Saturday August 15th 2015. Kautokeino 11 km

Hogere school voor rendierfokkerij voor Sami

High school for Reindeer breeding for Sami.

Snowscooterwedstrijd op water Snowscooter games on water.

Met 4 quods kregen ze de gezonken snowscooter er uit

With 4 quods they got the sunken snowscooter out.

Mooi weer. Zonnen

Nice weather.

T en E zoals ze echt zijn

Ton and Eric the way they really are?

Last night, I was already in my cage, I got a message from Ton and Eric. Will we still see you in Kautokeino? We will stay here until monday. Strange that I do receive a message, but I can not send it. Therefore I have to go 100 m. away from the “house”.
 
I actually had my schedule ready for the next 2 weeks and for tomorrow. I would like to pass through Kautokeino today, do the necessary purchases and go straight on. Staying one night in Kautokeino was not my intention, because I needed this day to keep up my average of 30 km. a day. But this morning, when I woke up, I decided to go to Kautokeino to stay there one night and then go to Masi tomorrow. Thus, Eric, Ton and I could socialize some more.
 
At Arctic Camping near Kautokeino, the manager, a friendly 70 plus lady, gave me a cabin next to Ton and Eric’s. Tosca thinks I take what’s right for me and installs herself immediately on the sofa, so I just put a plate on the sofa. Ton, Eric and I are inside their cabin (outside it is 11 degrees C.) drinking coffee. We talked and socialized. We are talking about all sorts of aspects of such a survival tour. What it does to you, why doing it or why not. Its relativizing effect. Being basic. Living primarely sensory, with brains activity at zero. Breaking with the daily standard pattern. Dare to make choices without having to withhold because of all kinds of conventions and insecurities. Make a choice and then work out the idea. About how 2 people get along so close together for a long time. About the German Andreas, whom I  met in the swamp last Sunday, August 8th, (him) in a not very good shape. Eric and Ton met him in Nedrefoss. Andreas seemed a little nuts there and crippled a little. Probably the expression of his young head was not yet significant enough. For him the light was extinguishing, while we, old soldiers, never die. Etc. etc. While I need another two weeks to reach Cape North, Ton and Eric are going to the much southerner Hardangervida for another two weeks. I think the southernmost place where musk oxes live. We decided to go to a sauna tonight.
I go back to my cabin in Cuonovuoppi and eat Mikkel’s bread weighing at least a kilo. Mikkel baked it so compact that one can hit someone to death with it. I gather my stuff to move this afternoon to the cabin at Arctic Camping. I walk to Kautokeino center, even though I’ve seen everything already. I hoped to get much more contact with the Sami community. Like elsewhere in Norway, unknown people are not greeted. Except for the language and traditional clothing, I do not see much of Samen culture. The reindeer are not here, at least not now. I do not see much difference with the rest of Norwegian culture.
On the river is a race with snowmobiles   Whether I want to join. Right not for now . From the bridge, among the many other spectators, occasionally I see sink a snow mobile in the 1 m. deep water. A quod drives into the water to pull out the snowmobile. Does not the engine turn off in the water? I’m watching with interest. No. But the quod slips on the river bottom. A second quod enters the river to assist. Same story. With a third quod in the water, it’s finally possible to reach the shore, the four vehicles tied in a row. Of course with deafening noise. The fans love it. Photo. Then a quick visit to the church a little away from the village. I wasn’t impressed except by the red colored wood.
Some more
 blogging and then at 6.30 to the sauna in the local hotel a couple km from the camping site. At 8 o’clock there is free coffee in a teepee centrally located on the campsite. For all residents. I see only a few residents. With these few old vikings we can have a ball at the coffee. Saturdaynight fever! Wild evening, hilarious fun. We’ll see.
It’s the most beautiful day that I’ve experienced this last year. Cloudy, some 16-18 degrees C. Fresh breeze, barely mosquitoes. People sit in bra in front of the caravan to defy this heat. The men oben ohne ( topless). Picture of Ton and Eric.
 
At 6.30 pm the sauna at the Thonhotel (luxury hotel) was reserved by T and E. I was included. With a special magnet card we were able to enter the dressing room for the men. We enter the sauna through a dark sun glass door. What will be at the other side of the other solar glass door in the sauna? Just try: the ladies’ dressing room. How unlogical is this construction? Separate dress rooms, but shared sauna. We asked Dini at the reception afterwards. She stammered something about naked, but the answer was not satisfying. Cooling could be done outside. Then you had to go undressed through the hallway with bedrooms. Once outside we were right outside the big windows of the dining room. When I came outside, there were no spectators behind the dining room windows. According to Eric or Tom, I had chased them all away. Afterwards Dini had to be paid at the front desk. I asked if children were free. As a result I did not have to pay. Fortunately someone who loves youth.
 
Back at the campsite the entrance of the coffee teepee was open with the manager in the opening. According to us, his wife summed him to lit the fire there and do not dare you to get back the first few hours. Let’s see if there’s something to do out here.
 
There were some sofas with reindeer skins around the fire. May be 10-15 people. T and E expected me to give a salsaworkshop there. Indeed I saw an interesting looking person, but she was so intensely occupied with her cellphone that I had little confidence in a positive response. That’s why we left very quickly. E and T invited me out for their dinner. Je ne refuse rien, I tought myself in France. And that’s what I am waiting for in my cabin .
  While
 I wait in my cabin to be called for diner, a group of motor cycles arrives at the cabin next to mine with all sorts of persons with a southern European appearance. I look up and look straight into the eyes of a tanned beauty. Finally someone who greets. I’m not used to that in Scandinavia. Where do you come from ?, I ask. Italy. Going to Cape North? Yes. Before this superficial contact could grow into something beautiful, I was called by my fellow countrymen for diner. My contribution consisted of the remains of Mikkels bread, a bunch of cheese and afterwards coffee and milk powder.
 
We discussed about everything, including mountaineer Reinold Messner, Eric’s wanderings in Asia, who is cooking home and how often and why not etc. etc.
 
When I brushed my teeth, the orgy in the coffee peetee was over (tent closed) and the light at my Italian neighbors was off. I followed their example.

 

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