Day 15 - a long day of driving

These Northern Lights are such a tease. I stayed awake till 2am, venturing outside and admiring the stars, but saw no aurora. Today the people we met on the ferries were all raving about what they’d seen during the past 4 nights. A German was pleased to show lovely photos he took on his phone. I don’t think it’s meant to be for us and my app says 6% change from here tonight.

We drove off from our pretty spot overlooking the glacier and fjord for the few miles to Esoya, just missing the 7am ferry to Agskardet. It’s only a 15 minute crossing. We had breakfast while waiting for the 8am one. A woman got off with 2 young children, school bags on their backs, waved them off up the hill and got back on the ferry with us and the post van.

After disembarking, it was an exhilarating race against time to Jektvik for the infrequent ferry to Kilboghavn, a pretty 45 minute sail up a fjord. (There’s no road connection). We chatted to a German who was camping - he asked “Are you British? English?” and when we said Scottish he said “Better.”

We spotted the structure on a hill to denote the Arctic Circle - we are south of it again. Oddly enough, all the trees were still green in the north and it felt like summer whereas further south they are changing colour. We carried on a bit longer on the scenic route till Mi O Rana where we went to a Kiwi supermarket and got some fruit and veg.

We decided as it was cloudy we’d continue south in the direction of Trondheim on the main E6. The scenery today has been peaceful rather than dramatic - forests, farms and fjords. There were a lot of tunnels, one 5 miles long. Our Autopass was charged electronically for the ferries and some tunnels.

After a pretty picnic lunch stop overlooking a fjord we pressed on through Trofers, Mr C often pulling over to allow faster traffic to overtake. Around 3pm the sun came out - maybe I’ll have to stay awake even longer tonight if skies remain clear!

We’ve made good progress today - 284 miles with some holdups due to roadworks. Lots of forest was being harvested to make way for a new bit of the E6 and at other points when we were in a convoy of one way traffic to get through the roadworks we noticed lots of little red cones inserted in the rocks. Mr C thinks they’ll put dynamite in them to blast out hard core for the new road.

At 5.30pm we reached the night stop, just before the village of Viosen on the shore of a lake, Kingsundet, about 3 miles off the E6, 36 miles from Steinkjer, and 100 miles from Trondheim from where we take a scenic route to the Atlantic Road. How many of those are there in the world I wonder?

Now I must make a meal - tonight it’s pear, blue cheese and walnut pasta.

News from home - it’s back to school for the grandchildren - Ella into Year 6, Thomas’s first day at Middle School in Year 5, and Nathaniel’s last in First School, Year 4. I hope all the help James is due to get actually happens as he’ll be in Year 3.

Bigger news is #2 daughter is seriously considering getting a dog. They’ve talked about it for a long time and as she mainly works from home now conditions are more favourable. They have been approved as suitable, and on Saturday will go to the rescue centre to meet Sandy, a 9 month old lurcher. Then it depends if Sandy likes them and they like her. It would be a good thing for James I think. Both boys love dogs. I feel for Ella though as she’s wanted a dog for so long.

This is the the view from our stop last night overlooking the glacier and fjord.