Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
BC.Nearertoourowntimesinthemid-19thcentury,farmersfromsouthernNorwayestab-
lished homesteads here with government support, opening up these near-virgin lands and
helping to assert this ill-defined frontier territory as Norwegian.
CROSSING THE BORDER?
Head to
shop.lonelyplanet.com
to purchase a downloadable PDF of the Finland
chapter from Lonely Planet's
Scandinavian Europe
guide, or the Russia chapter from
Lonely Planet's
Eastern Europe
guide.
Sights & Activities
It's worth a stop at the Strand branch of the
Sør-Varanger Museum ( Jul-mid-Aug)
,
which preserves Norway's oldest public boarding school and illustrates the region's ethnic
mix. Visit, too, the timber-built
Svanvik chapel
dating from 1934, and a couple of 19th-
century farms,
Bjørklund
and
Nordre Namdalen
.
TheColdWarlookouttower
Høyde 96
offersavieweastwardtothebleakRussianmin-
ing town of Nikel.
Douse yourself liberally in mosquito repellent before heading off into the wilds. The
most accessible route is the poor road that turns southwest 1.5km south of Vaggatem and
ends 9km later at a car park near the northeastern end of Lake Sortbrysttjørna. There, a
markedtrackleadssouthwestwardfor5km,passingseveralsceniclakes,marshesandbogs
to end at the Ellenvannskoia hikers' hut, beside the large lake, Ellenvatn.
Also from the Ødevasskoia car park, it's about an 8km walk due south to Krokfjell
(145m)andthe
Treriksrøysa
,themonumentmarkingthespotwhereNorway,Finlandand
Russia meet. Although you can approach it and take photos, you may not walk around the
monument, which would amount to an illicit border crossing!
The topographic sheet to use is Statens Kartverk's
Krokfjellet,
which conveniently cov-
ers the entire park at 1:25,000.
