Summer 2014
Week 7 - A view around every corner.
Monday 21st July 2014.
Wow, Wow, Wow!! The only words to describe our jolly today. We went up into the hills behind the camp site. Stunning.
We were looking for Gorsa Canyon, billed as the deepest gorge in Europe, with the most spectacular waterfall and a pedestrian bridge 150m over the river. We took the car up the mountain till we came to the footpath just 1.8 km (1.1 miles) from the most spectacular waterfall we have seen since we visited Niagara Falls in Canada. Almost alongside the waterfall is a bridge over the gorge from which bungy jumping takes place, not unfortunately while we were there as that would have made for some interesting photos.
Tuesday 22nd July 2014.
Saw a GB numberplate today for the first time since 27th June. There are not many Brits this far north, a few Germans and a few Dutch, most other tourists being Fins.
We took the car back up the mountain today and followed the road, (I say “road” but it is unpaved and single track with some, shall we say, interesting hairpin bends) to the end at which point we were less than a kilometre from the Finland/Norway border but some 25km (15 miles) from the “black stuff” and every inch of it surrounded by beautiful scenery.
How weird, this morning we saw the GB numberplate, and this evening a couple of English chaps are camping next to us. Quite strange to hear English being spoken by someone for whom it is their first language.
Wednesday 23rd July 2014.
We are going to have to change our “adventure before dementia” tag line. Its a moving day today, got up, got ready, got in the car and tried to start it. Nothing, looked down and saw the lights were on. Oh dear, I thought, I obviously had not locked the car last night (locking turns off the lights) and flattened the battery. I asked the Norwegian chap on the next pitch if he could give me a jump start, he said he would. Unfortunately he had left his caravan and car hitched overnight to get a quick start this morning. He had to move his family out of his van lift the legs and unhitch before he could come to my aid. He put the red clamp on a red post under his bonnet (I didn’t see his battery, don’t know where that was) and the black on an engine bolt. I turned the key - nothing. He moved the car to get a better access to what he said was a better place for the black clamp, right! I jumped in the car to try again and as I did so noticed that it was in drive DOH!!!! I slipped the gearbox into park and calling out “here’s hoping” turned the key, it obviously burst into life. I thanked the chap profusely said what a marvellous battery he had on his car, I simply couldn't admit the truth and after that start we were hoping that was all the bad luck for the day and off we went.
Norway is certainly a fabulous country to drive in (if you ignore the state of the roads) although like Scotland as you go into the more remote areas the road condition deteriorates even further and they get narrower. That doesn’t of course affect the heavies rushing towards and past you without any slackening of pace or the car drivers overtaking on roads that if you measured them would surely be too narrow for two cars side by side.
Tonight was spent at Gullesfjordbotn Camping the eleventh site of this trip and our hundredth since starting to travel. It was a pleasant site as you will see if you read my site report but like some other sites in Scandinavia we got the distinct impression they were doing campers a favour allowing them to stay, as the site was by no means full. I thought it should be the other way round.
Thursday 24th July 2014.
We had intended to stay here at Gullesfjordbotn Camping a few days but, you guessed, it’s moving day today. We have decided to go a bit north to the end of the Vesterålen Island group where we have been told the scenery is great and it is one of the worlds best “Whale Watch” areas.
Friday 25th July 2014
Today we arranged to go on a “Whale Safari” the nutrient rich waters off Vesterålen where the various safari companies guarantee - or your money back - that you will see whales. At this time of year it is the sperm whale that frequent these waters while in the winter it is the pilot and orca, or killer whales.
The adult sperm whale grow to between 10 and 18 metres weighing up to 40 tonnes and are the largest of the toothed whales living for up to 80 years. Only the male is seen here as the females and their young live in the more temperate waters of the north and mid Atlantic.
The trip was scheduled for 3.00 pm but early morning fog had delayed the departure of the morning trip by some hours so it was not till after 4.00 pm that we headed out into the Norwegian Sea. Two RIB’s powering out to sea at full chat, an exhilarating ride but not as exhilarating as when we saw our first sperm whale. It was huge, unfortunately, in the photos you have nothing to define the size of the animal but I can assure you the tail as it slid below the surface was several metres across.
It was at this point that, for Sue, things started to go wrong, although always queasy on a boat, she has never been seasick. Well never before, because she well and truly was this time, and although the remaining passengers saw three more whales Sue only saw the first properly. Still I can only saw I saw the sperm whales, Sue can also say she got to feed them.
Saturday 26th July 2014.
Got up to a cloudy/foggy day today but we had to back to town to get some veggies (as it later turned out we didn’t bother as the cost was too high and the quality too low) and some diesel, the purchase of which has to be planned as the fuel stations can be few and far between. On the return journey we popped into a space museum, built as part of a space research facility where Norway set off its first space rocket to assist in understanding the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights. This has led to a Norwegian Space industry worth many billions of Krone, the Norwegians being very proud of the fact that despite being what they describe as a “high cost country” they are able to successfully compete in this field anywhere in the world.
While we were in the space centre the heavens opened and the rain rained down, the first time we had seen real rain in Norway. No BBQ tonight then but we had bought some frozen Halibut while shopping and had that, it was delicious.
Sunday 27th July 2014.
Another moving day. We are going to stay on this group of islands but move south to where we can get what we have been told is one of the most beautiful ferry trips in the world. Today’s journey was as every journey in Norway - stunning, with an ever changing vista of fjords and mountains. We are now camped at the end of a short jetty with water on three sides of us and mountains all around. FAB.
Week 6 - Objectives Achieved :-)
Monday 14th July 2014.
Oh dear! Not a good night at all. For the past couple of weeks it has not got dark at night staying lighter the further north we travel, now we are inside the Arctic Circle and last night the sun shone throughout, never dipping below the horizon at all. Being a completely clear sky it was impossible to get the caravan anything like dark so sleep was difficult enough without the group of youngsters nearby who sat outside all night chatting. The chatting itself was not often audible but one young lady had a rather loud “tinkly” laugh that most certainly was.
We were packed and on the road by 9.00am - unbelievable!
Starting so early resulted in us being at our night stop just after 1.30pm one caravan arrived after us and that was the site full so we have rung ahead to our next site. The lady didn’t book us in “oh no problem we’ve had three spaces available all this week” - lets hope she’s right.
The journey was the most interesting so far, much of the road was as we had yesterday mainly single carriage way, wide and well made bringing us through some very pretty countryside with large lakes and rivers. With about 80km to go the road turned left (following the road to the right would have bought you to the Russian border in around 30km) and became a narrow single carriageway with no road markings other than a white line at each edge of the road. Fortunately I was following a bus 'cos the traffic coming the other way was coming fast and at least they had to move to the very edge of their road side to get past that bus.
There was another danger that we encountered quite a number of times today - reinder on the road. From single animals through a doe with a fawn to large herds. All had in common, a liking for walking in the road and a total distain for vehicles and their drivers, who, give them their due patiently waited for the animals to move before continuing on their way.
Video; - Road Hazard
When we were in Sweden and on our first site in Finland the temperatures were into the 30’s but the heat was dry so however hot it got was no problem. We are now on the Finland/Norway border the temperature in the shade is 33 degrees and the humidity practically 100%. Getting out of the shower and trying to dry on a towel is a complete waste of time. Still it’s better than getting wet in the rain.
Supposed to be a BBQ night tonight but I can’t be a**ed to get it out so our sausages (very popular here and more akin to frankfurters) will be done under the grill.
9.00 pm
Couldn’t be a**ed to light the cooker in this 33ºC heat (91ºF) so we had pickled fish with salad. BBQ’d sausages will be tomorrow.
Tuesday 15th July 2014.
Third moving day in a row! That’s unheard of for us and perhaps why we overslept not waking up till 9.30am. Still we didn’t have far to go only around 160km (99 miles) so no matter. Within one kilometre of starting out we crossed into Norway a non-EU country, it wasn’t clear what the form was so I joined the “nothing to declare” lane and stopped. Nothing happened so Sue jumped out and went to the customs office where she was asked “have you anything to declare?” “no” Sue replied. “So why have you stopped, you should carry straight on” she was then told.
The road to our next site was not the worst road we have travelled on (that accolade belongs to West Africa) nor the worst we have driven on (that accolade belongs to The Ukraine) but it was by far the worst I have towed on. Sone parts had been relaid with a new tarmac surface and some parts were old but all was very lumpy and bumpy. The scenery has more than made up for the rough road so far, through both Sweden and Finland, we have seen trees, trees, trees and even more trees. Within a kilometre or two of crossing the river that separates this part of Norway from Finland, the trees, while still there became far less dominant the land rose into snow toped mountains and a fjord opened out in front of us - breath taking.
The site we are on, in the small village of Olderfjord, is a little haphazard but the facilities are sort of clean and because there is no bank or cash machine within 100km if you buy something in the shop they will give you whatever cash you want and charge it to your credit card.
As we walked around the site looking for a place we said hello to a Dutch couple sitting outside their caravan, learning we were English the chap said we must obviously like fish and chips so he would bring the fish if we would bring the chips. He told us not to worry we should go select a pitch, he would find us later. Ten minutes after setting up he was at the door of the van with a box of Pollack fillets. Explaining he spends the summer on the site fishing from the fjord, he refused payment and wandered off having given us enough fish for three meals. They were great tonight with a salad. Next morning I took him a couple of cans of beer which in Norway is heavy payment.
The summer time in Denmark and Sweden is BST +1 while in Finland it is BST +2, now we are in Norway it is BST +1 again. Its a good job the phone has automatic time settings.
Wednesday 16th July 2014 - 1.50 am - yes you read it right - the middle of the night.
Objective No 2 achieved today, well late last night actually. The weather has been so good for the last couple of weeks that when we arrived here in clear blue skies we felt we needed to go to Nordkapp before the weather broke, so a little before 10.00pm we set off to drive the 125 km (75 miles) to the cape to take pictures of the midnight sun. We had a great journey on the twisty turny roads but on the final approach to the cape we encountered FOG - I can’t believe it!!!!! We paid NOK 470 nearly £50 bloody quid to get onto the “cape plateau”, parked and struggled to open the car door - the wind was so strong and the temperature (with wind chill) well below freezing as evidenced by that snow on the hills, so how all the fog? Within 20 minutes we were on the way back to the caravan.
It was absolutely horrible with no midnight sun to be seen anywhere but our tickets do let us in and out for 48 hours so all is not lost, we will go back tomorrow, no today, and hope the fog has gone and the fierce wind moderated.
We were told later that the temperature difference between sea level and the 307m (1007 ft) high cape plateau as the sun looses power the late evening very often causes the fog/cloud and strong bitter wind combination.
Objective No 2 has now been well and truly achieved. We returned to Nordkapp this afternoon and what a different twelve hours makes. Gone was the fog (or more probably low cloud) gone was the fierce bitter wind and gone were the midnight crowds. We were able to stroll around the sights and exhibits with ease and, in comfort, watch the stunning four seasons panoramic film. As we drove away in the late afternoon the coaches were starting to arrive for tonights midnight bunfight.
On the way back to the van we stopped at Honningsvåg, the most northerly town in mainland Europe where we visited the Ice Bar. The Ice Bar is rebuilt with fresh ice each May and remains open until September and a film, shown in the entrance/gift shop, details how the bar is constructed fresh each spring. The temperature in the bar is -5ºC so the quilted poncho loaned as you enter is essential if you are not going to freeze to death.
The ice is stunning being crystal clear with cracks/faults in the ice creating weird and wonderful patterns through it. Strangely the owner and staff are all Spanish but we were told there is a very high percentage of Spanish ex-pats living in the area.
Even the vessels in which (non-alcoholic) drinks are served are made of ice, which legend states that if after use you throw them in the fjord and make a wish it will come true - you wish! probably made up by that Spanish owner last week. We still did it.
Thursday 17th July 2014
These laundry days seem to come round so quick, but we did get to go for a drive this afternoon. There are not many roads and those that are go for miles and miles but getting not very far as a crow flies. We found a waterfall not marked on any of our maps or mentioned in our guide books but very worth while stopping and walking up, provided you don’t mind being eaten alive by mosquitoes. We regularly see reindeer paddling in the sea and it would appear they go to the sea for two reasons, the first is they need salt in their diet so use seawater to provide it and secondly to escape the mosquitos.
Friday 18th July 2014.
Back in tourist mode today we went to Hammerfest which, like Honningsvåg, bills itself as the most northerly town in Europe. When I asked about this in the Tourist Information Centre pointing to a map which clearly shows Honningsvåg as further north the chap behind the counter said - through gritted teeth - that unlike Hammerfest, Honningsvåg is neither town nor city and so could not be the most northern town. I had clearly touched an exposed nerve.
The purpose of visiting Hammerfest was to join The Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society and visit its museum. It seemed a little strange that the museum of The Royal and Ancient should have lots of stuffed Polar bears and other Arctic wildlife some, for instance the pure white Arctic Rabbit, we had never seen in the flesh but then if the museum is anything to go, by some bugger has shot ‘em all.
Supermarkets are none to common up here, the nearest to where we are camping is 50 km (31 miles), so passing one in Hammerfest we went in to get supplies particularly salad stuffs and green vegetables. A small bag of prepared lettuce was around a fiver, an iceberg lettuce around four quid and the green veg was not only very expensive it was more fit for the compost than the table. We finished up with a small fresh cauliflower at a reasonable NOK 190 (£1.90).
Later looking at the till receipt from the purchase of membership to the Polar Bear Society it was realised that a 130 gram (4.1/2 oz) bag of cloudberry sweets (raspberry like berries grown profusely in the wild and good for vitamin C) had cost NOK 78.50 (£7.40).
Sunday 20th July 2014
It’s another moving day today, we have for the last six weeks been moving north but have now gone as high as we can. This link takes you to a Google Map to show the campsites we used and the route we took. From now on the direction will be south.
The area we are currently passing through is also known as Lapland and the Lapp or Sumi people, as they are now known, “ . . . have inhabited the northern portions of Scandinavia, Finland and eastward over the Russian Kola Peninsula since ancient times. Russia, Finland, Norway and Sweden claim territories in what is now regarded as Sapmi (Lapland). To some extent, these countries have recognised the property rights of the Sami there. The Area of Sami settlement extends nowadays over the entire Fenno-Scandinavia arctic region and stretches along the mountain districts on both sides of the Norwegian-Swedish border down to the northernmost part of the province of Dalarna in Sweden. Today the Sami are a minority in their region of settlement. In a few municipalities of northern Finland and Norway, they constitute a majority. An estimated 50-65,000 Sami live in northern Scandinvia and the Kola Peninsula; of these, between 17,000 and 20,000 live in Swedish Sápmi . . . “source
We stopped for a while at a Sumi Souvenir village, a collection of temporary wood and plastic shelters each attended by a Sumi man in colourful traditional costume. They all had similar reindeer orientated items to sell. Unfortunately weight issues prevent us buying memories.
Our journey today has taken us 350(ish) km (217 miles) in a sort of southerly direction, sort of southerly or not I would think it was one the nicest roads we have travelled. There were some very high parts and some at fjord level but every inch was absolutely beautiful, there is no other word. It was what we had come all this way for, and we had to resist the temptation to keep stopping and taking photos or we would never have arrived. There must be wide temperature differences in some of the fjords as above some, or parts of some, was a thin layer of very dense cloud or mist. It looked fabulous from above as if cotton wool or candy floss had been spread over it.
The views from the campsite are truly majestic surrounded three sides by high mountains with a fjord the other. Unfortunately when we arrived dropped a rather large ricket, The site was completely empty, not a caravan, motor-home or tent, so because of the slope of the ground and we felt to lazy to get out the kit to correct it we set up across the pitch (taking up two) instead of down the pitch. No problem until others stared to arrive and in order to get electricity the last three were forced to set up very close in front behind and right outside our door. As we plan to stay here a few days when they have gone in the morning we will spin the van through 90º and get the leveller out.
Week 5 - Truckin’ Into Lapland.
Monday 7th July 2014.
One month and one day ago, the day before leaving UK, I learned that the mobile phone company Three was selling sim only contracts that in some countries, including Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway attracted no roaming charges, after being a customer for over one month. Our roaming charges usually add about £30.00 a month to our phone package costs so £12.50 per month for a Three sim should save us the cost of at least three bottles of wine a month - result! The new number can be heard in the voicemail message on my old number and as the charges to make or receive calls and texts no longer applies on this trip feel free to call/text anytime.
Did no more than a ride into Skelleftea today.Skelleftea is quite a large town with several large malls built around the town square, but like much of Sweden does not appear to have much of interest from an historical perspective. It does however have regular Ryanair flights from Stansted which the town hopes will increase tourism from UK. We booked, via the very helpful tourist office, a ride on “The Longest Ropeway In The World”. It’s not the longest now, but, from when it was built in 1942 until abandoned in1989, it was 98 km (61 miles) long and transported copper ore from mines to main transport points when roads were very poor and due to WW2 rubber for tyres and oil for petrol was difficult to obtain, now the ride is 13 km (8 miles). It took some time to book as an ex-Canadian lady hearing us talk English wanted to chat about her life in London (Canada) and how much she wanted to visit the original London in England.
Tuesday 8th July 2014.
Laundry day today. The site we are on is, to our experience, unique in that you don’t pay to do a wash or a dry but you rent the laundry room for a three hour period and can do as much washing and drying as you want during that period.
Had to go back to the tourist office today, Looking at the ropeway web site it seems it is not a there and back ride but from one end to the other and a bus back to the start point. We hadn’t asked which end we were starting from, what’s that tag line again?
Wednesday 9th July 2014.
I hate being woken by an alarm clock, but we had to be up early today so we could breakfast and be ready to go by 10.30, don’t mock, that’s early for us, we are still unsure where we are going for the ropeway ride. It’s actually called The Norsjö Ropeway but is here often referred to as the Boliden Ropeway but the town of Boliden seems miles from where we “think” we should be and we want to be there early enough to move if we finish up at the wrong end.
The wonders of modern technology (Garmin sat-nav) took us right to the doorstep although it wasn’t until we arrived and asked confirmation of another visitor that we were in fact sure of being at the right place. It still didn’t feel right as although there were some of the original buckets we could not see any cars or the cables leading away. Also the place was home to flies about the same size as a honeybee that loved to land on warm humans, fortunately after the initial onslaught they disappeared. We were relieved when we found a lady staff member who had our name on her list (Stephen) and had the correct lunch order - reindeer with potato salad. After watching a film, in English, we collected our packed lunch and joined a queue outside a large shed each group was allocated its own car and shown how to drop the table, to reveal a trip map and told how to use the emergency radio transmitter and at one o’cock we were, car by car, sent on our journey. The journey takes a little under two hours at 3m/sec (6.71 mph) and is a pleasant quite tranquil affair as we move slowly over forest, river and lake while chomping on delicious lunch. Almost as soon as it had begun the ride through the tree tops ended, it certainly did not seem like two hours.
With the town trying to increase UK tourism through Ryanair it was interesting that the staff at the Longest Ropeway said that we were the only English visitors this year and there was just one couple visited last year.
Thursday10th July 2014.
Moving day, another 300 odd kilometres north . A new site. A new country. We are now in Finland, our third country of the trip, the site is large and open, no need for a mover here. The camp site seemed really good until we visited the toilets - plain glass panels in every door, when I sit and relax, perhaps read a few pages it must be in private. Worse was to follow, the showers are single sex but communal, I don’t need to shower with chaps with young well defined muscles and big whatsits to remind me I’m an old codger with a big flabby belly.
I will use our own facilities while here and hope this is not the norm in Finland.
Friday 11th July 2014.
One of our trip objectives was nearly completed today. The first objective of the trip is to take the caravan into the Arctic Circle, and although that will not happen until Sunday, today Sue and I went to Santa Claus village the official (according to the village) Lapland home of Santa Clause and built on latitude North 66 degrees 32 minutes and 35 seconds - The Arctic Circle. This is where, had you ever written to Father Christmas, the letter would have been sent and from where any answer penned. It does of course comprise mainly tourist souvenir shops but there is a large holiday village which although open all year comes alive in the run-up to Christmas when families from all over the world visit Father Christmas and his elves. Some elves were there helping with crowd control and the reindeer were also there but Father Christmas was on holiday, he has probably gone to the Costa Del Sol.
Saturday 12th July 2014.
Laundry day and our new tenant is due to move in today, so it’s the day we should stop shelling out and start getting something back from the house again - first time since mid January.
I forgot to mention earlier about the smell in the town of Harnosand. The smell of wood, it was a really pleasant fresh smell almost like perfume.
It turns out that Finland restricts alcohol in shops in a similar manner to Sweden so, as we are close to the border, we went to the Finnish “Alko” store for some wine and the Systembolaget in Sweden for beer - all of which must now be carefully rationed until we are out of Norway.
Sunday 13th July 2014.
Objective number one achieved. We are now camped at Lat. 67 degrees 25 minutes 03 seconds well inside the Arctic Circle.
Just one thing of interest on a quite boring trip, at one point close to where we stopped for the night the road widened by three times and ran dead straight for about a kilometre and during that distance there were no signs, no street furniture no nothing. It was, we think, an emergency runway, but why it was built and is being maintained we have no idea.
Week 4 - A better end.
Monday 30th June 2014.
I had hoped that the start of a new week would be better than the end of the last but I was woken this morning with a nice cup of tea at 11.30am I drank the tea but remember nothing else till the next cup of tea at 4.30pm, after which I got up still feeling like death. Will it (the MAN FLU coupled with double pneumonia and athletes foot at the very least) ever give over??😱
Tuesday 1st July 2014.
Up bright and early today -10.30. Still feel like **** but its another day so get showered and get on!
Having spent a teetotal three days, after our showers, breakfast etc, we toddled off to town to find Systembolaget, the state run nationwide retail liquor store network of 426 stores and approximately 500 agents serving smaller communities. The agents do not carry items in stock, but the entire product range can be ordered through them. Luckily in Alvesta was a shop rather than an agent, and we were able to stock up with enough wine to get us over the border into Finland at a cost roughly the same as in UK.
Although we are still a long way south of the Arctic Circle it doesn’t get dark at night as we know it. Every blind, curtain etc, is drawn at night to keep things as dark as possible, I went to the loo at 12.30 last night and there was still a “dusky” light, dark admittedly but light enough to see the site and each caravan clearly and when Sue went at 2.30 am it was already bright daylight.
Wednesday 2nd July 2014.
Another moving day. We were up bright and early and ready to move at 10.00am. We are travelling some 300 odd kilometres north-wards, of course, and on this trip it seems that what can go wrong will go wrong. As I was getting things sorted I tripped on a loose rug and put my back out. I can sit in the car and drive but anything else is pretty painful and the last time it happened it took six weeks and twelve visits to a chiropractor to fix.
We travelled north for another 350 km the roads were just as before, two lanes, one lane, two lanes, one lane. The cruise control went on early and off late. The main excitement today - we overtook a lorry, only the one though.
A few days ago we thought we would see about getting the defunct motor mover replaced. We happened to be camping within 20km of Sweden’s main, only?? caravan maker Kabe who had a very large retail outlet around the corner from the factory, and of course we had a look around the caravans on show - stunning is the only word. Mind you the twin axle jobey we fancied came in at well over SEK 500,000 (£42730) but it was obviously very well made and appointed. I bet there are no issues to sort out after delivery and you see a lot of obviously very old ones on the roads so it may well work out cheaper in the long run. Another Kabe, The Royal Tower was released (and dropped) in 2008 and cost a cool SEK 980206.03 (£83609.00) - unfortunately the 4.5 metre (14.6 ft) height gave it problems with bridges.
They were able to supply an AWD motor mover from stock at SEK 23555.00 (£2012.65) plus installation; we would expect to pay in UK installed for a Powrwheel Auto-engage AWD Unit that, in my opinion, is a better unit less than £2000. We went without. We have since been told that Swedes do NOT fit motor movers so we have been playing Spot The Motor Mover and so far we have not found one Swedish registered caravan with a motor mover. They soon would if they went to Spain or Portugal for the winter but to be fair of the three Swedish sites we have used so far none have needed the mover.
Thursday 3rd July 2014.
Got up this morning hardly able to move so instead of moving on for a second day in a row we are staying put in the hope that the back will ease in the next day or two. We went for a little drive into town and what a delightful town it is. It is a seaside town but appears when you look around the harbour to be land locked, but not so. It is a large natural harbour with the open sea a couple of miles from the town hard. There are a number of large supermarkets here so as the sun was shining we went looking for BBQ fare and eventually came away with large pack of pork chops and some beef burgers. Just as we were preparing the vegetables for going on the BBQ the heavens opened so the vegetable parcels went in the oven and the chops went under the grill. Washed down with a bottle of “Ausi" wine it was delicious.
Friday 4th July 2014.
The sun is shining from a clear blue sky and the forecast is good for a week or more. We went for a drive today and discovered that, other than in towns, once you get a short way from the main highway, roads become what my sat-nat describes as an “unpaved road” - they are still pretty good but with a loose gravelly surface.These unpaved roads go for miles and, although you have to keep your speed down, are easy roads to drive on. After a period of time we arrived at our first Swedish tourist trap. Words cannot describe the small green with a tiny beach and deep blue/black water - fabulous! but with three people sunbathing on the beach rather crowded
Saturday 5th July 2014.
Our careful research - absolutely none - into caravanning in Sweden had not revealed that you are not allowed to collect grey water in an open vessel which we do, as a flexible garden bucket is much easier than lugging a 38 litre Wastemaster around. We have had to go and buy a 23 litre Fiamma waste tank - Doh!!
After shopping (absolutely forced to go buy some BBQ stuff - ribs, big lumps of beef, salmon etc., etc. we went sight seeing to a local waterfall, with a total drop of 83m (272 ft) making it the second highest waterfall in Sweden. It was very pleasant but (for Sweden) crowded. We walked up and down the falls and chatted for a half hour to a Swede who had heard us speak English and wanted to chat about EU membership! His partner, a Ukrainian from Kiev, was staggered that we had actually been there, and knew some of the places she mentioned. Feeling thirsty and peckish we popped into the cafe to get some tea and coffee and a couple of open sandwiches. The tea and coffee you paid once and had as many cups as you wanted and the prawn sandwiches freshly made to order came to a total of SEK 140 (£11.94). Delicious.
We also saw some cranes (the birds that is) in a field by the road and the roadsides are often bedecked by masses of lupins in shades from deep purple to pale pink and occasional white. Very colourful!
Sunday 6th July 2014.
Another moving day today - another 350 odd kilometres north. Twice the navigator pessimistically said “traffic ahead”; all we can assume is that here two cars constitutes a traffic jam. The roads were in fact quite empty and a joy to travel upon particularly as the tree plantations have given way to more cultivation and we were given tantalising glimpses of the Baltic Sea as we passed through. This, our fourth site in Sweden, is the first without a lake/sea view although the receptionist has said we could go on the riverside field and pitch by the river, but unfortunately it is rather a long way to the facilities. Once again a mover was unnecessary to get on our pitch and will not be needed to get off either.
A good end from a bad start, lets hope it continues.