Blogging at 22:30 on Friday 2nd August from intended overnighting spot N 67.98862°, E 15.82504° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:67.98862%2C15.82504
The mystery of last night's small car with magical off-road qualities was never solved but notwithstanding the lingering mystery, the night was spent in utter silence: except for the now seemingly ubiquitous soothing sound of crashing rivers. A morning scan out with the bins from the overnighting spot also turned up a redstart.
After quitting camp we dug in and covered a fair chunk of ground, again on the less-than-desirable E6. In fairness, though, traffic today was reasonably light up until lunchtime, so we weren't quite so badly 'pushed along' at a rate that was tough for the truck and / or meant we couldn't savour the continuingly remarkable landscapes. To be forced to rush would be a travesty: this really is one stunningly beautiful country.
Significantly, because we were able to dawdle for decent chunks of time, we caught an exceptionally good sighting of an elk only about 50 metres from the road. The animal looked like it was weighing up its options regarding crossing the road, or it might just have been wondering why a giant motorised zebra was skirting its territory.
Other casual from-the-vehicle sightings included a porpoise, some very northerly swallows, and a couple of really odd 'fluttery' game-like birds that I'm having to do a bit more digging on.
Come lunchtime we found a really nice spot that facilitated a run apiece, and which also gave up siskin and multiple brambling sightings.
Post lunch / run we did about another E6-hour north and then peeled off onto a promising looking quiet road that at least wasn't the E6, or anywhere within earshot of it. Winner! A lay-by on the roadside gave us elevated views out over the sea (pic) and we spent a couple of hours gazing out to see what we could see. Three white-tailed eagles were the best sighting and at one point two of the leviathans were on the wing, interacting with each other and calling. It was an awesome sight and I'd say their reputation as flying barn doors is entirely justified.
We would have stayed overnight in the lay-by but for the fact that early evening brought more motorhome activity to the area and, horror-of-horrors, we were joined by a Norwegian A-Class.
Half an hour later we were ensconced in a bit of a rocky dell alongside the same stretch of road... but this time big enough for one vehicle only. The views were only slightly less magnificent and - most importantly - solitude was assured. We'll work on the international relations thing another day.
Late evening was surprisingly balmy and I was comfortably able to sit out on the roof of the cab until biting insects started to be a nuisance sometime after 8.00pm. At that time the temperature was 22 Deg C. Needless to say the sun was still very high in the sky at this time and didn't appear to be even slightly interested in heading for the horizon. The latter we'd expected at this latitude but the former was something of a surprise. We've been this far north before in the truck and can't remember it being so warm. No wonder the glaciers are struggling. Thunberg 1: Trump 0
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