The city is pleasant enough, with an impressive cathedral and old town full of wooden buildings similar to Bergen’s Bryggen.
You may have guessed from the last post that there is a place in Norway called Hell. We didn’t stop there so can’t claim to have gone there and back, nor can we confirm whether or not it ever freezes over!
From Trondheim, a 6½ hour drive took us to the Arctic Circle. On this line around the globe the sun doesn’t set at all on the summer solstice, and the midnight sun occurs for longer periods the further north you go.
We camped for the night by the visitor centre along with at least 50 other motorhomes and a travelling circus!! It felt like quite a landmark in our journey. It hadn’t been getting dark at night for a couple of weeks, so we were looking forward to actually seeing the sun in the middle of the night.
Our next stop was Bodo, a small town that acts as the main hopping point across to the Lofoten islands. Having missed the first come first served ferry by 3 car lengths, we headed up into the hills and found an amazing wild camping spot. We spent that evening watching the sun move across the sky above the Lofoten Islands‘ string of jagged peaks on the horizon.
The 4 hour ferry from Bodo docks at Moskenes on the most southerly of the islands. Our guide book said you’d never forget the approach to the islands, and it couldn’t be a truer statement for us. We approached in glorious sunshine on a flat calm sea and were grinning from ear to ear at the sight of the chain of mountains that spread up the coast into the distance.
From January to July there’s one thing you can’t really avoid on the Lofoten islands; the pungent smell of fish. The island’s fishermen catch an astonishing amount of cod as it makes its way from the Barents Sea to spawn. The fish is quickly decapitated, tied into pairs at the tail, and hung out to dry on wooden racks that you see right across the islands. It’s left there for 3 months, so you can perhaps now imagine the smell!
We spent a couple of hours learning all about the industry at the stockfish museum in the little village of A, pronounced awe. We were enticed by the free coffee and biscuits, although the museum has some rather unusual biscuit tins used, we can only assume, to keep the consumption of biscuits by visitors to a minimum!
Most of this stockfish is shipped to Italy, Spain and Portugal where it’s a very popular ingredient. We actually saw a lot of it for sale while in those countries last year, but had no idea it came all the way from a string of little islands off the coast of northern Norway!
But what happens to the cod heads you might be asking? (doubt it but anyway...!) Well they’re dried as well, in long strings that are hung from the same racks, and shipped out to Nigeria!! The sight and smell of these heads really is something for those with strong stomachs!
Stunning is probably the best word to describe the Lofotens. The mountains and fjords are so picturesque, and more so with the little brown fishing huts and grass topped cabins that dot the water’s edge.
The sight of some of the golden sandy beaches here might also have you running for a dip, but the water really is cold! We’ve had some glorious weather in Norway at times, but it has been very cold. While the UK has been basking in golden sunshine and temperatures of 20-something degrees, it’s barely got into double figures here.
There are a lot of motorhomes in this part of the world. We’ve seen lots of vans from Germany, France, Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, and even Portugal. We’ve seen very few Brits though – only a handful in the month we’ve been here.
It’s no surprise that there are so many motorhomes. The wild camping spots you can find are pretty amazing, and we’ve rarely struggled to find somewhere with a great view. One of our favourites was on the old road to Unstad. A new road tunnel to the village has rendered the old pass obsolete, so we camped at the top looking down the glacial valley to the village below.
It was only the next morning we realised the spot was a favourite on the coach tour agenda! Several buses made their way up to our spot so their groups could take in the view.
After a few days on the islands we pushed north again and spent a couple of hours exploring Tromso. The largest city in these parts, but feeling more like a town, Tromso has some fantastic modern architecture including the 1960s Polar Cathedral, the brand new library, and Polar museum.
After some deliberation we decided at this point to complete the journey through Norway by visiting Nordkapp, the most northerly point of mainland Europe. We’d been undecided about it for some time, mainly because of the distance involved. But we came to realise that it’s unlikely we’ll be this close again, and might as well go for it.
So this leg of our travels ended up being all about long drives. The E6 heads all the way up through the country from Oslo in the south, to Kirkenes in the far North east – a distance of around 2500kms. You might naturally assume that it’s a motorway, but it’s actually no more than your average, rather bumpy and very winding A-road. There’s little to see along most of it, apart from mile after mile of stunning scenery - snow capped mountains surrounded by crystal clear fjords.
As you arrive in the far north you start to notice something different – reindeer! They graze at the side of the road in herds and quite often, wander across it as you’re ploughing along at 60mph!
We stopped for a couple of hours in the town of Alta to have a look at the amazing Stone Age rock carvings. Reindeer, bears, birds and boats all feature heavily in these carvings which date from 6000 to 2000 years ago, and cover a number of rock surfaces around the bay.
Our journey north continued to be full of fantastic scenery and amazing wild camping spots.
The visitor centre at Nordkapp is owned by a hotel chain and every visitor is charged £25 to get to the cliff top that claims to be the most northerly point in Europe. The only problem – after the cost – is the minor detail that it’s not actually the most northerly point at all! This claim to fame is held by Knivskjelloddrn, the next headland along which is only accessible by a 5 hour trek. You can probably guess which one we decided to head for.
We arrived at Nordkapp just before midnight, passing a lot of reindeer along the way. We also had a close encounter with an enormous sea eagle that took off right next to us. It was massive, and it felt quite magical to have seen one so close.
A concrete pillar marks the most northerly point, and there’s a little locker nearby which contains a visitors book and all sorts of crap left by previous visitors! You can make a note of your number in the book and give this to the local tourist office (along with 50 Kroner) to receive a certificate of your achievement.
So that’s about it. We’re now officially heading south again and hoping that Finland brings us some warmer weather, and some affordable alcohol! We’ve been rationed to about 2 beers a week for a while now – a situation that cannot continue!!
Scandinavian countries have a very different approach to the sale of alcohol. You can only buy beer in supermarkets - no other forms of alcohol. For those, in Norway, you have to visit one of the government run Vinmonopolet shops. There aren’t a huge number of these – one in each decent sized town and a couple more in the bigger cities. But with the merchandise being as eye wateringly expensive as it is, we’ve only visited once!
In the next episode, we pop into Santa’s office, Moomin Valley, and Russia!!!
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