Day 12

This morning with the sound of rain on the tent, looking out wasn't any better with the Atlantic fog covering the Norwegian coastline. We had to move on if we were to get into Trondheim on Monday when the forecast showed sunny day. We took highway 17 along the coastline which is known as the tourist route, I can confirm from what we could see that it was worth the trip.

After the first ferry this morning I was middle in the queue and felt that the speed on the narrow coastal roads were to quick for the landy so we stopped into a museum in Grønsvik. It was basically a gunner battery that saw its fair share of action.  What was funny for us was that we stopped for an hour and when we eventually arrived at the next ferry terminal all the cars in the long queue were sitting there. Also while on the second ferry of the day we crossed over the artic circle again. We spent 9 days over the artic circle and plan to return.

Taking the advice of the girl at museum we diverted from the coastline and headed over to the main highway to proceed to Trondheim. Had the weather been better had we stayed at the coastline, we were disappointed with our luck with the weather and said that we must return.

Tonight are we south of Medjå, approximately 160 km north of Trondheim. Tomorrow some sightseeing in Norway's third largest city then onwards to the Atlantic Highway.

Day 11

This morning we woke early to the alarm, yes I know that alarm clock and vacations don't blend but we wanted to make some early progress so that we can stop at a beach for a few hours in the afternoon.

We did our best to divert from the E6 as to see more of the country side and the fishing communities. The coastline in Norway is breathtaking with something new after each bend. I did find on the computer an old disused road after it was replaced by a tunnel. So we took it down to the main highway, which my passenger wasn't pleased about for one second! 😆 Fallen rocks on the asphalt, parts of the road washed away and no rails along the sides of the road were not popular but did make for an exciting 1100 metres decent.

We are now on the tourist route following the coastline till we reach Trondheim. Without risking driving late again we have stopped into a rest stop in Glomfjord. We are over 900 moh and in the forest behind us you can hear the free ranging goats with their bells.

Day 10

As I wrote yesterday today was a day relaxing, doing some laundry and some servicing on the landy. While Ulla was getting the laundry ready I spent some time under the landy looking for the new rattles. The rear most exhaust mount was loose and the exhaust downpipe skid plate was loose. After tightening the bolts I greased all the u-joints and a general look-see over everything else.

Also before coming to the camp where the Norsk Land Rover Klubb are having their summer meet, I asked on their forum if I could buy a left hand side wiper arm as we had one break in Finland. Two guys showed up with 2 wiper arms for me. Thanks to their hospitality I feel more secure with the wiper arms lasting the remainder of this trip.

Today is was 27 degrees, hanging out 2 loads of laundry didn't take very long to dry. This camp is next to a rescue/military training facility that has helicopters, which begin flying just after 7 in the morning and go all day long.

We've been looking at the road book andy do some cut/copy/paste with the southern route. We want to spent some time along the coast and if the weather keeps as it was today then of course we will have to stop by a beach.

Day 9

Today we hiked to the three country boundaries between Finland, Norway and Sweden which was a 24 km trip. The trail to the boundaries marker are very well marked and travelled so the hike was straightforward to speak but you had the climbs to the plateau. The hike in with a half hour rest and back to the landy took us 6 hours and 10 minutes.

After the hike the plan was to cross a mountain pass on an old mountain route but when got to the entrance to the pass there was another gate with a huge lock. Another trail that we couldn't travel. 😯

Back tracking another 45km we were back to the main highway where we drove down to Bardu where the Norsk Land Rover Klubb are having there summer meet. We are camping next to our old friend Lars.
The plan is to relax a bit and get some laundry done and servicing on the landy before heading further south.

Day 8

Last night when we camped in Olderfjord the Swiss couple who parked next to us happened to be driving a Land Rover. We haven't seen so many adventure equipped vehicles so far on our trip, so it was cool to see them plus talk.

Today was going to be a day of as lot of driving. The first trial that I planned to drive started in Skågvarre, but when were at the start for the trail it was marked for back packers and cyclists. This had me stumped with the information I had so we decided in taking the decision to not upset any other trail users and not drive it.

So a quick recalculation with the Garmin and we were heading In the direction of the Alta Old Postal road which we decided to drive from the lowest point to Alta. The road appeared to be more rough than usual as it was heavily rutted. Many hours later we came out in Alta where we refuelling for the 11th time in 8 days.

From Alta we decided to simply take the quickest and only way to the 3 boundaries meeting point for this time Sweden, Finland and Norway. By the time of 11 at night we decided that it was enough driving for today and found a nice grassy meadow by the highway in Oksfjordhamn.

Day 7

We did it, Knivskjelloden hike of 18 km to the most northerly point outside of Russia. Knivskjellodden is actually 1.5 km further north of the tourist Nordkapp location.

After we completed the hike we had to go back to a conversation that we had at breakfast with a French couple who cycled to Nordkapp the day before. They told us to park our vehicle 500 m before Nordkapp entrance and simply walk around the area to come in from the side. Doing so after our hike, it gave us the change to get a picture at the globe before heading south again. Before doing so we had to eat at a local restaurant to eat cod tongues. Ulla's first! 

We are now a 100 km south of Nordkapp in Olderfjord with a camping spot on the water front.

Day 6

Well today it was a short distance to travel compared to the previous day's, just 410km to Nordkapp. The roads were so much better but with that the traffic increased. I hate being pushed to drive faster for those behind us so I was the nice guy and pulled over to let them pass, must have been 10-12 times at least. 

When we stopped for lunch at a rest spot in a fjord, a tour bus came in shortly after us with tourists from France. Some how we became the main attraction instead of the fjord. The people were checking out the Land Rover, watching me cook our lunch and were asking about the Canadian stickers on the landy. LOL we were so glad to see the back of that bus.

The tunnel to the island that Nordkapp is on, you decent for 3km, it levels off for a km then it's a long 3km climb out to day light again. The views here are amazing, not seen any real trees to talk of, plenty of reindeers and sheep.....the wind, well none stop is the best way to describe it. We just hope that the rooftop tent can survive the wind tonight. The forecast for tonight tomorrow is overcast with no chance of droplets from above with wind gusts as high as 9 m/s.