Raajärvi Safari 17th to 19th June 2005

[Laplander]

(In German)

Hi,

the Finnish Land Cruiser Club (SLCK) will arrange a meeting in southern Lapland in Raajärvi between Rovaniemi and Kemijärvi from 17th to 19th June 2005. The former mining village is located almost exactly on the arctic circle at 66°33'N, 26°54'E.

The Finnish club has invited the Norwegian club (NLCK). Therefore, it will definitely be an international happening. The idea of an (international) summer meeting in Lapland has been around for some time, and during the coming meeting we'll discuss whether we want to make it a regular event.

The schedule of the event is such that participants will arrive on Thu afternoon/evening (16th) or on Fri morning (17th). A Safari will be organised on 17th and on Sat 18th. Sun 19th is the departure day. Accomodation is available, but you can of course bring your tent or caravan. There'll be a garage for repairs. Otherwise we'll have evenings at the fireplace with the possibility of exchanging ideas on an international level.

The costs are 25 Euros per person and day, which includes accomodation, food, the safari, and sauna, but not the sauna beer! Currently I cannot comment on whether and how the price changes if you bring your own accomodation. Moreover, I don't know if there'll be a reduction for children. This is currently being discussed and I will deliver more precise information as we get closer to the event.

You can register for the event by contacting me by e-mail (preferred) or by using the personal messenger facility of the Buschtaxi Forum. I need to know the number of participating people and cars. It would be nice to know the type and model of the vehicle(s), too. Esp. if you plan on bringing your own accomodation, I think there'll be no problem to register very late, but it would be nice to have a good idea beforehand about how crowded it's going to be.

If you want to spare yourself navigational hassles, I will arrange a general meeting point on Thursday in Rovaniemi from where we proceed together to Raajärvi.

While the event will be organised by the Finnish Land Cruiser Club, please note that all Toyota 4x4s are welcome and so are other makes, even though the emphasis is clearly on Toyota.

So, if you don't yet know what to do in summer, or if you just happen to be in the area at the time, or whatever: Welcome to Lapland!

All the best from Northern Finland,

Laplander

(Edited by Laplander at 20:31 am 1. April 2005)

[Laplander]

Hello,

since there were requests by e-mail as well as in the German thread for this topic, I wrote a bilingual summary of web links to ferry companies operating in between Germany and Scandinavia and Finland. Please have a look here!

All the best from Finland,

Laplander

[Laplander]

Hello,

finally I got more detailed prices for the event. Forget what was written above, it was wrong. There'll be a safari fee for offroading on a per-car basis of 10 Euro (unclear whether that's 10 Euro for one or both days). There are different types of accomodation available, rooms for 2-3 people incl. sheets, breakfast, sauna for 20 Euro per night, rooms for 7 people for 80 Euro per night, and rooms for 4+1 people for 50 Euro per night.

You can as well bring your tent or sleep in your car/caravan. In that case some small fee will be charged for showers/sauna.

The rooms are given on a first-come first-serve basis. You can make reservations directly by phone at +358-16-690787.

Please note that I just relay this information as it was posted by others on the SLCK Forum, therefore I cannot guarantee that it is correct.

Bring your own food, esp. for the barbeque!

While in theory you can join on short notice, the semi-official registration deadline is the 5th June 2005. Please contact me by e-mail or by personal messanger in this forum. You can as well write to the main organiser Jari Viinikka at rankka4x4@netti.fi.

All the best from Finland,

Laplander

[Laplander]

Hi again,

meanwhile I read on the Finnish mailing list that the prices for tents are 10 Euro per night and for caravans 12 Euro per night. If you want breakfast, it will be available for 5 Euro per person. Both caravan and tent places are without electricity, however some of us have rented rooms and won't have problems letting you charge your phone or cam batteries or whatever.

Currently we have nationals of Finland, Norway, Germany, Canada, and UK in our guest list.

All the best from Finland,

Laplander

[Laplander]

Hi,

finally I had some time to sort out my photos from the Raajärvi event. Have a look here: http://cc.oulu.fi/~thu/LC/Photos/Raajarvi_2005/.

Also some other participants took pictures: http://tiki.1g.fi/kuvat/Raajarvi/ and http://www.scout.1g.fi/kuvat/Raajarvi_050617-19/.

Have fun!

Laplander