Blogs from Northern Norway, Norway, Europe - page 11

Saturday The sun is shining! After doing the regular checks on Dream Catcher Les thinks that we have a slow puncture, we will have to keep a check on it. I washed our walking clothes and hung them inside the back, with the heater on they will dry, but it looks like 'Widow Twanky's laundry'. Oh no it doesn't! Oh yes it does! We're on the road heading to Tromso, we've decided to take a couple of ferries to cut out some miles on roads that we drove up here on. We stopped to fill with water and empty the waste, Les checked the tyre, it was down again! He put more air into it.The scenery looks very green and lush after the barren view of the last few days every so often there are waterfalls ... read more

Friday What a change in the weather today, cold wet with low cloud! We pottered about in Dream Catcher catching up on a few little jobs and then set off to explore the rest of the island. There isn't any point in walking any trails as all the hikes climb up into the low cloud as Vaeroy is mostly a mountain with three small villages in grassy bays.We explored a couple of tracks leading to the sea and found a place where we could watch some of the local birds, there are pairs of eider ducks paddling around, it's always seems unfair with ducks that the males have such beautiful feathers and the females are so drab. There's a black guillemot, the first we've seen, it's smaller than I expected! Through the spotting scope Les found ... read more

Tuesday Lots of miles to cover today! With a couple of stop offs planned, the first one is the 17 metre high Laksforen water fall, it looks spectacular in full flow from the snow melt. We continue winding along the E6 which seems to have endless road works, there are workmen cutting trees down, blasting, breaking up, crushing and laying stone to make the new road, there are temporary speed limits that seem to change every few yards, we're just pleased that the road is quiet. By lunchtime we arrived at Mosjoen, this town has an historic street with over 100 listed buildings, but before we take a look, we shopped for food, a road map with more detail on it than the one we're using and just by chance the government run alcohol shop is ... read more

Alta, the apex of our trip. After this port we turn around and head back South so it was now or never. I’ll cut straight to the chase…we saw them!! The Aurora Borealis, commonly known as the Northern Lights. For those of you who don’t know or who think they know but aren’t too sure, here is the science bit: The Northern Lights, or to give them their scientific name, aurora borealis form when charged particles emitted from the sun during a solar flare penetrate the earth's magnetic shield and collide with atoms and molecules in our atmosphere. These collisions result in countless little bursts of light, called photons, which make up the aurora. Collisions with oxygen produce red and green auroras, nitrogen produces the pink and purple colours whilst helium produces an orange hew. With ... read more

Tromsø is 186 miles inside the Arctic Circle. At 71,000 inhabitants, it is the principle city of Northern Norway and is the largest European city to lie within the Arctic boundary. It is more northerly than Orkney, Iceland and even most of Alaska….and we’re not done with travelling North yet!! Tromsø is situated on Tromsøya island in the area of Trom and has a fast expanding population. This is due to the relatively mild climate for a town that is so far North. The mercury very really falls below -15 in winter which is comparable with the climate in the countries capital, Oslo. I was expecting to see ice floes as we sailed in to Tromsø but I was informed that due to the Gulf Stream, the water in these parts never freezes over. Tromsø boasts ... read more