Monday August 29th Sortland to Near Narvik, Norway

August 29, 2016

Monday August 29th Sortland to Near Narvik, Norway

The bridge out of Sortland, after finally getting our gas bottle filled.

Another great overnight camping spot, although it did rain a lot overnight. Woke this morning to clearer skies and even some blue patches. Didn’t rush as have found that quite a few places don’t seem to open until 10. It was actually 12 degrees when we left and I even took off one layer of merino. The chap in the caravan place was great, and knew exactly the problem, obviously a lot of people end up in the same situation. He sent us off over the bridge into Sortland to a place that would fill our bottle and he also went to get the adapter that Ian was after, but it had been sold. So we are on the lookout for one in case we can’t find a place for our next fill.

I follow an English couple’s blog www.ourbumble.com who are fulltime motorhomers travelling all over Europe and have just been through Norway. I have exchanged emails with Joanne. They have so much information and are so helpful and when I asked the question re the gas bottles, they have a number of adapters for the different countries and manage well.

Getting the gas filled caused a few issues, we put the address in Jilly only to find that the road was getting dug up and we couldn’t get through, so had to try a round about way and still couldn’t get there, so Ian ended up carrying the bottle quite a distance to get the fill. It tested out the shoulders, carrying the 22kg bottle, but no problems!

Finally, late morning with the sun shining, we crossed back over the bridge and headed East, but the weather didn’t last and as we drove along the E10 and up into the mountains it started raining, there were plenty of waterfalls in the mountains and Ian had his work cut out as the roads aren’t that wide in places and there were lots of trucks, he was happy to have a break as we pulled off to a rest area for lunch. .

Have decided that it is time to start our journey south, we have loved the islands, but it is certainly getting cooler, and will just meander down, depending on the weather. It was a shame with the rain today as we passed through some gorgeous places, but guess that is travelling, you can’t control the weather.

Have done almost 200kms today, it was almost 5pm and just before crossing the bridge coming into Narvik we spotted a large flat gravel area between the road and the water. One camper was already settled in, so seemed like a great overnight spot and another four campers pulled in later on. A little road noise, but not too bad, and the price is right…zilch!

..A little later…just organising dinner and noticed a red car pull in, and a couple hopped out and came across to the van, and smiled at us. Then they started talking. They were a couple of kiwis who had noticed the New Zealand on the back of our van, turned around and called in to see us. What a treat, the first kiwi we have met since leaving New Zealand almost 8 weeks ago, and the first English speaking people in almost 3 weeks. So we gave them a right royal kiwi welcome, invited them in and shared a drink. Peter and Pam Kelly are from Dargaville and own the Commercial Hotel, and know many people we do as they have a farming background. They have a son, daughter in law and grandies in Stockholm so come to Europe annually to see them all. NZ is such a small country and it always amazes me how we can find someone that we both know.

Noticing tonight that as we are a little further south, and with the nights getting shorter very quickly, it was quite dark by 9.15.

The seemed to be no way through the roadworks, so Ian had to carry the gas bottle for the refill.

The view from the bridge as we left Sortland, the clouds were building over the mountains...where we were headed!

Quite an amazing torrent of water coming down the rock face.

This was obviously the ferry port for crossing the fjord before the new bridge, the Tjeldsund Bridge
in the distance was built in the 1960's. It joins the mainland to the Lofoten and Vesteralen Islands.