What a tranquil spot we had chosen to spend the night. Well away from the road and every other sign of civilisation. The air was still, it was warm and fjord surface was like glass. As the sun got lower in the sky the colours consisted of a subtle palette of pastel hues.

The view from Basil yesterday evening across Porsangerfjorden

In the morning Sarah set off later than usual for her early dog walk, but that didn’t stop her making a big dent in her 10,000 steps. When she returned she was proudly displaying a reindeer antler that she had just found lying by the side of a track. Said reindeer antler is now deployed in Basil as a hat stand, not that there is going to be much call for hats for the rest of the trip.

Norway has designated 18 roads in the country as official Tourist Routes. They are all different and are designed to show off the best of Norway. We intend to try quite a few of these and in the next couple of weeks we will almost constantly be on four of the five most northerly of these routes.

Today we drove the Havoysund National Tourist Route from Kokelv to, surprise surprise, Havoysund. This is the most northerly of the tourist routes. It starts up the side of a small fjord and then crosses a mountainous area and carries on alongside the Arctic Ocean. Again the only comparison I can make is it is like the Northwest of Scotland, but on a grander scale and with Reindeer!

Snefjord

Most of the route is alongside the sea, where the bare mountains plunge down into the water. The rock in this part of Norway is heavily stratified which makes the rock formations, at times, stunning.

The road was extremely quite compared the the tourist jamboree which the main roads north out of Finland and especially up to Nordkapp have felt like. Today we saw only a handful of motorhomes and I think only two non Norwegian vehicles.

On all the tourist routes the Norwegians have built special rest stops at the most beautiful locations. The three stops of the Havoysund route have employed sculptors and architects to design parts of the rest area, the most effective of which, in our opinion, was the Selvika stop with a swirling concrete sculpture cum walkway which takes you from the roadside rest area down to a pretty little beach. Mabel and Melek didn’t think much of the sculpture but they had great fun frolicking on the beach!

Melvika sculpture/walkway with beach and bay

Another of the stops at Lillefjord, was at the head of small bay with a waterfall above it. We stretched our legs and climbed up to the cascade, which was many times as impressive as Finland’s “most beautiful waterfall”, which we visited specially a few days ago!

Sarah at the Lillefjord waterfall

Reindeer were again numerous and stopped us a number of times. I haven’t yet got a good close up photo of one because we always see them when I am driving and once I have brought Basil to a halt and got my camera, which I now carry next to the drivers seat, they have gone. They are obviously camera shy. The only new wildlife we have seen today were Eider Ducks, the ones that used to be used to make comfy Eiderdowns, which kept us warm in the British, un central heated, winter. I think they are now protected.

The scenery was spectacular the whole way. Bare mountains and endless sea, including patches of stunning turquoise. Our final destination was Havoysund, a fishing town at the end of a peninsula sticking out into the Arctic Ocean. It is a cluster of brightly coloured wooden houses and warehouses arranged around an extensive harbour. This is a proper working fishing port with big trawlers. I should think that tourism plays a very small part in the local economy.

Havoysund

Havoysund kindly provides a place to empty and fill up motorhomes, but allocated overnight parking is next to a petrol station and not inviting. After we had refreshed Basil’s tanks we headed up a gravel road, past a wind turbine farm, up to the cliffs at the very end of the peninsula. There was a small restaurant there. I feel bad not spending money in the local restaurants, but the prices are just ridiculous for any non-Norwegian. I’m not sure if we are going to eat out at all in Norway, but if we do it will be very occasionally.

Rolvsoya Island from end of the Havoysund Peninsula

Finally we retreated the way we came to the rest stop at Selvika for an overnight stay (70.914883, 24.610317). Although it is next to the road, there is not much traffic to disturb us and there are two beaches for Mabel and Melek to enjoy.

Basil’s parking position for the night