Blogging at 22:30 on Sunday 4th August from intended overnighting spot N 69.68002°, E 18.90349° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:69.68002%2C18.90349
I awoke this morning and felt a bit lazy, what with being an exercise-refuser yesterday and all that. So, first thing this morning - straight after breakfast - I did a bike and run brick session. When it was over, I concluded being lazy wasn't a bad option. In fairness, though, the current incredibly settled weather and ridiculously gorgeous landscapes were a joy in which to suffer. Of course. Emma trained as well. I think her last day off from training was 143 years ago.
The camp itself proved another really good one and the only disturbance came from gulls and crows repeatedly getting animated about something or another during the night. I say night but, of course, night really isn't a 'thing' for us at the moment. We're maybe getting three hours of somewhat diminished light at the moment, between about midnight and 3.00am. You could currently easily run in the middle of the 'night' without any form of head torch or such like.
The day's travel has been much like yesterday with more of the same incredible landscapes, only slightly sullied by an utterly incongruous heat haze. 25/26 Deg C has been the norm at our ~70 Deg northerly latitude. Currently, at least, the various snowmobiles and sledges stored in many-a-Norwegians' garden have looked like a very unwise purchase indeed.
By about 4.30pm we were in the luxurious position of arriving at Tromsø airport, and therefore able to declare a joyous Huzzah! After the trauma of having to cancel this trip last year, plus the precarious nature of this year's schedule (taking into consideration all its vitally time-bound constituent parts) we felt a palpable sense of relief. The truck's odometer showed 2,008 miles of driving when we arrived, 1,207 of which have involved the literally incessant mountains, tunnels, and bridges of Norway. To this point we've also relied on approximately nine or ten ferries. We recognise our good fortune in everything hanging together to this point.
Speaking of ferries, I managed a quick chat with an engineer on one of the Fjord1 ships we had to use yesterday and he confirmed that most of the fleet have been converted to run on electrical power supplied from on-board batteries. The ships also (normally) have two diesel engines and these can be deployed to provide propulsion and charge batteries if required. At each ferry terminal there's also a giant swinging boom with a truly industrial-scale hook-up facility to whack some charge back into the batteries when needed (just right of centre in the pic). The engineer reckoned that on his particular crossing the existing technology saw about a 50/50 split of battery and diesel propulsion. Awesome!
On this subject, the Norwegians have clearly adopted the electric car scene with gusto. There are hundreds and hundreds of Teslas in constant use and charge points are everywhere. Even in the most remote places we've bumbled through, electric cars are utterly prolific. Leaving the whole-life advantages or otherwise of lithium to one side, it shows at least that a reasonably wide-scale conversion to battery powered cars is feasible: given political will. I suppose Norway's ability to generate huge and reliable reserves from hydroelectric plants helps.
So, tonight we sleep in one of Tromsø airport's long-term carpark, (pre-booked months ago at about £10 per day), which is actually more like a huge rough patch of land with plenty of free space. The truck will rest here until Thursday, whilst we hopefully visit Svalbard.
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