Saturday September 3, Storvik to near Stokkvagen (on HW17)

September 04, 2016

Saturday September 3, Storvik to near Stokkvagen (on HW17)

Tonight's view

After all the excitement of watching the Northern Lights early this morning and out in the cold for an hour, it took me a long time to “thaw” out and get back to sleep, but wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Keen for the next clear night to see if they are visible again and refine my camera techniques.

So a little bit later starting this morning. It was another calm sunny day as we set off about 10am and tickered along the coast to the town of Ormes, which seemed to be quite a centre with a lot of shops, accommodation and quite a big port. It was such a treat to walk around in tee shirts in the sun checking out the shops. Came across a farm supply store which sold so many familiar items including De Laval shearing combs, supplying the many small farms in the area. Ian picked up some boot socks and we got talking to a couple in the store including Hilda who was so friendly and once again passed on a lot of local knowledge. She did say that the weather was changing this afternoon with a bit more rain coming in…and she was right! Collected some fresh bread for lunch and a few Danish pastries to have with a coffee…a rather yummy treat before heading on down the road.

We are really enjoying this coast, and somehow this seems like how I imagined Norway would be. There is no hustle and bustle, and not a lot of traffic, just mountains, fjords and fishing villages. After leaving Ormes we passed through a section of road with 3 tunnels and only a few gaps between them, the longest the Svartis Tunnel was 7.6 kms long.

More treats in store in the next section of road with the Svartisen Glacier across the lake from the road. We stopped at the information centre, but it was closed for the season, then down the road a little further was the jetty where you could take a boat across the lake, then a bus followed by a 2km walk to the glacier. We chose to enjoy the magnificent view from the road!

Onwards to Aesoy for the first short ten minute ferry trip of the day across to Agskardet. We could see it on the other side but a 45 minute wait. No problems as we had a very late lunch and a cuppa and chatted with other travellers as we waited. After we got off on the other side it was a 30 minute drive to the next ferry at Jektvik and knew we had to move to make the 3.20 departure. Arrived and drove straight on, with about 5 minutes to spare. This ferry trip to Kilboghavn took 1 hr and 10 minutes, including a short stop at another island to pick up 3 more cars. There are so many islands down the coast and many have holiday cottages and small farms. Got chatting to a very friendly couple who had their 2 grandsons with them. She was knitting a traditional Norwegian jumper using alpaca and knitting on a round needle. We ended up having quite a “crafty” chat as we cruised through the sounds. We are really island hopping on this coastal route, certainly not a route if you are in a hurry, but suits us fine and the temperatures although cooler are still okay. And we have crossed south over the Arctic Circle now.

Off the ferry and back on 17 along the coast, and came across a large parking area off the road, overlooking the coast and hundreds of islands. A pretty spectacular place to overnight.

Our GPS Co-ordinates for tonight are 66.350241 N and 13.001371 E, which I think you can put into Google Maps and see where we are! Still haven’t worked out how to give you a direct link to Google Maps though. Also can tell we are switched into holiday mode as for the last few days have put the wrong day of the week in…oops!

Not sure how the wifi will be over the next few days as we travel down a more remote area. Might be surprised!