Polar Park

Sivert the bull moose

We all had a great sleep again.  Didn’t have to move too quickly as the Polar Park didn’t open until 10.00.  We had breakfast, did our chores, emptied the chemical toilet (found the disposal area for it) and filled up with water and headed the 3km to the park.  We got there just as it opened.  We paid £68 for the three of us to enter and then started the route round.  The park was very green - and the enclosures were massive, full of trees, huge lumps of rock, streams etc.  The park was there for the animals first and people second which is how it should be really.  Certainly if you were disabled, you would find it very difficult to get around as the paths were extremely steep and lumpy bumpy.  This could make finding some of the animals hard to spot, but we were lucky today.

Ulrich the musk ox

The animal we really wanted to see was a moose.  The first animal we saw…a moose!  Yay.  There were 3 of them: mother, father and daughter.  The father, Sivert was a very handsome specimen: great antlers, and a long goofy snout.  They are really tall and have small spindly legs, how they support their weight is beyond me!  They are known as the king of the forest.  During the summer they climb up the mountains to enjoy the fresh vegetation where they are nice and safe.  That is why we haven’t seen any.  They come down for the winter as it is so cold up the mountains and hard to find vegetation.  There are about a million moose in Europe (Scandinavia, Finland and Poland, east of the Urals, which is the same number as you can find in North America - which surprised me)  Anyway they were by the fence and some of the fence was open meaning you could stroke them and have a word with them which was lovely.  We stayed for a while.  We were very happy bunnies.

Next stop was the bears: they have two bears - salt and pepper who live together, they are brother and sister.  The sister (salt) is albino and pepper looks after her which is really quite unusual in the bear kingdom.  Salt is almost blind because of her albinoism so pepper makes the dens and allows her to use them.  She has a very good sense of hearing and smell so she can find food no problems.  Once again, they were in tip top condition, looked very happy and content.  There were 4 more bears in another enclosure   They were proper teddy bear bears, with thick thick fur and lovely little ears and huge paws.  They very much looked like they should be hugged.  I’m sure they would be lovely to hug, but maybe the last thing you would hug?

Storm the lynx

After the bears, we went in search for the lynxes and wolves and wolverine, but with no success - they were not to be found.  We then headed to see the Muskox.  Now this is an animal I don’t think I was aware of prior to coming here.  They have both sheep and cattle in their genes and their wool is the warmest wool in the world, selling for £2,000 per kilo!!!  I wonder who buys it and what it is made in to?  The male Muskox must be worth a lot of money as he had a good number of kilos of wool on him.  They are called Muskox because when the male is on heat he gives off a scent that smells of Musk.  We got a whiff of it and it wasn’t too unpleasant.  They were introduced to Norway from Greenland in the 1930s and tend to live in the central belt.  Anyway they were magnificent beasts - huge things, snorting and growling.  The male was massive and a bit shaggy, he showed us his prowess by rubbing up against a tree and knocking a fence post over which was leant up by his enclosure.  He had a lady friend and 3 calves.  He kept stepping over and on them!  We were all taken by him.

Male wolf

Next stop was the reindeer.  These were loose in the park - but when we went to see them they were hiding in a forested area.  We weren’t too fussed by that though as we have seen so many of them already in the wild.  As we left the area they were in, they did come into the open and quite close to us - but to be honest, with their long antlers and doziness, I didn’t really want to get too close to them.  Did you know that female reindeer are the only deer to have antlers?  Next stop was the red deer - didn’t hold too much appeal for us as we saw plenty in Scotland.  

By now it was after 12pm so we returned to the van for lunch and were back in the park for 1pm where there was a carnivore tour.  It took place in English (yay - we were the only ones to respond to her question on which language to take the tour in)  The lady was brilliant - she imparted loads of information about the animals - she obviously loved her job and the animals.  She had a bucket of horse meat which brought the carnivores out of their hiding places.  This way we got to see the lynxes (although all related - they all looked quite different, the mum was caught in the wild and had very defined spots, her children didn’t - they think because they were born in captivity).  They have huge paws so they can run on the snow, not through it.  They have short tails to keep as much body heat in as possible during the winter and are generally very lazy - sounds like cats to us!  She then took us to meet a lone male wolf (they are getting him a mate from Sweden)  Did you know that wolves howl when they are happy as well as a call to hunt and to confuse potential prey.

Next were the bears who all came out.  Apparently yesterday the keeper doing the tour had a bucket of whale meat as the afternoon treat.  Not good - apparently the lynxes and bears refuse to eat whale - so they have to mix it with lamb, but that doesn’t always work!  Who’d have thought it - but I guess whale wouldn’t be a natural food stuff in the forests where the lynx and bears hang out.

Brown bear

Lastly she took us to the moose - she showed us some leaves that the moose love in the park, so we picked some and took them over - apparently the moose are made for them - they call it moose chocolate.  We all got a chance to feed them, we got quite close up and personal as the moose chomped on them.  A lovely experience.

That was the tour over, but before we left we had to go and see Ulrich the Muskox again.  We went and were once again enthralled by him and his entourage.  Some of the calves were stood up and they were bundles of fluff.  We said goodbye and paid one more visit to Sivert Moose and his ladies, we had him to ourselves this time which was good.  Think Matt must have taken about 50 photos just of them!

Happy boy and moose!

We returned to the shop and cafe and had an ice cream - I forgot to mention that it was actually quite warm today - so much so that we dumped our jumpers in the van at lunchtime and just walked around in our T-shirts.  Considering the average summer temperature here is 12 degrees, we did quite well as it was 18 today!  We went for a quick look in the shop…lots of soft toys…Matt bought himself a Muskox which he has named Ulrich!  What is it about this family and soft toys.  I wonder if we will be able to fit all the new toys in our luggage without having to buy a new bag?!

We left the park around 4 and headed to Narvik.  We found ourselves a supermarket to stock up on essentials (bread, cucumber and toothpaste!) and then we found ourselves a rough camp.  Now, we could have got a toll bridge to Narvik, but we figured that it would be nicer to camp out of the town centre, so detoured to drive round a fjord instead.  Mistake…the toll to cross the bridge was 15Kr, as we headed around the fjord we came across a tunnel - a toll tunnel, cost us Kr99!  There was no warning anywhere that the non-bridge road would be a toll road.  We haven’t had to pay any tolls for the dozens of tunnels we have driven through so far.  We were unable to turn around, the toll is automatic via cameras, so staying in a rough camp has cost us!  Poo!  Anyway, we have found ourselves a rough camp at the end of a fjord with mountains all around.  It is very still so the water is beautiful, however it is very very hazy so it isn’t quite as scenic as it could be.  Hoping it might clear in the morning for some good pictures.  Tom was out immediately to do some stone throwing whilst Matt and I had our end of day beer and cheesy wiggles.  Always a good end of day / beginning of evening routine!

Howlllllllll

...onwards...

Birtavarre scenery...

We all had good sleeps despite the rain.  We have all learnt to sleep well in our motor home now - in fact we have had some great sleeps here - how come - not sure, no work stresses, tired after driving a big van, happy bellies full of food and beer every evening, whisky chaser?  Maybe a combination of it all.  Certainly something works for us - we sleep well here. In fact Tom slept so well that he didn’t wake up until 9am!  AND he slept in the van in the afternoon yesterday - all the late nights catching up on him maybe?  We were surprised that it wasn’t raining when we woke up as the forecast was rain for the next  24 hours.  In fact the scenery was magnificent - huge mountains with stripes of cloud across them.  It may have been dull it was still very very pretty.  Kåfjord is definitely my favourite place for scenery so far.

We didn’t have much planned - just to keep driving south.  We did a little shop in the village - but it was mega pricey and not much selection, so we got some bits and pieces with the view to stopping somewhere bigger to get the rest.   Then onwards, southwards. The scenery changed, we got more trees and no reindeer - boo.  There were plenty of signs warning us of moose on the road, but nothing, absolutely nothing.  We got to Bardufoss in time for lunch and found a pretty park to have lunch in.  We were planning to go swimming here but their swimming pool is closed on Mondays - so we had lunch, went to a supermarket for the rest of our provisions and then had a play in the park.  Bardufoss was quite important during the war as there is a military base here and as we were in the park a massive transport plane with 4 propellers (a bit like a Hercules) took off - I missed it but the boys were impressed.

... and some more

I then drove the rest of the way for the day.  We ended up in a campsite we found in the Norway magazine.  It has electric hook up, laundry (much needed) and showers but no grey water drainage or chemical toilet disposal - never mind, also a trampoline for the boy.  We are up in the mountains, with a river by the side of us and seem to be the only people here.  Norwegian campsites seem to be full of little cabins and then have some electrical hook ups for motor homes and caravans.  Don’t think many actually camp here.

Oh, it is much warmer here - a huge 14 degrees as we were driving here, feels really warm.  

We spent the afternoon / evening doing chores - namely the laundry - unfortunately they only had domestic machines, so we couldn’t get everything we wanted washed, but the worse of it.  Took 3 hours in the dryer to dry it all.  We all had showers too - we went at the same time which was a mistake because we were taking water off each other and it was timed - we could only have 5 minutes.  This meant that I still had soap on me when it finished but never mind we were certainly fresher smelling and feeling better for it.  At 5.30 a sudden stream of motor homes joined us - from Sweden, Germany and Norway.

Bardufoss decoration

We then decided to cook our evening meal in the cabin, so took everything across and spread out and played games whilst it cooked.  All very good once we got the cooker to work.  Unfortunately it rained for the rest of the day so we stayed in the cabin until Tom’s bedtime (which seems to be 9pm at the moment!)

towards Narvik…

Hurtigruten boat approaching Hammerfest

We all had a good sleep last night so we are figuring that the church didn’t bong through the night (we were slightly concerned as it seemed to bong through the day and when the cruise ship left and we were wondering if it would keep us awake)  We did our chores (empty toilet, grey water and fill up with clean water) and then headed to the Polar Bear museum which opened at 10am.  Get this - it was free?!!!!!!  The best value for money activity we have had here!  It was small, but sweet.  Lots of taxidermy animals - including a number of polar bears and lots of display boards explaining about life in Hammerfest.  The British got a mention for being pesky and always fighting - they even looted the town once!

Isbjørn

The museum shop had a wonderful array of soft toys including some fantastically looking little walruses - just as well we already have one as we would have come away with one if not and we already have 3 extra soft toys this holiday!  We bought a patch and a sticker and then headed on our way.  (Oh, and if you were wondering - there were no showers, laundry etc at the museum, so we have no idea where on earth they were?)

The plan was to drive as far as we can, so we can get to Narvik.  First job though was to stock up with food as we were running low.  Mistake, big mistake - we discovered today that supermarkets aren’t open on Sundays.  Oh dear - we had two pieces of salmon and some pasta and cheese in the fridge.  We were going to have to have weird dinner and lunches.

Bull walrus

We carried on our way, we discovered something else…there were no lorries on the road.  This was good, made driving so much easier and as a result we ate the miles effortlessly.    Matt got us to Alta where we thought we might find a supermarket and if not, we might find a restaurant open.  We parked up and Tom ran round to see if Peppe’s Pizza was open - it was, we booked in immediately and enjoyed a very lovely pizza: called a Moby Dick - it was curried garlic prawns, leeks and peppers with tomato sauce and cheese.  Think it was about 14 inches across - way big enough for the 3 of us and we gobbled it up enthusiastically.  As we were in the restaurant, we saw someone come in eating a big bag of cheesy balls - hummmm, did this mean there was a shop open selling food - we needed to investigate.  We walked round the block and found an open supermarket - yay.  We went in it - hummmm, it was tiny.  Basically the main supermarket was closed, but there was a small room crammed with food and drink.  We think the law here is that to be open on a Sunday your shop has to be under a certain size.  Anyway, we got out of jail and were able to buy enough food to sustain us until tomorrow when everything opens again.

From Alta, I took over the driving and did about 65 miles along the E8.  I was looking forward to driving back along Kåfjord as it was so so so scenic.   However, the mist was down and it was raining so we could barely see anything - such a shame as when we drove along it last week - it was so beautiful.  Oh hum.  Matt drove a bit more and then I did the last shift.  We decided to camp exactly where we camped last Monday night - nice and flat, tarmac, quiet and a lovely clean WC on hand.  What’s not to like?  Also there is a Co-op here meaning we can do a shop in the morning for all the provisions we couldn’t get today.

Travel weary

We got here about 6.15, parked up and just stayed in the motor home, the weather was so miserable - shame because there is a nice green area here on which we could have played beach tennis or something similar.  I made tea, we played articulate, the boys did the washing up and then we started to watch the next Harry Potter film.  Good job we downloaded them onto Matt’s iPad before coming away…

Hammerfest

We all had a good sleep in our rough camp for the night.  Matt told me that the rain woke him up - I was amazed.  I am on the top bunk so very near the roof and slept through it - in fact I had the best sleep of the holiday - and when I woke up I didn’t want to open my eyes.  I tell you bunk beds in a motor home is the way to go - although, of course I do miss a night time cuddle!

A room with a view

We started the day slowly and once ready headed towards Olderfjord where I took over the driving from Matt.  We dipped into a souvenir shop to see what we could find.  I found a patch for Honningsvåg which was good - but why do they sell them 50km from Honningsvåg and not in Honningsvåg itself?  Anyway, I then drove us to Hammerfest - it was quite uneventful.  Can’t say I enjoy driving the motor home - it is tall, wide, I’m never sure exactly how wide it is so get nervous when a big lorry comes my way and that’s without having to drive on the other side of the road and having to change gears with the wrong hand.  However, I am determined to get over it and get to the point where I can drive it without being nervous - it’s my holiday challenge.  

There were plenty of reindeer on the side of the road, in the road etc again.  We have quickly gone from being very excited to see reindeer to dismissing them.  They are basically the ’sheep’ of the tundra.  They hang around in herds, but believe it or not seem to be even dimmer than sheep!  They don’t seem at all bothered by traffic.  Today there was a calf in the road, and it just sat there and watched me as I had to drive around it.  If you honk your horn at them, they tend to panic and run - but can continue to keep running in the road.  Their antlers are huge, so they could damage the van if we get them wrong!  At least sheep are small enough to man handle, reindeer aren’t!

The symbol of Hammerfest

We arrived in Hammerfest around 1pm.  Just in time to see a cruise ship leave.  Now we were looking forward to Hammerfest because the guide book said it was an interesting town (it said Alta wasn’t worth a visit and we found it fun and it said Nordkapp was overpriced and not worth visiting - we though it definitely worth a visit).  We eventually found the motor home campsite - not a campsite - part of a car park where there is electric hook up.  There were supposed to be toilets, showers, laundry etc in a building nearby, but we walked round and round and couldn’t find them.  We came here to go to the polar bear museum.  It is a Saturday so we assumed it would be open.  Oh no - it closed at 12.  Humpfh.  We continued looking for the showers etc, but came to the conclusion they were in the polar bear museum, so we gave up.  We then looked around the town - it isn’t great - lots of empty shops.  We got excited when we saw a Peppe’s Pizza - we have cooked ourselves every night, but found out about Peppe’s pizza where you can get a massive pizza for a ‘reasonable price’ so we thought we would do it tonight - no luck - the place was very much closed, permanently closed!  It took us about 10 minutes to go round the town and decide that it wasn’t going to be too much fun.  However, we had paid for our parking space so we were going to stay.  We went to a supermarket to buy some food and beer and then we spent 15 mins filling the water tank up with 2 watering cans (the piece of hose the rental company gave us is so short it makes it pretty much impossible to use).  

Beautiful sunset

Then we heated up the water so we could have showers. Matt went first, he did his shower in one, the bathroom obviously couldn’t cope and as a result water leaked onto the van floor - good way to wash the floor and use up kitchen roll.  Oh hum.  I went next and did it in bursts - the bathroom didn’t flood - success.  Tom also managed it.  We then settled down to an afternoon in the van.  We have planned the next part of our journey.  We are thinking to head towards Narvik where there is a polar park and a train which you can get into Sweden: 2 long driving days and we should be there.

We had roast chicken for tea - the supermarkets here tend to have delis which sell them and the one in Hammerfest luckily was no exception.  Get this a whole roast chicken was £4 - we weren't expecting that - what great value.  We snaffled it up with potato salad and sweetcorn - a great dinner made with very little input - great for holiday.  

Our mate Adolf the cook from the Fram

As the sun was shining after tea, we decided we had to go out for a walk, so we got togged up (it was still quite cold) and went out.  The place was looking lovely because of the sun, but both of us felt a little uneasy - there were 'odd' characters hanging about, Matt had noticed people giving us stares - he wasn't sure if he was being paranoid or not, but he had left his computer in the van, and was regretting it.  Hammerfest certainly has the feeling of a frontier town.  We think it is on the way down as well - so many empty shops and restaurants - it had the feel of a ghost town.  

However, we carried on, we found a path, known locally as the zig zag path which went straight up a mountain. The view from the top was wonderful.  There was a restaurant at the top of the hill - all the tables and chairs were set up nicely - but there was once again no sign of life.  We think it probably closed a while ago.  Shame.  We took some photos and walked down again.  We returned to the van (all was OK) and then spent the best part of an hour outside watching the comings and goings of the port and Tom threw plenty of stones into the water.  We watched the sun set - it was lovely - maybe this town isn't so bad after all!

As far north as you can get….

Tom and giant friend

Breakfast - one happy and one sad boy...

We all had a good sleep last night, the wind died down and with vehicles on each side of us, we were well buffered from any weather.  We woke up to a blue sky too -yay.  It didn’t take us long to get ready and moving this morning as we were rough camping - we had no chores to do and breakfast was pastries so that didn’t take too long either.  The problem we had was that Nordkapp doesn’t open until 11am, so we couldn’t be too early.  We decided to head into Honningsvåg for a walk round.  It was much bigger than we were expecting but nothing there opened until 10am!  We did find the public loos which was good - and get this - they are heated, and when I say heated - they were very cosy indeed - in fact I would have happily stayed in them for the morning they were so warm (and clean).  

We looked around the town, mainly a fishing port / cruise port / service boat port - plenty of industry and quite a few tourist shops as the cruises stop here for the Nordkapp excursion.  There was also a huge troll who looked like he had recently been spruced up and a statue of a dog, Bamse who served during the second world war - sounded like he had a very eventful life and when he died many people came to his funeral.  He spent some time on board British ships and as a result Prince Andrew has been to acknowledge him.

At the top of the world

We looked in some souvenir shops, Matt got himself a holiday hoodie at a reasonable price.  We were expecting the prices up here to be way above those in Oslo, but we were wrong - they were pretty much the same, and some even slightly cheaper.  There were reports we read of being ‘ripped off’ in the shops, but maybe they were written by people not yet used to Norwegian prices?!  Oh, Tom got his last souvenir - a soft toy puffin - which he has named Cody.

At 10.30 we headed up to Nordkapp.  We arrived dead on 11am.  It was clear blue skies all the way to the top, but when we arrived the actual cape was doused in cloud.  Oh well, we were here to see it regardless so we went out.  It wasn’t too bad, a bit foggy but we could see out to sea.  We took a couple of photos, but then the mist rolled in and we couldn’t see anything at all!  Oh well, not a problem there were plenty of things to do inside the visitor centre, so we decided to look around and see if the fog would clear.  

There is a panoramic cinema experience showing you the changing seasons of the Nordkapp region which is every hour.  As we had a good 20 mins to spare, we searched around other areas, there was a cave of lights, where there were large soft pebbles for you to perch on, and a light and sound show to watch (changing of the seasons, northern lights, etc) all very chilled.  We watched that and learnt about the history of the area.  It was discovered by…yep the British!  A chap called Richard Chancellor on the Edward Bonaventure in 1559 - how on earth they survived the voyage I will never know.  

Once the fog cleared...

Above Honningsvåg

There was also a story about the King of Siam visiting in 1897 and 1907 - he was carried by 4 men up the cliffs (obviously he was too regal to actually use his own feet!) and a rock carving took place to commemorate the occasion.  There was a room with lots of photos he and his party took of his month’s long visit to Norway - all very good and amazing to think that someone from so far would visit the place?!  There was also a diorama of Norwegian King Oscar visiting the place.  What stood out was that the men were all dressed up in good rugged outdoors clothes, boots etc, whilst the women were wearing court dresses with huge skirts.  I dread to find out what shoes they were wearing - how on earth were they supposed to climb up cliffs like that?  I’m surprised the wind didn’t get up their skirts and take them off their feet and back down the cliffs.  How did anyone think that was a good idea?  

Some perspective

We watched the panoramic film which was very lovely and then went to see if the fog had cleared.  It hadn’t - in fact it was raining, so we decided to head back to the motor home and have lunch.  This we did and then we did some shopping - once again the prices were very reasonable (for Norway), wrote and posted some postcards and went to watch the film again.  When we came out there was some blue sky…within 10 minutes the mist had completely cleared and it was a beautiful clear blue sky.  Yay.  

We took more photos of the globe on the cape, the children’s statue and art and of the landscape in general, enjoying the difference in the light. We were all very happy.  However, we could see a ‘tsunami’ of cloud heading to the cape and figured it would be a good idea to get ahead of it and head back down south again.  We could have stayed there overnight (it was £65 for the 3 of us to visit - for which we got a 24 hour ticket) but we had seen it at its best and it is too light to see the northern lights so there wasn’t a reason for us to stay.  Also it would have been a very cold night if we had stayed there and the mist hung for the whole night.

Tom with his certification 

It was 5pm before we left, so we headed south back towards Honningsvåg.  On the way we picked up two hitchhikers, who turned out to be Spanish.  Had a great chat as we took them back to Honningsvåg.  The women actually lives in Bristol - but is having trouble staying (she works in a nursery) as she hasn’t been resident in the country for 5 years and that means with Brexit looming she doesn’t know if she will be able to stay or not.  Once again we had to apologise for the Brexit mess.  She’s currently working in a hotel in Honningsvåg for the summer holidays whilst she works out what to do - she has accommodation and a car in Bristol, but she might not go back.  You do get to meet all sorts when you travel like this - we met 3 Germans who had walked 200 km to Nordkapp and some Italians who had driven there from Turin in a Fiat Panda!

Matt drove us back South and we found ourselves a spot near the sea for the night.  The weather is remarkably different today, hardly any wind at all - made the driving so much easier.  Still got the tunnel with roadworks to squeeze through.

Heading North...

Man with a van

We all had a great night’s sleep last night and as a consequence didn’t get going until quite late.  We had a bowl of muesli each, packed up the van, did the washing up and had lovely hot showers and bundled in the van into Alta to Bunnpris supermarket to spend a mortgage on some more food. We did a better job this time and were able to search out some bargains.  Curious thing = can’t find much meat in the supermarkets - is that because it is so expensive or is it because people use butchers / local farms?  Who knows.  Anyway, I managed to find a fridge which had meat in it which was 30K a packet if you bought it before midday so we took advantage.  We also found a 3 for 2 offer, so bought some stuff with that and of course now we are ‘panting’, so we had money off.  In the end we bought 2 days food for £50 whilst last time we bought 3 days food for £100.  One bad thing though on our way back to the motor home one of our bags broke and as a result we lost a can of beer (£4) and a tub of yogurt.

we then headed out of Alta to go north.  we had lunch at the first opportunity and then I took over the driving across some very barren hills.  We came across lots of reindeer - one herd just walking up and down the road, not doing much.  Silly reindeer.  At one point they were galloping up and down the road.  It wasn’t until a truck came by and hooted his horn that they headed into the wilderness.  It seems that they are roaming wild, but apparently there are no wild reindeer in Norway - they all belong to someone.  We saw loads of them today.

Reindeer stampede

I drove the best part of 100 kms and then we swapped over when we hit the sea.  The road changed significantly when we hit the sea, it got narrower and the wind picked up and when I said picked up I mean it got mega windy.  Put it this way, I was glad Matt was driving.  There were loads of tunnels, including one where some workmen were working on the entrance, meaning half of it was cordoned off.  This meant that Matt had to squeeze through it - scary stuff.  As I said I’m glad I wasn’t driving.  He did a great job. 

The plan today was to get as far as Honningsvåg which is on the island of Magerøya - the main town before you get to Nordkapp.  The wind was completely manic on Magerøya, but we figured that Honningsvåg must be in a sheltered bay and we were right.  The wind died down and we stopped at the first parking space.  I let my hair down and it didn’t move.  We parked up - nice view of the harbour and town from here.   Typical, as soon as we parked up and put the van on blocks and had a beer, the place started to get windy and started to rock.  Looking at the weather forecast, it should calm down over the night.  Let’s hope so!  Number of miles driven today: 131.

Portrait of a local

Oh - I have to talk a moment about somethings we saw.  As we pulled into our parking place there was a cyclist sat down eating.  Didn’t think much of it (we have seen loads of cyclists heading to and fro Nordkapp - guess it must be a famous cycle route)  However, we then watched him get his gear on his bike…he had a couple of bags on his bike (once again not surprising) but then he put a huge backpack on his back!!!!!!  Wowzers - and it was mega windy!  Matt felt sorry for him and took him some biscuits.  He was Chinese and didn’t have a word of English.  We wonder who he was and what he was doing.  Whatever it is - it has taken him a huge amount of effort.  Can’t believe he was going to attempt to ride a bicycle in the mega wind with a huge backpack on him.  Hope his journey works out.

Oh and as the evening wore on, the car park got fuller.  Matt parked in the middle of the car park, hoping that others would park either side of us and therefore take the worst of the wind.  His plan worked.  We have two Norwegian motor homes on one side and a camper van on the other side.  One of the men in the camper van was swigging from a bottle of gin, so Matt showed him his whisky…he immediately came over.  They were Ukrainian.  We weren’t expecting that.  He didn’t speak any English but one of his party did…the story - he had driven 2,500km here from Finland where he works so he could go diving in the sea here for King Crab.  It is freezing cold, he had a wetsuit - but really?!  He asked if we could boil some water for him so we did and then we saw him go into the sea - he was swimming in it for quite a while didn’t see him get anything though.  Fancy driving all that way to go swimming in the freezing sea.  He showed us photos of previous successful dives.  He has 2 days here before heading back to his job in Finland.  We were chatting about long distance driving (the fact you can’t do it in England, but then the roads in England are full - so it wouldn’t be possible or pleasurable) he said that he wasn’t allowed to visit England because he needs a visa and a visa is hard to get.  He can visit all of continental Europe but not the UK.  It is embarrassing to be English when you are in Europe these days!

Tomorrow’s plan…to head to Nordkapp and then drive back down to where it is less windy!  Oh, the expected high for tomorrow - 8 degrees!!!!

Alta

Half boy, half dog!

So we all had a good night's sleep last night - yahoo and woke up to another beautiful morning.  We weren't 100% sure what we were going to do today - but whatever we did, we would have to take the motor home with us, so no decisions really needed to be made first thing.

7000 year old rock carvings

We had breakfast, washed up, tidied up the motor home, then refilled it with water, got rid of the grey water and emptied the chemical toilet.  Then we checked out and set to the Alta Museum - Alta has a UNESCO world heritage site - stone carvings of which some are 7,000 years old, which is impossible to comprehend.  The site was right on the fjord, and the clouds were down on the water, giving it a real ethereal quality - simply beautiful.  Most of the museum was outside which we didn't realise (we were expecting to look at rocks in glass cases - but the rocks have been left inset.  In fact they have found 5 sites in the area - this is the only one with public access.  The museum gave us a very good guide book with a route map which explained everything we would see.  The oldest were at the top of the site, as they tended to carve rocks at the shore line and Norway has been rising up from the last ice age for thousands of years.  There was no language on the rocks, and truth be told, the experts aren't 100% sure what all the images are of and their significance, all they can do is surmise about them.  They were discovered in the 1970s -  they weren't buried or hidden, just that no-one noticed them until then - they were quite shallow carvings, and unless the light hits them in a certain way, they are quite hard to pick out.

Animals we probably won't see, in one handy field!

Initially the curators of the site, filled in the paintings with ochre so visitors could see them well, but it has now been decided that that is the wrong thing to do and they should be left as they were found. Most of the rocks depict hunting of some sort: corralling reindeer, fishing, using tools (although no-one is exactly sure what all the tools are), also included are lots of bears, moose, men and women, boats, and lots of symbols they aren't sure about.

Rosebay willowherb dominating the scenery

Northern Lights Cathedral

Just as we were getting to the end of the 3.2km walk, the heavens opened and it started raining really hard, it was an abrupt ending which was a shame so we hurried back to the museum and took in its exhibits.  It was still raining, so we had 2 cakes from the cafe whilst we waited it to abate - we could see breaks in the cloud and finally it stopped so we went back to the motor home and made ourselves lunch - cheese and ham sandwiches again.

Modern crucifix

Yesterday, when we checked into the campsite, the receptionist gave me a magazine full of info on the area - I noticed there was a swimming pool in Alta.  Perfect to give Tom a fun afternoon.  As the weather wasn't that great, we decided to head into town to search it out.  We found a car park in the centre of town and went first to the cathedral - the most northerly cathedral in the world - called the Northern Lights Cathedral as was quite different to any other cathedral I have been in.  It was finished in 2013 and is very modern - it is round, made from metal and the crucifix doesn't look like any crucifix I have ever seen before.  Certainly worth a view.


We then went to the pool.  WOW, what a pool - I think the best pool I've ever been too!  It had:
+ A 25 metre pool with lanes and those podiums to dive from if you are doing a race.
+ A 25 metre pool for those who just wanted to splash around
+ A paddling / toddler pool
+ Another pool with a giant mushroom in it which splashes water all around when you press a button
+ A river current area - once again operated with a switch
+ Water cannons which were very invigorating for tired shoulders - pure heaven
+ A large jacuzzi
+ A sauna, aromatherapy steam room and steam room with cold plunge pool
+ A hot outdoor tub
+ A 3.8 metre deep plunge pool from which there were:
   - diving boards at 1m, 3m and 5m
   -  a climbing wall (such a great idea - neither me nor Matt had the upper body strength to pull ourselves out of the pool using the hand holds, but guess who did!
 + A curly whirly slide with an automatic timer

All this for a town with a population of 10,000.  We talk about Dales villages punching above their weight with services for population, but this was ridiculous, but amazing!!!!  We were there for over 2 hours, and could have stayed longer.  We are now all deaf and having to repeat ourselves to everyone as we all have water in our ears after multiple jumps, dives etc.  This facility was obviously for locals, as there was no English or German anywhere, not a complaint - but it is difficult to know the washing culture before you get in.  There were posters everywhere telling you where to wash beforehand (your hair, under your arms and the privates), and posters saying no perfume, but I wasn't sure if you had to naked wash, wash in swimsuit etc.  There were no other ladies in the changing rooms - so I just did it English style.  There were men in the male changing rooms and Matt said the men did wash in the nude before putting their swimming costumes on.  Oh well, although Norwegian uses lots of familiar looking nouns, the verbs are completely different, so sentences can be quite hard to work out.

We all did the 1m jump.  Then Tom did the 3m jump, which meant that Matt and I had to follow suit.   Hats off to Matt, as he was quite nervous about it.  He did it, but his goggles flew off and sunk to the bottom of the pool, so then I had to dive 3.8 metres down to retrieve them - quite a big dive - my ears ached with the pressure, but I got them for him (he's pretty much blind without them).  We all had  multiple goes on the flume - and as each run got timed, we were competing to get as fast as possible.  Our scores: Tom 7.62 secs, I did 6.78 and Matt won at 6.40.  However, another bloke there managed 6.30 so Matt didn't win for the day.  Great fun though - such a great idea to have an automatic timer there.

Tom really wanted to do the 5m jump.  Neither me nor Matt were up for it (we both hurt ourselves on the 3m jump) and I was pretty nervous - what if he hurt himself, but I can't be a mum who stops her child doing things in case they get injured, I have spent so long trying to get Tom to try new things, that I had to let him do this if he wanted to.  He went up to the 5m board a number of times, each time peering over it (it was a long way down, trust me!) and then leaving it and going back down to the 3m jump.  He was aching to do it though and kept returning.  At one point he was stood there for the best part of 10 minutes almost getting the courage up but then shuffling back, then trying again, shuffling back again etc etc.  I didn't think he would do it, and then as I was looking the other way I heard Matt mumble, looked back and there he was flying through the air...he did it!  OMG!!!!!!!!!  He bobbed up and he was fine.  He said he hurt his foot and bum, but he was fine.  Matt and I were gobsmacked and very proud.  He is brave.  Neither me nor Matt had a go.

Where Tom leapt from

We carried on playing in the pool - did I say the complex was pretty much empty.  A couple of kids arrived at around 3.30 (I'm assuming straight from school) and there were 2 other families there and the odd adult but the place felt essentially empty.  We could do what we wanted and didn't have to wait to use anything.  It cost £25 for us to go there and it was money well spent if you ask me.

We didn't come out until after 5pm, so decided to head back to the campsite for another night.  We did so, and even got the same pitch as last time.  We were able to set up quickly as this time we knew what we were doing.  Matt and Tom played whilst I made tea and then we had it inside as it is colder today and it started to rain just as tea was ready.  After tea, as it was still raining, we had a game of flags (Tom won it convincingly - his long term memory is way better than either mine or Matt's!), then the boys went to do the washing up.  A satisfying day and one Tom really enjoyed.

A day on the road

Rottenvikbreen Glacier

Tom and Matt had great sleeps last night - I, as I had predicted, didn't do so well - the bed was comfy, I was happy and warm, but my brain wouldn't switch off - too excited about sleeping in a motorhome!  Oh hum, I did get some sleep, but it wasn't deep.  Plus I keep getting a dry mouth when I sleep at the moment which makes it really hard to stay asleep - not sure why that it?!

Anyway, we woke to blue skies - hurray!  The fjord was shining and still under blue skies.  We had a leisurely wake up and breakfast, and then decided to go inland a bit - we had discovered a short walking trail 8km inland.  As we drove up the road, I saw a sign to the Holmens - and I asked Matt to divert.  He was a little anxious as we didn't know how big the road would be or if there would be parking / space to turn, but I figured that there wouldn't be signs to things if there was no parking - so we hoped we would be alright and luckily there was a parking area with a turning circle - phew.  The Holmens turned out to be old Sami farms - made up of wooden bars with grass growing out of their rooves.  They were immaculate and looking through the glass we could see a spinning wheel and a loom and a visitors book - so figure they are open sometimes, they weren't open this morning though.

Old Sami dwelling

We then carried on to the start of the walking trail - but came across a big lorry delivering a huge cabin for the side of the road, the upshot was that there was no way pass it and no other routes in, so we gave up, turned round and retraced our steps.

We were surprised at how many houses etc we came across as we headed inland.  The villages round here are so pretty too, houses tend to be build with wood and stained lots of different colours.  All the houses seem to well cared for and pretty big.  Certainly there is money available around here.

We headed onwards on our journey towards Nordkapp.  The view was absolutely stunning, huge mountains rising into the air from the narrow fjords, we saw a caldera from the shores of a fjord - a part of the rim had broken away meaning we could see into it - never seen that before, amazing!  We also saw glaciers, plenty of snow and waterfalls, the water in the fjords was crystal clear and everywhere you looked it was outstanding - Scotland on steroids!

Lyngenfjorden

We stopped to take in the view wherever we could - there are lots of parking spaces - but most of them were on the other side of the road, and as you don't get much warning (if any at all) that makes it difficult to use them.  In fact the Norwegians don't seem to like signposts much - you only very rarely get a welcome sign for a town, meaning sometimes you aren't really sure where you are and although there are places of interest marked on our map - none of them are signposted - meaning it is hard to find them, or extremely easy to miss them.

Norwegian driving hazard

We meandered around the fjords.  Tom sat up front this morning - we was dying to do so.  So I sat in the back and watched the view go past.  We headed to the peak of a peninsula for lunch - hoping to find a view point on the map - we couldn't find it but we found a nice enough place to stop for lunch anyway.  Cheese and ham sandwiches on the menu today (and probably most days!)

After a stop to 'pant' our empties and get new drinks, I took over the driving for the afternoon.  Started with a hairy trip across a narrow bridge - but I managed it, then lots of climbing and descending over the hills.  Came across an old prisoner of war camp, and plenty of gorgeous scenery. After quite a long run, Tom said he was thirsty so I pulled over at a parking area and we got out our drinks.  There was already a motor home in the area and a couple were sat on some benches, so we joined them.  They were Norwegian and very friendly, we spoke for a good half hour and they gave us lots of tips about where to go, what to see etc and good campsites.

Typical scene

Al fresco dining in the arctic

Matt then took over the driving for the last 60 kms, once again through some lovely scenery.  They told us to watch out for reindeer on the road as they had seen some about 10 kms up the road.  We put our reindeer eyes in - but nothing...then about 40 mins after we left them, we came across a family on the road: Mum and Dad and a little calf.  Couldn't quite believe our eyes, and luckily we had no vehicles behind us, so could slow down and take photos.  We then came across a couple more, including a blonde one who seemed to be happy trotting down the middle of the road and almost entered a tunnel - what a goofy thing!  We ended up in a city called Alta, which has a population of over 20,000.  We decided to take the Norwegian couple's recommendation and go to the campsite they stayed at: Alta Strand.

Ingleton?

We checked in no problems, we are out of high season now as the schools have gone back, and got set up with electricity etc.  We then did a tour of the site, got our laundry on the go, played beach ball and frisbee, made tea (whilst I did this the boys played mini golf), sat outside in the sun eating tea, then had a family shower, before packing up the camping stuff and tidying the motor home ready for the evening.  Our neighbour came by to chat to us - an ex-Londoner who is now Norwegian and lives in Hammerfest.  He basically came over for some English practice - you could see he was struggling to remember his words.  Ex marine who ended up here to get away from it all.  You can certainly do that here!

A good day, lets hope the weather stays like this!

and we are off...

Befriending the locals

Didn’t have the best night’s sleep last night - but think both of us were a little nervous about driving the motor home tomorrow.  We were still wide awake at 11.30 and so looked outside to see how dark it was - it was dark, but there was light in the sky, apparently it won’t get properly dark at midnight up here until the end of August.

We were all awake in good time (8am) so got up and enjoyed yet another wonderful Norweigan breakfast - not quite the spread we got at the Scandic but still very good and very enjoyable - the customers of this hotel weren’t quite as funky and cool as the ones at the Scandic - we were surrounded by foreigners not Norweigans which we were at the Scandic.  The view from the hotel was good - almost as if we were back in Ullapool - a narrow fjord with big looming mountains all around and whisps of cloud clinging to the mountains.  All very lovely. 

We were in the hotel lobby for 10 and soon after a guy came for us from the motor home company.  We then had to watch a 30 minute video on how to work the motor home - all quite involved with gas system, water system, lots of switches etc not sure I fully understood everything, but hoping it will all make sense when we come to work it all.  We were at the motor home place for a good hour or so, and then Matt gingerly drove out and into the Tromsø traffic.  Now the Tromsø traffic really isn’t that bad, but if you have just picked up a mini truck and are being made to drive on the wrong side of the road with a steering column etc on the wrong side any little traffic is stressful.  Put it this way, I was glad it was him and not me!  First stop was the supermarket - the Eurospar which was recommended by the guys at the motor home place.  We thought we would unpack, sort the home out etc there before heading off - no luck - you could only park in the supermarket for 45 mins - which when you can’t read much of the local language, really isn’t enough time to do a shop let alone unpack and sort a motor home!

Tromsø waterfront

We got 3 days worth of food…over £100 - and that’s buying frugally, going for bargains and discounts.  No item of food in this country is cheap.  Think the cheapest thing I found was a bag of popcorn for £1, but apart from that, everything was expensive (although much cheaper than eating out of course).  We chucked our shopping in the wardrobe and then left the supermarket and tried to find our way out of Tromsø.  We did it OK - but it wasn’t easy - there is a sat nav in the motor home, but it is pretty basic.  Just as well we bought some maps with us - I got it out, with my reading specs (very glad I packed those last minute) and started navigating the good ole traditional way.  There aren’t that many roads up here which makes it easier.  

Storfjorden

We thought it a good idea to pull over at the first parking area so we could sort the home out - however, we didn’t come across a parking area for ages, and in fact only found a parking spot quite by accident when the sat nav tried to take us the wrong way.  It didn’t matter, we were stopped, so we unpacked all the food into the fridge and cupboards and then made up the beds.  There is one double bed over the cab and bunk beds at the back.  Tom wanted the big bed over the cabin, and in the end we agreed, mainly because if either of us needs the toilet in the middle of the night - one of us would have to climb over the other to be able to get down.  In a bunk bed, we can at least get to the loo without physically waking up the other.  The noise, of course might do it anyway, but at least we can try.  

Our home for a fortnight

We then went on our way, eventually as we got further and further from Tromsø we came across parking areas.  We noticed places of interest on the map and although these weren’t signposted we soon realised these were where the car parks were.  

We stopped at a couple - but unfortunately it was lashing with rain, meaning we couldn’t really see much - although what we could see in the murky haze was gorgeous.  The area has a much bigger population than we were expecting, there is a village every 10km or so, petrol stations are regular and we went pass quite a few supermarkets - the population density is way bigger than the NW Highlands we were in a couple of weeks ago (although we are travelling along the main road of the area which I guess is also the most populated part of the area).  After a couple of stops, Matt handed control over to me.  It was scary, but I managed.  The worst thing is changing gear as my left hand wants to do it and of course it is on my right hand side - and you have to yank it hard to change the gears which I’m not used too.  Anyway, I managed to drive without any major problems so that was good.

Vuoksajohka waterfall

Matt took over again and we carried on (oh if you are wondering, the plan is to get to Nordkapp - the furthest North you can get on mainland Europe).  Around 5pm we decided to start finding a place to stop for the night,, Norway is like Scotland in that you can park up pretty much anywhere.  We got to Birtavarre which was at the point of a fjord, the sun was trying to come out and there was a magnificent waterfall thundering down.  Why not?  We found a parking place - looked great…there was a sign saying no parking overnight!  Typical!  We carried on and decided to head into the village rather than stay on the main road, we found another parking place - no parking from 23 - 7.  Wow, we were told we could park up anywhere!  We saw another area, it said no trucks.  We read all the notices, it only said no trucks, we parked up and were happy.  We decided that as it wasn’t raining to see if we could walk up to the waterfall - but we couldn’t find the track - we managed to get closer to it though.  I read on the signs said we could climb Finland’s highest mountain from here (think it was a good 20km trip though)  or there was a bridge over a waterfall we could walk to - but that would mean taking the motor home up a gravel track for 8km - not something we are willing to do.  We came back, I made tea whilst Tom wrote his diary and Matt sorted out various electronic devises.

Afterwards after 30 mins to work out how to heat the water, the boys did the washing up and then Tom went to bed (it was after 9pm) - he was very excited!