Certain members (me) of Team Basil are hurting today. Who knew scrambling up to glaciers used muscles you never knew you had. I do now!
As we set off from our free rest stop this morning Sarah remarked that it was better than many campsites we’ve been on. Great views of a glacier and fjord; a place to empty and fill Basil; nice toilets and hot water; and beautifully planted flower borders. She’s right. Much better than some of the poor efforts we’ve been charged money for on this trip.
Our day was spent driving and sailing down one hundred miles of the coast road. It is becoming difficult to say anything new about the north Norwegian coast, but nonetheless it continues to be one of, if not the, most spectacular places in Europe. For the first part of the journey we still had the Svartisen Glacier in view: an icecap that is over 300 square kilometres in size and in parts more than 600 metres thick. The mountains continued for the whole journey. They are not particularly high, normally no more than 1,300 metres in this part of Norway, but most of them are serrated, jagged and only scaleable by experienced climbers.
You can see the Svaritsen ice cap, from which all the glaciers descend, on the left of the photograph. (It is the solid white line!)
The sea and fjords remain vivid shades of blue, enhanced today by brilliant sunshine and temperatures in the low twenties celsius. A perfect day to record our ferry record: three in a day. The first was a short ten minuter across a narrow fjord. We then had a one hour crossing and a final twenty minute one. Our timing at each was uncanny. We didn’t have to wait more than ten minutes anywhere.
Me and a couple of old sea dogs on the ferry. I wish I could buy Melek a little peaked cap with gold braid to wear on these ferries!
At lunchtime we had a discussion about whether we should continue down the final four hundred kilometres of the coastal road or take the option to cut over to our old friend the E6 at the end of the day and move south more quickly. We decided on the latter option. Not because we are not enjoying the Norwegian coast, we still are, but there are the cities of Norway, the biggest fjords around Bergen and the high mountains north of Oslo, which we would still like to see and leave some time for Sweden and Denmark. So a quicker route seems to make more sense. In addition Lonely Planet says the northern section is the best and who can doubt them?!
View from the ferry near Jetvik
Somewhere today we crossed the Artic Circle. There were signs nor Santa Village as we experienced in Finland, but our 24 days in the Artic have been some of the best of our trip.
View from Jetvik Kilboghamn Ferry
I doubt whether we will make it back here again, it is such a long way to travel. If not, it will certainly remain in our memories for the rest of our lives. Northern Norway is a must see for anyone who can manage it. I can say with certainty that there is no place in Europe with such extensive, amazing scenery.
View of a fjord near Nesna
We ended a day of ferries and tunnels with the mother of all tunnels so far this trip. Eleven kilometers (6.5 miles), as we cut from the coastal road towards the main E6 route south. We have found a dirt track in a forest (66.004910, 13.279016), which we glimpsed from the road, for our overnight stop. It looked good, but in fact the main road (not the E6 yet) is quite noisy with all our windows open due to the heat. With luck it will be much quieter overnight.
Great excitement occurred in Basil after my initial wander in the vicinity and found Elk (Moose) tracks only five metres from Basil. We wait with baited breath for this elusive animal to show itself, but I suspect Melek’s ferocious reputation will keep them at bay!