Leaving our wild camp just outside Bjerkvik this morning we set off again heading north. We had a lot of rain in the night and the passing traffic was quite noisy but we both slept well anyway. The weather today was overcast with threatening clouds all the way but it stayed dry the whole day. There always seemed to be the promise of brighter weather up ahead, but it was only ever up ahead. Almost as if our progress was constantly pushing it away! The plan is to make it to Nordkapp in the next couple of days. I don’t think there’s much there. It’s more for the sake of being able to say we’ve done it than anything else and if we see nice things along the way, then that’s a bonus! We haven’t seen any Reindeer since the other day at the arctic circle visitors center.
As I write we are held up in road works for what a surly young man assured us will be 15 minutes. Miserable bugger probably pissed off about working on Sunday. Still, could be worse. We’re sitting with views down the length of the fjord with mountains either side for as far as the eye can see. Beats sitting in traffic on the Stratford Road in Birmingham! Anyway sure enough almost bang on 15 minutes later we were on the move again. The lead car led us through a tunnel where nothing appeared to be being done and soon after pulled off the road to allow us to continue with our journey.
We stopped off this morning at a Sami shop which was like a small group of teepee type tents with a wood burning fire inside that smelled wonderful as we walked in. The goods on sale ranged from Reindeer skins to expensive wood carvings and strange-looking tribal Indian dolls. They also had fur hats with a furry tail on sale. I don’t know what animal they would have come from but it reminded me that as a small child I had always wanted a Davy Crocket hat! Weird the things you remember from your childhood. I even remember the song, Davy, Davy Crocket, king of the wild frontier! Amazing really, because my childhood was a really really long time ago!
The Sami people are an ancient indigenous people who inhabit an area known as Sapmi which encompasses large parts of Norway and Sweden, northern parts of Finland and the Murmansk Oblast of Russia whatever that is. It seems they’re best known for domesticating Reindeer if that’s the right way to put it. They’re known as nomadic herdsmen. When I started writing this paragraph I thought it would be interesting to give a little background on who the Sami were, not so sure now! Hey ho.
So, a fairly uneventful day of driving through more amazing scenery and we found somewhere to camp for the night at 4.00 pm. We actually had a conversation about whether it’s possible to become blasé about our surroundings as I feel we’ve got used to being awe inspired. Does that even make any sense? Well I’m sure you get my drift! As usual there are other motorhomes parked in the same area so we have neighbours. The strange thing is that as you’re driving most of the motorhomes coming the opposite way give you a wave as they go past. I was reluctant to do it at first because it felt a bit naff! After a while though it felt mean-spirited not to so I do it all the time now. However, when you wild camp none of them ever speak! Oh yes we’ll wave at you as you go by in the opposite direction but if we ever meet don’t even think about speaking to us! Nowt as strange as folk, as they say.
No really good photos today. I’d set myself a challenge to try to photograph something that wasn’t an epic vista but on the first day I failed miserably. Tomorrow we hope to reach Nordkapp. Really looking forward to that! Watch this space!!
Wandering Wildman 