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| The view across the lagoon from our overnight spot |
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| Today's 180 km drive |
I set the alarm for 1am to
check out the Northern Lights, pulled a blanket around me and poked my head
out, but it was cloudy, so back into the warm. Woke later on in the early hours
to the van shaking from gusts of wind which continued on and off, but it didn’t
keep me awake. Hard to believe after such a perfect evening. The sea had white
caps and Yngve arrived to check out his boats. He was concerned for us with
wind as there are a number of bridges to cross as we head up the islands. I had
been looking forward to seeing the town of Heningsvaer especially the gallery but
it is at the end of an isthmus and Yngve suggested we didn’t go as the wind on
the bridges near the town would be extremely strong.
We got on the road by 10 and
certainly noticed the wind as we crossed the first two bridges. Stopped in the
town of Kabevag where Yngve had recommended we visit the gallery displaying the
work of renowned Norwegian artist Espolin Johnson. The building is quite
unique, built into the hillside and once again has a grass roof. Really enjoyed
the gallery, his work is really unique, using a technique of scraping away the
top layer to reveal the colour underneath. What is amazing is that he had very
bad vision and hard to imagine how he produced such work. We had wandered around
the town, which is on the water, but it looked rather tired and surprisingly
quite grubby. Stopped at the huge church, the second biggest wooden church in
Norway, but sadly it wasn’t open. There were a number of others walking around
hoping to get in as well.
The grey skies had cleared into
a warm sunny day…when you were out of the wind. We drove through to the town of
Svolvaer and picked up some fresh vegies and some milk and bread. I bought some
milk a few days ago, and when I had a good look at it realised that it was
cultured milk, okay for my cereal but no use for coffee. I often use Google
Translate to check out words in the supermarket, makes for lengthy shopping!
Had a late lunch in the van, and as the weather was good and had read that
Svolvaer didn’t have a lot going for it, we skipped town and continue north
east on the E10.
The gusts of wind often rocked
us around in places, but it wasn’t too bad. What was amazing about today’s
drive was the tunnels we went through, ten in all and the longest was 6.6km’s,
with another at 4 km’s and several at over 2km’s. Makes for easy driving.
After not driving much over the
past 4 days, we drove over 180km’s today, once again through a variety of beautiful
scenery. The forecast next week is for quite a bit of rain and two more days of
really strong gale force winds, so wanted to make the most of it. Aristide, whom we met a few days ago had
recommended some great roads and places which I had marked on our map. He had
come in from the top of the islands so had a good lot of “local” knowledge. We
knew that we had to get into a sheltered pocket so headed for a fjord that he
said was very beautiful, and just got to the head of it and spotted a small
rest area off the road, tucked in behind a small hill and very sheltered, the
perfect overnight spot.
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| The grasses on top of the gallery. |
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| The wind was whipping up this valley this morning |
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| Playing with the camera during the 6.6km drive through the tunnel! |
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| The large old wooden church in Kabevag |
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| A rather novel holder for the letter boxes |
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| Fun street art |
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| The town square, Kabevag, it felt rather deserted. |
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| Beautiful weather and scenery for this afternoons drive. |
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| More bridges |
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| Entrance to the tunnel |
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