hills hills and Leon is powering over the hills. I wish we could know the average speed. Like we were going up that hill so fast. I was lagging behind and I was like oh my god I can’t. But you did like Yeah, I did. We did it. Now, this where we are now is the last part of civilization we have for today. So, Leon had a great idea that we will eat here because this is the last cafe until sometime. And we’re going to do like 30 more K and we’re going to wild camp. So, we’re having dinner early and we have some tofu and rice and spring rolls. Oh, should we start with that? Yeah, let’s do it. Sorry. It’s okay. Cheers. Cheers. So, we have some tofu. Mapa tofu, whatever that means, and some rice. And this, I doubt, is vegan, but otherwise it should be. So, a win is a win. For dessert, we are having some chocolate. And because it has been so hot, I need to eat it with a spoon. M. Also, some coffee. What’s the time, Garly Pop? Um, 6:39. But I need my coffee. Okay. [Music] [Music] Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] No stone can see it. [Music] The camera doesn’t do it justice as always, but that looks pretty insane to me. Okay guys, we are wild camping tonight. The road is there and we are going to camp here and the mosquitoes are absolutely killing me right now. So, I should get going. So, let me just set you here. Ow. Ow. Isn’t that good? Putting on the jacket to save myself. My legs are going to look horrible. Go. Okay. So, I’ve never felt so disgusting as I do now. But you know what? That’s fine. I have these cleaning wipes that I use to kind of try to clean myself a little bit. And now I have to go outside to pee. And I really don’t want to because there’s so many mosquitoes. Oh, don’t make me do it. The flies are fine. They’re not going to do anything. But look at these [ __ ] waiting for me to come out. [Music] I guess I have to do it or I have to pee inside my tent. And that is not really an option. Uh, good night. Looks pretty bad. Yeah, these shorts are wet. I don’t want to put them on. [Applause] That campsite was horror. It was out of a horror story. So, we did like 1k. I haven’t even peed yet. We like packed camp as fast as we could and now we’re here because there are less mosquitoes because there’s a building and we are on the side of the road. So, right now feels like a luxury holiday. Five-star hotel. Breakfast included. I’ve seen everything. Now we have We’ve seen the horse flies. We’ve seen an army of mosquitoes. Ow. Was that a horsefly? You’re just at this point. At this point, I just so good. Yeah. I just look at them and they die. Like a laser eyes. Never clean the knife. No. Everything’s dirty here. Including us. Do we have Skippy? We have Skippy. Our child. This is our child, Skippy. Breakfast is served. The same thing as always. And it’s actually delicious though. But I will go shade somewhere now. Maybe I’ll just stand here. Perfect spot. Perfect. So scenic. [Music] [Applause] I’m so sorry, baby, for leaving you. That was scary. So the next civilization or part of it is in 37K and I have 300 ml of water. It was crazy to think that we had come so far north. Despite that wonder though, I was finding this day extremely hard, maybe the hardest day so far. It was hot and my body was protesting against cycling with every fiber of my being. It was frustrating because at this point, you’d think I was used to the constant pedaling, but the most important thing was that I kept going. That’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned on this trip, that I won’t give up. I feel so embarrassed to be here because we are so sweaty and disgusting and smelly. But here we are and I’m charging everything here as well. Huge recommendation for these sodas. It’s amazing. They’re finished, right? Can you see this mosquito vibe here? So sexy. Vanilla ice latte number two. Round two. We are obsessed. Can someone tell me, am I in northern Finland or in Greece? Look at the temperature. Feels like 29. Look how far north we are. And it is [ __ ] 29°. Look where we are. We came from here. We are here. 29. Yeah, feels like 39 for me. It feels like 35 to be honest. Our coffee break is now a pizza break. We’re going to have a long long break here. Oh, what was that? Oh, like something wrong. Uh, we have pizza with vegan cheese. So good. I’m so surprised they had vegan cheese. I’m so happy. So far north. [Music] Hi everyone. I’m back at home. The clip you just saw in the restaurant is the last clip that I took on this trip. And I will tell you why. So, we had just finished our pizzas. We were ready to get back on the road when I got a phone call from Mati, my partner. And I received a few horrible phone calls in my life. one in particular that I just knew that something was wrong. It was going to be bad news and it was um so my dad had a heart attack and he was in the hospital and it was basically not looking good. The doctor said that we should prepare for the worst. So an hour from receiving this phone call, I was already on a bus and then train to go back home to Dumbre. And Leon for a second was considering of completing the trip alone uh the last few days, but then um she thought about it and uh finally decided that she will come on the same bus with me back home. So Leon spent a few days here in our home and I’m very grateful for that. Um because for one like going alone would be of course uh more dangerous because what if something happens to you on the road or a car hits you or whatever and nobody’s there to help you and then like obviously it was not the right headsp space for her. to continue and also for me it was so helpful that she was here especially those few days when we didn’t know if dad is going to survive and then Leon took an early flight back to Switzerland but a miracle happened basically the doctors didn’t use the word miracle but it basically was and dad recovered it took some time he was in the hospital and dad said it’s okay that I’m telling you this story um but Yeah, all is well now. He’s going to make a full recovery hopefully. And it was just very scary. Um, so sorry for the upbrupt ending for the video, but of course it is what it is. And I’m sad we didn’t get to Usyki, so the border, northern border of Finland. But I’m still so proud of us. I didn’t think we could be able to do this. And it just taught me so much this whole trip that I will just keep going. I can push through. I’m stronger than I think. And I hope it also proved to you that you don’t have to be a master at something to try it and show it. You can just be a beginner and learn the way and you will surprise yourself. And I love the whole trip and I got a lifelong friend from Leon. Um, thank you so much Leon. I love you and um thank you so much to you everyone who has watched these videos all of them one of them. Thank you so much for the love. I usually make videos about life in your 30s, slow living, um travel, minimalism, yoga, cycling, no maybe running sometimes that kind of stuff. So if you’re interested, you can stick around for that. And that is it. Thank you very very much everyone and I will see you in my next video. Bye.