We left Alta on a journey into the unknown.   We decided we would travel back south via Finland and then the Baltic coast of Sweden But first we must cross part of Finnmark, the Sami/ Lappland area of Norway,Sweden and Finland.
The Rough guide describes this as open, barren wilderness, just marshes and bogs with no trees, so we set off with some trepidation!
On leaving Alta we passed through very green, fertile farmland, then started to climb up through a gorge with a river surging down through chasms in cascades.  We eventually reached higher flatter land, but with several large lakes, and although there were no large trees, the whole area was covered in short, stunted trees and bushes, still not in leaf.

We carried on, following a big river and soon spotted a sign , ending in Foss- this means waterfall, so we followed the sign and came to a picnic spot overlooking some magnificent falls on the junction of the Alta-Kautokeino river.  

We carried on to Kautokeino, a Sami town in the middle of nowhere.  It has a lovely wooden church, originally built by the Swedes in 1701. Unfortunately it was destroyed by german bombs in 1944 and rebuilt in the 50's.   The sami population mainly use the church for Easter weddings and for funerals.   Apparently it is brightly decorated in Sami colours - red, green and yellow, but as it was firmly locked, we never got to see inside.  
The graveyard around the church was beautiful with lots of old cast iron grave markers  

Not long after Kautokeino we crossed the border into Finland.   We were very surprised that as this is an entry point into the EU, it was a completely unmanned border crossing - we just drove straight in.

We were now on the E8 - remember all the sign boards about this road at Tromso, where it starts?    We kept going for quite a while but the road surface was atrocious. The tarmac was laid in sections with raised joints every 50 to 100m.   A motorhome is not well sprung and every joint made everything, including us bounce , bump, bump.

This was more than we could stand, so at the next opportunity we crossed over into Swden, to see what their route 99 was like.   sad to say- not a lot better- and completely lined with trees.
What we hadn't realised from the map is that a huge river, mainly called the Tornio or versions of this, forms the border between Finland and Sweden and there are only a few bridges.
We stopped for the night at a picnic spot beside this river, near he town of Pajala where we were later joined by some Dutch motorhomers.
This picnic spot had an indoor and outdoor barbeque area and massed of firewood provided!