Monday 22 August Dorotea, Sweden to The Arctic Circle, Norway
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| This evenings view of the Arctic Circle information centre. |
On July 5th, 2010 we
overnighted at the Arctic Circle in Alaska on our way from Fairbanks to Prudhoe
Bay on the Dalton Highway. It was raining and Ruakiwi the 1st was
covered in mud. Tonight, just over 6 years later we are overnighting in Ruakiwi
the 2nd at the Arctic Circle in another continent, it is raining…but
we are not covered in mud!
We had a good sleep overnight at
Dorotea, no rain and very quiet. We were on the road by 8.30, fuelled up in
town and on the road to clock up the last big day. A quick stop in Vilhelmina
for some milk, bread, and a rotisserie chook that will make a good evening meal
after a long day on the road. And we couldn’t resist a Danish Pastry, they are
so good. Quite a grey day again, and only about 10 degrees, even had to pop my
jeans on for the first time. Continued north on the E45 to Stourman where we
turned west on the E12 for Mo i Rana in Norway. We passed some wonderful lakes
and rivers passing through Sweden but we quite disappointed that there were
hardly any places you could stop and enjoy the view. The scenery changed as we
got closer to Norway, there were higher hills and then we saw the last of the
snow sitting high up in the valleys.
I felt quite excited to finally
see Norway, the country that everyone tells us is one of the best in Europe. I
wasn’t sure if there was any border control, so got our passports ready just in
case, but it was just straight through. Then it was into a 3 ½ km tunnel and
the view opened up. The closer we got to Mo i Ranan, the weather improved, the
sun was shining and it climbed very quickly to 21 degrees. What a welcome to
Norway after the last few grey cold days we have had.
We headed for the information
centre as needed to find out where to get a good map of Norway, and also how we
paid for the tolls on the roads. Evidently your vehicle is photographed and the
account for the tolls is sent to your registered address…so guess Steve you
better let us know when the account comes in! Although have heard from others
that they have waited months and still no account. They sent us off to some
book stores in the shopping centre, which was within walking distance, only to
find they had sold out of Norway maps…must have been a busy summer. Will have
to keep trying at service stations, I do feel lost without a good detailed
map. Also used the money machine to get
some Norwegian Kroners or NOK, we get approx. 6 NOK for NZ$1.
The Arctic Circle was about an
hour north of town, so seemed like a good place to spend the night, leaving us
with about a 2 hour trip tomorrow to Bodo where we are going to get the 4 hour
ferry to the Western tip of the Lofoten Islands..and then we can really relax.
The weather got colder and colder
as we headed north, and it dropped to 10 degrees and then the rain came, what a
change. After dinner it stopped and wandered around with my camera, quite a
remote and wild place, with the snow not that far away. It was almost 10pm before
it got properly dark, making us realise how far north we have come.
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| Driving through Sweden |
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| So many monuments built by travellers |
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| A glorious sunset |
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