... 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!