Today is our last day. We are planning a take-it-easy 25km from where we slept to Kemi, where Alex will be, hopefully waiting for us.

Our legs are tired and we have few blisters but the spirits are high because we can see the coast from were we are. Although visual distances in the baltic are relative – as we discovered soon after the start of the adventure, our GPS final waypoint is located at 22km in a straight line.

Yesterday night we had some snow showers and we are all in deep s**t because it takes an enormous effort to keep the balance with the tick pieces of wet snow stick to the bottom of our skis.

This is a very slow way to progress because we are doing 2.5km/hour -half of what it should be – with a tremendous energy consumption because the effort of lifting the whole ski, boot and the piece of snow underneath. With the  skis not touching the surface it takes double to make any progress.

Next time would remember to wax out the equipment before setting off…

At the end we did nearly or aprox 20km in another long 8 hour day, with awful conditions and giving it all to keep it going. The enjoyment is now pain management and it seem the coast is moving away from us.

We are now doing legs of 3.7km at the time, where we stop for 5 minutes to drink and eat. It takes aprox 100 minutes to cover this distance. (Slower than a cross trainer machine in the gym 😕).

Finally, and after nearly 8 hours of painful progression, we reach the coast. We are in Simo not Kemi. Simo is a peninsula and Kemi is around 5 kilometers from here. But this is good for us.

We arrived to a marina with empty houses and moored boat covered by snow. In the summer this looks like a lovely place for sailing with during winter is the closest to a scientific base in Antartica.

 

 

 

 

 

Because the change of schedule we waited for a couple of hours for Alex to pick us up from this location. Traffic in from Rovaniemi to Kemi was bad so we ended up waiting up for two hours. We jumped when we saw the lights of the car coming because temperatures were below zero and we were exhausted sitting by the side of one of the main marina buildings. Mission accomplished!

Hugs and cheers when Alex came out of the car. We celebrated with a can of beer (ironically warm because were inside the car for three hours) and we packed pulkas, duffle bags and equipment in the small car.

Because was a bit too late to drive to Rovaniemi to have a shower and go for a well deserved dinner, we changed with our best fleeces and jackets and headed to the best place in Kemi for a celebration. After few days eating noodles, cold bread with cheese and frozen meatballs we needed some comfort food.

We had a great week of friends and adventure and I am sure this would be the beginning of something else as a team. Keep tuned it. 👌❄️