Blogging at 22:30 on Monday 29th July from intended overnighting spot N 63.33949°, E 09.29242° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:63.33949%2C09.29242
I mentioned yesterday how in this part of Norway, at this time of year, there's a lot of competition to find a nice, unmolested overnighting spot. Last night we thought we had, but were awoken at just before midnight by a very small Swedish-registered car with two occupants crammed full of what was presumably camping gear trying in vain to squeeze into an utterly non-existent gap at the side of the truck. It went on for a while until Emma dropped one of the truck's window shields for a better look at what exactly was going on. At this point the occupants of the very small car seemed to realise that the occupants of the truck would prefer it if the occupants of the very small car would park in one of the billions of very small car-sized plots that were actually currently available across Norway. Thankfully, they seemed to realise the futility, aborted their ridiculous quest, and went away.
First thing this morning I ran whilst Emma watched for wildlife. My run was enjoyable enough but Emma trumped me with a good if distant chamois sighting. I'd have swapped experiences all day long.
After quitting camp we bumbled in much the same way as we did yesterday in a generally northerly direction whilst being constantly enthralled by the landscapes. More awesome bridges, tunnels and incredibly efficient ferries featured, too. It dawned on me on the very last crossing we did today that the huge ferry we were aboard was incredibly smooth and quiet. There was no thrum of massive diesel engines, nor was the haze or smell of burned diesel apparent. I can only assume that propulsion, and the power for everything else - including the onboard café - was being provided by electricity. Quite what the source of that electrical energy might be was far from obvious. If this is indeed true, it's quite some achievement. If it's not true, we were being propelled by a seriously mysterious power source. More research on the engineering required.
Casual sightings at lunchtime and whilst driving have included red-breasted merganser and a red-throated diver.
We're now at the coordinates shown (pic) and hoping to overnight. It's a cracking little spot next to a crashing river, discovered by Emma-the-Intrepid whilst biking.
Sent from my mobile device
PS I'm unable to post the usual number of random images because of truly awful mobile data availability. I'm stuck on 2G with seemingly no way to escape it because of limitations imposed by my cheapo domestic network provider (1p mobile).