Blogging at 22:30 on Thursday 1st August from intended overnighting spot N 66.81882°, E 15.47099° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:66.81882%2C15.47099
Last night's camp did indeed look after us. It was perfectly peaceful, was in a truly idyllic location (pic), and produced plenty of birdlife. Emma also captured a mountain hare on the overnight trail cam, so we had some mammal action, too.
First thing this morning I decanted bleary-eyed from the truck and the familiar sound of the rumble of tyres on a kilometres-distant motorway vaguely registered. Only when I thought about it did I realise it was no such thing, but was instead the rumble of raging water from goodness knows how many waterfalls and torrentuous rivers that were within earshot. Cool.
They idyllic nature of the camp - and the drive leading to it - was vindication of our decision to intentionally steer clear of honey-pot locations for the past two nights; and the main trunk roads that serve them. It felt like we'd started to get our eye in with how an unconstrained joy of Norway is strongly correlated with steering well clear of the madding crowds. It really is a chalk-and-cheese experience.
So, after quitting camp, rather than head back to the main (sometimes only) road north (the E6) we very purposefully took a far more tortuous detour and, well, what a splendid experience.
We encountered virtually no vehicles all morning / early afternoon and were simply spellbound by the incessant and outrageously gobsmacking landscapes. The natural beauty was staggering and the drive utterly relaxed and enjoyable. We even knocked off rough-legged buzzard and brambling as we bumbled steadily north.
And then, unavoidably, around mid-afternoon, we were spilled back onto the E6 and were immediately thrown back into an incessant whirl of the heady mixture of mobile gringos, schedule-pressured commercial-vehicle drivers and frustrated locals. Speaking of, the vast majority of Norwegian drivers we've encountered have been friendly, courteous and patient. We have, though, also encountered horn-blaring downright hostility from three separate individuals now. I won't give these ignorant morons the dignity of further explanation, but suffice to say there are at least three utter cretins in this country that I rather wish would have stopped in order to explain their displeasure. Naturally, none of them did, but instead just blared-and-run: very probably back to their unhappy homes in order to spew bile from the safety of a keyboard.
By late afternoon we'd reached 66 degrees and 33 minutes north and stopped briefly for a photo-shoot at the very handily located Arctic Circle Visitor Centre / Exploitative Tat Dispensary. We've been here before and it was as cheesy fourteen years ago as it seems to remain today. Within three minutes we were back on the road and again dodging mobile gringos et al, only this time north of the Arctic circle. Obligingly, though, almost as soon as we'd crossed the celebrated line of latitude we began to see small groups of reindeer dotted around here and there. Coincidence, surely?
The intensity of the E6 is even worse in the part of Norway we currently find ourselves in as there are basically no roads that lead off it to provide respite. The only pull-offs possible basically only serve small communities, or are formally designated rest areas right adjacent to the road (and full of gringos). These are miserable pickings for those who enjoy huge landscapes, wildlife and solitude.
For tonight's overnighting spot, then, we've sort of cheated a bit and suffice to say have used the truck's ground clearance to good effect. We're on a technically-now-closed road that used to be the main route over a mountain, but which was seemingly decommissioned when a 4 km tunnel was engineered through the very same mountain. It's now blissfully quiet, has excellent views, and is totally devoid of humans.
Quite how, then, one small hatchback - with what seemed to contain a full family - came whizzing purposefully by about an hour after we'd parked up will probably always remain a mystery. I could see no way such a thing could possibly access the road we were on and the far end of the same road is very substantially blocked. They never came back passed us and there was nowhere we could see along the disused road that supported any form of accommodation.
When you do stuff you see stuff and stuff happens: even if the stuff is sometimes troublesomely disconcerting. Sweet dreams...
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