Wednesday 24th June

We left our hotel this morning, ready for a long drive north.

The scenery was mainly trees and lakes with the occasional mountain popping into view. The road is two lanes only, but is pretty much the equivalent of the M1 in the UK as it is the main road going north (Norway is very narrow up here). Quite a lot of trucks, but also places to overtake, as we did regularly.

After about two and a half hours we reached the Arctic circle, on a plateau and close to the Salfjedden national park. A quick stop for some photos, then we were on our way once again.

All the cars which have had problems were intent on reaching Bodo early so that we could go to the garage which was expecting us, so we went straight to our lunch stop for a very welcome coffee and meal. As we were leaving the others were just arriving, so we waved and sped on our way, together with Dave Burgess in his sickly TR6.

We had no problems finding the garage in Bodo, but a few problems explaining what we needed; an inner tube replacing in our (now) spare wheel. Meanwhile Dave Burgess went off for yet another oil change to see how serious the damage is to his gearbox (he is now driving without using second gear at all). We finally were taken to a place where they could do the job (third stop), and I quickly visited a huge shop to see if we could buy some long johns. No luck, they had been removed from the shelves as it is summer, and the wrong season for buying warm clothing!
At around 4.30 we all congregated at the ferry terminal ready for our crossing to Moskenes at 5.45. Bjarne arrived with a local reporter who proceeded to interview me and Mick as we were driving the oldest car.

The ferry was slightly late leaving, but it didn't really matter. It took three and a half hours to reach the Lofoten Islands, then another hour to drive to our lodging at Nusfjord.

The road was wonderful!! I lost track of how many islands we crossed, nor how many picturesque wooden houses we saw. Sadly the clouds were quite low, and we only got an occasional feel for how high the mountains around us were.

At Nusfjord we received our key to rorbu 10, our fishing hut for the next two nights. We have two bedrooms, a draughty lobby area where we can see through the floorboards to the rock and sea below, a bathroom and a wonderful kitchen living area, complete with fridge and kettle.

We quickly moved our bags in, then joined everyone in the Karoline restaurant for our evening meal. We had whale ham, followed by blokstog, a meal made from semi dried cod, then pud. One of our best meals yet, and beautifully presented on the plates. We headed back to our hut at half past midnight, and had to take a photo to show how light it was. No twilight here, it's just light all night.

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