... to the Land of the Midnight Sum

......... or so we are told, we did catch a glimpse a few days ago and are now in Tromso where we park up for a week for a quick return to the UK. The past week has flown by and we seem to have covered an enormous amount of ground, seen incredible scenery and experienced all weathers. Road engineering continues to impress with more soaring bridges and incredible tunnels - just driving through Tromso (which is not particularly mountainous) there is a tunnel with two roundabouts in it! At the beginning of the week we spent a couple of days round the huge fjords which are remarkable as they cut some 120kms inland and you see large ocean going ships at harbours when you know you are a long way from the open sea. Some great signposts have been passed, just before dropping down the hairpin road to Gerainger fjord there was a sign showing a 9% gradient for 14kms, and what's more there was a cycle race up it - so they climbed around 1500m in 17kms, (5000ft in 10 miles)! We love the elk crossing signs, though so far we have only seen a couple of elk, and the town names are great - we stayed a night at A on Lofoten, so some pretty short addresses. (1, A, Lofoten, Norway).
The next fantastic descent was the Trollsteigen, (Trolls staircase) where the road drops down into the valley along a hair-pinned road, with the added excitement of coaches coming in the opposite direction. At the bottom the village sits under one of the more challenging rock climbs - a vertical 1800m face of granite.
Needing to make up time we spent a couple of days heading north up the main arterial road the E6, which still passes through stunning scenery and crossed the arctic circle - in a driving wind and sleet. Just to cheer up us the staff in the visitor centre said it was 25 degrees this time last year. Norway has had a huge snowfall this year - the visitor centre was covered in 25ft of snow in April when they normally open.
With the weather forecast to improve we headed out to the Lofoten Islands, taking a midnight ferry in broad daylight. What an extraordinary destination. incredible jagged and snow covered mountain peaks dropping straight into clear blue green seas, with small fishing villages snuggled into the coves - and yes the sun did come out periodically. It must have been an incredibly harsh lifestyle, particularly before the road building programme which has linked all the islands with bridges or tunnels. The downside is that lots of campervans and caravans now travel the length of the islands, and the more accessible villages have become tourist destinations, although fishing is still a major occupation. A couple of nights we camped with a north view and did see the sun pop through the clouds at midnight, but with nothing between you and the north pole it can be pretty windy and cold. Keeping aware of the time of day is very disconcerting as it never gets dark, or even dusk, and there is little difference in the light intensity through the day, so meals and sleeping become a bit more haphazard.
After a quick detour into Narvik - not a pretty town - we spent a few days on the out of the way islands off the National Tourist routes, and found some more extraordinary scenery, stopping whenever we found a quiet spot, and enjoying the peace, the wildlife, reindeer, golden and sea eagles, and arctic terns.. A surprising number of cyclists seem to follow the coast down, many of more mature years, and presumably staying in some of the many camping huts set up around the country. Interestingly Norway seems to encourage camper vans, and not force them onto campsites as they have a wide network of camper van waste emptying and water refilling stations, both in the large towns and in small villages or along main roads. And so we have ended up in Tromso, just 600kms from NordKapp and have returned to the UK for a family celebration - and some might say a weeks rest!

 

Water Falls

An amazing country - with incredible vertical scenery and lots and lots of water, in the fjords, on the ground, flowing down rivers and falling from the sky. Lots of rain (though not continuous) at the beginning of this week ensured the numerous waterfalls were well supplied with water. The last few days have seen us enter the fjord region with a short diversion to Bergen to see the historic Bryggen region - a fascinating part of the old town where the wooden fish wharves have been rpeserved from the 1500's. Made all the more atmospheric by continuous drizzle. Apparently it rains for 300 days a year in Bergen. Anyway the short stop was worthwhile before we hot the big fjords - Hardanger and Sognefjord. Extraordinary vertical scenery, numerous waterfalls ranging from gushing, through pretty to delicate. After a while you become blase - just another mighty waterfall which would be a major tourist attraction in the UK.
We have found some amazing places to stop overnight by fjords with stunning views to wake up to in the mornings.

Driving around the area we have travelled back and forth between months each day - driving through snow covered roads and an hour or so later through orchards of apple blossom. So many hills the Landy has had to work hard.

The roads are incredible, even when they climb 3000 ft, they are never particularly steep, and one had incredible twisting tunnels which cut through a sheer cliff with one tunnel directly above a previous loop. In fact tunnels we seem to spend a lot of time in tunnels - the longest so far has been 24kms, and they think nothing of building in a roundabout and road junction inside the tunnel! It must have taken days to get anywhere before the roads were improved. Ferries have become another feature of the trip - even many of the main trunk roads require a ferry crossing, and yesterday we managed four, all of different sizes, from accommodating around 6 cars to perhaps 100 on the major routes.
The last couple of days have been fine, and even almost warm today, so only one fleece, when we have driven a snow road, driven beside alpine looking lakes and mountains and climbed up to a glacier which flows from the largest ice sheet in Europe. The weather makes an incredible difference as the scenery comes alive in the sun, with greater contrast between the snow capped peaks and the dark cliffs plunging into the fjords.
Its not just scenery - we visited Urnes Stave church - an amazing wooden structure most of which dates from 1050 or 1100 by the Vikings and situated in a very peaceful small community accessed by a ferry. (Bryggen and Urnes are both on the World Heritage List so very special.

Another day around the Fjords tomorrow - especially Gerainger Fjord, then we head north to Trondheim and start the 1500kms to Tromso.





  

From Hamlet to Greig

Another week has passed so quickly it is hard to keep up. From Elsinor Castle (Hamlet Prince of Denmark) we have stopped at Roskilde where the rather macabre cathedral houses the coffins of 37 Kings, spent a day round Kilding while the Landy had the seals on the transfer box replaced and then visited the rather splendid Aarhus to see the remains of a Viking settlement. From there we headed back north to Hirtshals to catch the ferry to Norway.

What a contrast - as we approached Norway (in pouring rain) there were cliffs, rocky outcrops and hills disappearing into the clouds. Within 15 kms of docking we had driven through 8kms of tunnels. After procuring a local SIM card we headed inland towards Stavanger, pulling off onto a side road and parking up overnight in a pull off by a lake. Unlike Denmark Norway encourages wild camping and provides numerous locations for mobile homes to empty waste and refill water. The first major town we headed for was Stavanger by way of Pulpit Rock. Staying nearby we made sure we arrived reasonably early and started the 4km walk up around 1200ft along the well made path along with many other people; it was a Saturday and the first fine day for a while. Pulpit rock is fantastic, a square lump of rock sticking out over the fjord with a vertical drop of 605m - impossible to describe, but not a place to be if it is windy!

A couple of nights in Stavanger gave us the opportunity to relax for a day and wander around the city's old quarter with rows of old wooden houses before heading north to Hardanger Fjord. What scenery! vertical cliffs, deep green bottomed valleys, cascading waterfalls and incredibly variable weather - bright sun one minute followed by hail and sleet the next. We have been told it has been the coldest May for 30 years - no consolation really!.

So first impressions of Norway - the roads are good with fantastic engineering of bridges and tunnels, but ferries cannot be avoided and are expensive; scenery fantastic; weather mixed; travel is not quick; food is expensive, but fuel is not.

We have just passed 60 degrees north and are heading for Bergen in a couple days.