Ranua Zoo

We decided to make a day trip to Ranua to visit Ranua Zoo. The trip started in Rovaniemi with an almost full minibus. During the 80 km south-east towards Ranua the bus slowly emptied as unmistakably local passengers got off one by one along the route.


Ranua Zoo turned out to be designed in a very pleasant way: Rather than clearing the forest to make way for the park they had simply let the park be in the forest - one walks through the forest along a path from animal to animal. Additionally the park was notable for having only Finnish and Arctic animals - without seeming in any way boring or limited.


After we had been through the park, we glanced at the watch and decided not to walk to Ranua town and just wait outside the park for the next bus back to Rovaniemi. While we were waiting we saw a squirrel who had found a treasure: some french fries which he fetched one by one in the trash can. Later the bus came: this time a rather large bus - but there were no other passengers on it when we got on. Since the bus came all the way from Kajaani we kind of hope there had been some other passengers on it earlier on the trip..