What Are Some Landmarks We've Seen on Our Road Trip?

Borek · Aug 1, 2010

Day eighth (July 9^th)

To some extent day without a history, just with 350 kilometers. Early in the morning sky was covered with clouds, it was not raining, but the tent was wet. I have found many years ago that shaking the fly sheet helps to remove the water and speeds up drying - it worked this time as well. Besides, in the meantime clouds went away and the sky was clear (it was hot again), which helped. Today's target was selected in a similar way as yesterday, we just decided to stop anywhere, not necessarily on some camping place. Driving today was basically boring - most of the time road was going through a forest. Nice forest I must admit, with picturesque lakes opening now and again to the left and right, but flat and with no specific places to visit to take pictures we were just going and going. The only "attraction" today were clouds of black flies that attacked us when we left the car to pitch the tent. We were told to be afraid of mosquitoes, but black flies were not mentioned. Interestingly, they were quite furious outside, but right now I am sitting inside, typing, and two or three dozens just sit over my head on the internal side of the fly sheet and pretend to be not hungry. No idea why. It is getting chilly, first time since we left Poland I feel like I may need to put some more clothes on.

Somewhere in Finland (actually this picture was not taken on July 9^th):

Borek · Aug 1, 2010

Day ninth (July 10^th)
(when we learn what "to bike" means)

When it is bright all the time night and day loose its meaning. Doesn't matter if you are going to bed or getting up, everything looks about the same. We woke up relatively early today, packed and took a short walk before moving away, trying to take some pictures. We couldn't walk much longer, as all insects around have learned about a free meal and tried to get their shares - and Marzena decided she is not interested in pursuing a career of a bug fodder. So we got back to the car and... north we go again. This time we have a well defined idea - we want to visit Santa Clause Village close to Rovaniemi. It is mostly just a tourist attraction, thing that we usually prefer to avoid, but Santa Claus is a Santa Claus

We bought original Santa Clause gifts for Junior and his GF, we bought a bell to sound it on Christmas and we took pictures of ourselves at Arctic Circle. That was enough so off we went to a camping place in Sodenkyla. Few kilometers after Rovaniemi we have seen our first pack of reindeers - just four of them, they were walking on the road ignoring cars. We couldn't take pictures at this particular moment, but later we met one large (probably male) and we were able to stop. This was quite funny - reindeer is not a small animal, this one had a quite large antlers, but when it was walking on the tarmac it was making a funny clapping sound, as if made by some other animal. About 30 kilometers before Sodenkyla it started to rain, At the same time temperature has fallen to about 14 deg C, the lowest since we started. But then we expected temperatures in this range at this latitude, if not lower. (That's actually a problem - we have mostly warm clothes, but almost nothing to wear during a heat wave.) It was still raining when we came to the camping and I had to pitch the tent during the rain, but later sky became clear.

There are two kinds of people here - those going to Nordkapp and those going back. We have met a guy from Belgium (take a peek at his travelblog at www.travelblog.org/bloggers/peeke/[/URL] - in Dutch) - he is on his way up, just like we are. The difference is he is riding a bike, makes around 90 km a day, and his trip will take over 100 days and at least 8000 km. We are bikers as well, but there are moments when it is better to pretend we don't know what bike is :shock: Right now we are sitting in the camping kitchen, he writes about me for his blog and I am writing about him for PF and we are both surrounded by electronics and cables. O tempora, o mores :wink:

Rovaniemi (Santa Claus village):
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:smile:
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Clap, clap, clap:
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Borek · Aug 1, 2010

Day tenth (July 11^th)

In general it was a pretty good day. We passed 3000 km mark, and we entered zone where the Sun shines all the time, we have seen several nice places and went for a two nice walks. Initially road was very similar to what we have seen up to now - forest, forest, forest, lake, forest - but as we proceeded north forest was getting less dense and lower, and it was obvious that trees are struggling to survive in the climate - they look crippled with twisted branches. Less dense forest means that you can peek deeper, so you see more of the terrain, today not only lakes but also marshes. Then there were reindeers. Every ten or twenty kilometers pack of them was walking in the middle of the road. They completely ignore passing cars, as if the road was theirs, sometimes it takes several minutes before you can pass them and accelerate.

At lake Inari we visited a "museum" of local customs and a viewing point tower. Museum is just a few old boats, few old engines, old snowmobile, old sledge and a fisherman's cabin (not an old one, but one built to look like they did many years ago). Can't say it was very interesting, but one thing was - they were making tar from wood, using original process. This is done for many years in the same place - they dig a hole on a slope, put a tube at the bottom in such a way that it sticks out of the ground few meters below, then they put wood into the hole, start the fire, cover the wood with gravel/sand/moss and wait. Actually trick is not to just wait, but to observe the process and either make additional holes in the cover to allow more air inside, or to step up on the cover to tamp it. That's necessary to keep a correct temperature in the pit - and they check it observing color of the smoke, it must be just the right shade of gray. Tar drips from the tube, mixed with a water phase (most likely water-methanol mixture if you ask me) - and they are separated in the barrel. Tar was used to impregnate boats. Simple and effective.

Seems like we may have a problem. Back in Warsaw idiots in bank in which I have my main account failed to reissue my credit card (it was valid till end of June), despite me asking them to speed up the process since May. Actually they reissued the card, but sent it to the wrong address, I will spare you the details. I have an account and a card in other bank, and Marzena has her cards with her - but these are all Visa Electron cards and they were all issued by the same bank (different than the one mentioned earlier). And for some reason they are not correctly processed in Finland (even if they worked perfectly up to Estonia). That is they are processed in the readers that don't read the chip on the card, just the magnetic bar. We still have some € cash, taken just in case, but if the problems persist we have not enough cash to get back home.

At some point we left road E75 and turned left into 92. After few kilometers we have named it a roller coaster road. It is straight in long sections, but goes up and down, and slopes are quite steep, so sometimes you can see several hills ahead of you, and sometimes when you approach the top you can see just about 20 meters of the road ahead. Plus on each top there is this short moment of weightlessness (well, not a complete one, but you know the feeling). That was quite exciting.

We stopped for the night in the wild, close to the road.

Yesterday we bought kind of mosquitoes masks - they look like a blouses with hoods and nets in front of the face. Judging from the reactions of clerks it is a thing sold to tourists to make fun of them. But today I found a hat with a net folded in its top part - you can wear it just like a hat, or pull the net outside and it covers head and the neck. And for the first time in a few days I had no problem with mosquitoes - long sleeves, hat and hands covered with DEET repellent, I was preparing the camp and unpacking the car in a buzzing cloud - and they were only making noise, I wasn't biten even once. But the truth is it was first time cold enough for a long sleeves, up to now it was too hot each time I pitched or folded the tent.

That was Marzena's observation - no spiders here. Lots of mosquitoes, some other insects, but we haven't seen a single cob web.

I have a feeling we raced through Finland much too fast - omitting many interesting places. But I love to drive.

Somewhere near lake Inari:

Making tar: on the left the collecting bucket, up right you can see smoke; no idea if it is the right shade of grey, or not.

That's the picture everyone driving through Lapland has to take:

Borek · Aug 1, 2010

Day eleventh (July 12^th)

Initially road goes through a low birch forest - quite surprising, I would rather expect some kind of coniferous trees. We were sleeping just a few kilometers from the Norwegian border, so we get to Norway very fast. For obvious reasons landscape doesn't change, but after half an hour we see first difference - much less reindeers walking free. In the first larger settlement we try to get some cash from an ATM - and it works, so we are not doomed yet. After about an hour drive we see first mountains on the horizon, and in Porsanger we reach the sea - and that's completely different view from the forests - high or low - that we have been seeing for the last few days. Shore is already impressive with steep slopes rising above water, but I have read somewhere on the web to not take pictures here yet - it is a waste of film, true fjords are farther west. Well, perhaps it was a waste of film 10 years ago, but bits are much cheaper, so we stop several times to fill memory cards. Close to the evening we get to Magerøya island, just to take our first lesson about what "expensive" means in Norwegian. Tunnel to the island is a toll road (192 NOK for a car with one passenger) and camping is 180 NOK for two person in tent (plus 5 NOK for 5 minutes of hot water in the shower - cold showers are free, air temperature is about 14 deg C, water is much colder). We need an onion for a supper so we go for a small shopping in Honningsvåg. City looked like a post stamp accidentally attached to a large cruise ship (Costa Luminosa) in the harbor, there are more people aboard than the whole city population, luckily people from the ship are crowded around souvenir shops. In the first market there are no onions sold by weight, just packed - 4 onions, around 700 grams, if memory serves me well for 35 NOK (around $5), Crazy, but much more crazy is fact that they were grown in... New Zeland. Globalization in its most absurd version.

When we meet Peeke we were impressed, but it seems like he is just one of many - next tent sleeps a guy from Switzerland, doing similar trip, and judging from the number of bikers we see Nordkapp is a relatively popular destination. Meet Poles from the cruise ship and talked a little bit about Norway.

Airfield in Honningsvåg (Valan):

Honningsvåg, but in fact similar picture can be taken anywhere in northern Norway - houses built on a thin strip between water and slope.

Borek · Aug 1, 2010

Day twelfth (July 13^th)
(when we fight the wind and finally reach the target)

Around 5 or 6 a.m. Marzena woke up to take a shower (she is an early bird type) and when she gets back to the tent wind and rain starts together, making enough noise to wake me up. Tent shook quite heavily, but after about half an hour it got quiet and I caught some more sleep. Around 8 it starts again, but we hope it will eventually stop - wrong idea. Rain stopped, but the wind is getting stronger and stronger and soon we start to be afraid about losing a tent. We pack in an alarm mode, just throwing everything into the car, but even that was not fast enough - before we were able to start striking the tent one of the pegs was already pulled out twice or thrice, even if I blocked it putting on it a large stone. Tent shook so vigorously that it even overturned our table and everything that was not yet in the car landed on the ground. I was trying to strike the tent as fast as possible, but it was not that easy when it tried to fly to Murmansk. There were few really nervous minutes when Marzena knelt on the fly sheet trying to keep it down so that it doesn't fly away and doesn't rip, while I am fighting poles and lines. Final effect - fabric survives, but two of the segments in one of the poles split (edit: actually three have split, but one only partially and I found it much later). It doesn't make them useless, besides, we have one spare and duct tape to repair, but that was close. We want to spend another day on the island, so we decide to rent a hytt (cabin). 570 NOK (around $100) for one night - two beds, table, bench, fridge and stove, all in one small room with cold water only. Once it is settled we transfer some of the things to the hytt and drive to Nordkapp. Wind - especially in high parts of the island, which means most of the route - is so strong I feel it when driving, it tries to push the car to the side, and when we stop to take pictures we have troubles standing. I don't remember seeing such a strong continuous wind. Gusts - yes, but not the wind. It was so strong that taking pictures was quite difficult at times, as it wasn't possible to keep the camera steady to compose a shot.

To get to Nordkapp we have to pay again - 470 NOK for two person. Our plan was to save on this expense and take different approach (see below), but wind is so strong it again forces us to spend more than planned. We do what all tourists do - take pictures of the globe and several other things, read about sinking of Scharnhorst - and that's about all.

In the meantime it seems like the wind gets weaker so we decide to try to execute our initial plan. Trick is, Nordkapp is not the most northern point of Europe - that happens to be on another peninsula, several kilometers to the west. It can be reached only on legs, so we leave the Nordkapp (in terms of cost per minute AC/DC concert was much cheaper), drive about two kilometers, and start the hike. Unfortunately, terrain is very difficult (no set trail, just general direction on stones and moss) and the wind is still very strong, so after about a kilometer seeing like Marzena struggles I decide to abort the idea - whole trip is about 18 km, at normal pace it could be made in about 4 hours, but seems like it may take twice longer, and we are not prepared for such a long walk. Sad, to some extent this hike was what I came here for

It was to late for a hike, but it is not to late to see Skarsvåg - said to be the northernmost fishers village in the world. Actually everything around here is claimed to be the northernmost. Marzena took pictures of probably the northernmost calico cat in Skarsvåg and a little bit earlier, at Nordkapp, I took my northernmost pee. After that we get to our hytt to eat something and - as it is unusually early - post some part of the trip diary to PF. But obviously wind has blown our luck away, after we eat internet connection is dead.

Speaking about bikers - today we have seen two older guys (older the we are, and closing fifty we are not necessarily the youngest around) on their bikes, trying to get to Nordkapp. Actually I hope nothing wrong happened to them. When we were going to the Nordkapp we have seen them struggling with the steep slope at the very beginning to the last 27 kilometers, when we were getting back they were still going pushing their bikes. Wind at the top of the island was so strong that it was difficult to stand, walking with a bike can be next to impossible; hopefully at some moment they made the right decision and got back down to try later.

Kings Oscar monument, at Nordkapp:

Fighting the wind atop the Magerøya island:

Been there, took picture, didn't bought even a lousy t-shirt:

Borek · Aug 1, 2010

Day thirteenth (July 14^th)

Internet is not working also in the morning, it is cold (7 deg C) and raining. We pack and move, there is nothing to see. Can't say I will remember Magerøya island with love, I feel we were treated by weather and circumstances like pest. Well, we are tourists, and tourists - especially in crowd - are pests, so somehow I can't say it was unjust. We pay once again to leave the island and for the first time since we left home we are going south. Weather still refuses to cooperate, so we even don't stop to take pictures, at least not before we get to Alta. In Alta we stop to see stone age rock carvings. We need to pay to enter the area (did I wrote that Norway is insanely expensive? It is cheaper to spend whole day in Louvre than an hour - which is enough to see everything - in Alta Museum). After seeing everything we move again.

Interesting - while Norway is generally expensive, while there are much less reindeers walking the streets, reindeers antlers are much cheaper here than they were in Finland (50 NOK vs €20, something like $8 vs $27). We buy a gift for a family

Plan for tonight was to find some place to put our tent in the wild (to save, while we are still well within our budget, we hoped to save something for a winter trip in yet unknown direction), but the longer we go the more obvious it becomes that this plan has one serious drawback - there are no places where the tent can be pitched! We are driving in the fjord, that means steep slopes, rock and stones, and each flat place that looks like it may be possible to put pegs into the ground is already occupied by city, village or at least a house. Fact that our tent is rather large (it was bought with several days stay in one place in mind, not for a 'move each day' trip) doesn't help. So, we decide to look for a camping - and lo, there is one, just two kilometers later. Trick is, is is exactly at the end of a fjord, and wind blows exactly along the fjord, right into our direction. And it blows quite strong, which means we are afraid of pitching the tent, which means we again rent a hytt (much cheaper than at Nordkapp, still more expensive than planned). Damn. Later some people pitch a tent just behind one of the hytts, so that it is hidden from the wind, but our tent is much larger, so I am not sure it would work for us. Besides, it is still below 10 deg C outside and we have a heater inside.

After we were ready for the night I spent some time with Map Source and navi, trying to plan next two days. It turns out it is possible to enter position in the deg min sec format, but you have to change the format for whole program. Navi allows selection of the format just when entering the position. My guess is that's what happens when two programs using the same data and sold by the same publisher are written by separate teams, which don't exchange ideas to unify user interface.

Alta stone carvings (or the guy with the model glider):

Weather is interesting, but not necessarily cooperating:

Borek · Aug 1, 2010

Day fourteenth (July 15^th)

Cold and rainy in the morning, but later Norway showed that it can be beautiful - it stopped raining, clouds disappeared, sun started to shine and what we see is a completely different country. Today we passed 4000 km, with have an average a little bit over 300 km per day, higher than expected. Most of the time we were following E6, but at some point we tried a shortcut through the main land - and we hit the bulls eye, not only road was empty and curvy (so no boring driving) also views were simply incredible. Partially that's because that was exactly the moment the weather has changed. We stopped to take pictures in Bardu Bygdetun - kind of an open air museum, with several old Norwegian buildings. While we aim for Lofoten I wanted to see Narvik, and especially Rombaken fjord where Polish destroyer Grom sunk in 1940, so we had to go there and back, as it was not exactly on our way. Again we had problems stopping in the wild, and we stopped at the camping - but finally in the tent. There is no wind and place is stunningly beautiful, over a lake, with mountains around - and Sun that is not going to set down (although it will most likely hide behind the ridge during so called night). No internet access again.

Bardu Bydgetun:

Another picture from Bardu Bydgetun, this a typical barn in Norway and northern Sweden, with a ramp to the upper floor, modern ones are built the same way:

If you stop for a moment and you can't hear nor see a waterfall or two, you are no longer in Norway.

Picture taken in Rundhaug, while driving through the shortcut:

We can't see the Sun directly, but it is there - this picture has been taken several minutes past midnight:

Borek · Aug 1, 2010

Day fifteenth (July 16^th)

Yesterday Sun did hide, but not behind the ridge. Around 11 p.m. clouds came from over the Norwegian Sea. Initially there was just a thin line that covered the Sun, but it grew with each passing hour. When we woke up almost whole sky was covered, but it was still relatively warm and dry. Around noon it was already raining, and even if Lofoten are said to be beautiful, we had to believe those that told us about, as all we have seen was clouds, fog, and wet road. We did over 100 km without stopping even once to take pictures. The only moment we stopped was at Adolfkanonen in Trondenes - but even there we didn't see anything, as gun is in the military zone and there are guided tours three times a day - but not at the time we get there, and waiting sitting in the car in the rain was beyond our patience. Trondenes - through windows - looked like a nice place to take a walk and take some pictures, but not in the rain. But obviously what we were hit by was a moving front, with precipitation zone - and we were moving in the opposite directions. At some moment rain was already weaker, we got into the tunnel, and when we left the tunnel on the other side of the mountain, there was no precipitation at all, even tarmac was almost dry. That allowed us to take some pictures, hopefully we will be able to prove we have been to Lofoten. We passed Lofoten cathedral (click) and Viking museum (click) but visited neither. And it was getting better and better, when we finally came to Moskenes where we want to board the ferry to Bodø, it was almost sunny. Almost, as Moskenes is in a shadow of the mountain. We took some pictures today and hope for more tomorrow. But it seems we won't take the picture of midnight Sun again, even if we could see Norwegian coastline in full Sun from our camping. No internet again. Basic plan for tomorrow - ferry to main land, then go east, to Sweden.

Marzena's eye is swollen again - this time she was biten by something. We were both biten many times (strangely, I was biten mostly in the right leg, most likely by black flies on day eight or nine), but her reactions are much more severe.

Lofoten cathedral:

Just Lofoten, we stopped several times to take pictures. Unfortunately, in most places the best view required to take pictures in the direction of Sun, that never works.

Borek · Aug 1, 2010

Day sixteenth (July 17^th)

Finally we were at the right place and at the right time to have time to see something in a nice weather. Ferry to Bodø goes several times a day, and we hoped to leave Moskenes at 2 p.m. At first we went to Å and Hamnøy to take pictures, then got back to Moskenes, left the car in the line and went for a walk. All the time it was sunny and warm day, so we have finally managed to take pictures that may prove Lofoten are beautiful - unless they wont. You never know till you see the pictures on a good monitor.

Road at the end of E10 in Lofoten is so narrow, in many places there is a place for car going in one direction only. There are lots of wider places where cars going in opposite directions can pass each other, but you have to be vigilant all the time. There are at least two bridges with just one lane, however, they have automatic system that detects cars and displays either red or green light. In a way this is funny. When we approached the bridge for the first time I have seen from the distance light changing from the red to green, then back to red, when the car in front of me entered the bridge. Light was red so I slowed down preparing to stop, but system decided I can go and changed light to green again, even if there were already cars waiting on the other side.

Villages in Lofoten are full of wooden racks uses to dry cods - that's how they produce stockfish. Surprisingly, stockfish is dried just hanging, not even protected from the rain.

At 2 p.m. we boarded the ferry and went to Bodø, then drove east to Sweden. From our calculations it seems like 5 days in Norway were more expensive then the whole earlier trip.

We found a nice place for camping in the mountains just behind the Norwegian border - we were not very high (624 meters according to GPS) so night was chilly. But the place was pretty nice, with peaks around, and noisy streams.

Again, just Lofoten - Reine

These racks are empty:

But these are full of stockfish:

Anyone interested in details?

One car waits, the other one goes.

Borek · Aug 1, 2010

Day seventeenth (July 18^th)
(marked with weather mishaps and lack of internet)

Just because weather was nice when we went to sleep doesn't mean we can't be waken up by the rain. It wasn't raining heavily, but it turned out place where we put the tent was about half an inch lower than surroundings - hard to spot without a lot of water, but there was a lot of water in the morning, and we were shown the lowest place in the area without any doubt. The only immediate effect was that my shoes were completely wet, as I have left them lying on side when entering the tent (in hurry, to block mosquitoes), still it doesn't make your life easier when you are surrounded by the poodle. Fortunately around 10 a.m. rain stopped and we were able to pack, but without folding the fly sheet too tightly, as it wasn't completely dry. During packing Marzena lost her shoes to water, so we both were one pair of shoes down. After driving for perhaps ten kilometers we stopped to check something and it happened that at the place we stopped there was a starting point for several hiking trails. Sky was completely covered with clouds, but it was not raining, so we decided to try to use our legs for an hour or two, instead of the car. We were at about 700 meters above sea level, almost no trees, just some small bushes, and rugged terrain, something like 10 meters up, 10 meters down, and occasional patches of snow. After about twenty minutes we have heard a thunder - a distant one. But I wasn't even sure if it was a thunder, as the sky didn't look as during a storm. About a minute later there was a second one, also far from us, but I started to wonder if we should not get back. My doubts were cleared before next minute passed - the lightning struck below the 300 meters range. Scary. We turned back but before another minute passed it started to pour. Interestingly, there were no more thunders to be heard nor lightnings to be seen, just a heavy rain. Long before we got back to the car we were soaking wet, at least from the waists down, as - stupid as we are - we are not that stupid to start a walk under possibly rainy clouds without raincoats. In effect our hiking boots were completely wet - that means we were both two pairs of shoes down. There was a toilet (well, more like a latrine, but in a nice shack) at the parking place were we have left the car, and it was the driest place around, so we changed inside. While it wasn't very cold (around 10-12 deg C) I put heating on max, blower on max and directed the air to the legs, and Marzena was moving our wet pants, shoes, hats and so on from place to place and from side to side so that they could dry as fast as possible. It was like driving a finish sauna, but it worked.

Somewhere around that time we passed 5000 km and arctic circle, this time in the other direction. And as usual, after the wet morning weather started to get better and better, and later we even took some nice pictures in Arjeplog. We stopped at a small camping near Storuman - judging from the signs and pictures its an ideal place for everyone loving fish, mosquitoes and berries, but not for those loving internet. In the kitchen we have found several guestbooks (Gastboks), dated back to early eighties. Mostly things like "been here, been bited, catched a fish, nice place, we are going north/south, will be back" and so on, as usual in such places, but since late nineties there were a lot of entries written by Poles. Seems like this place is used by our fellow-countrymen - they came here to make some money collecting berries and hjortron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubus_chamaemorus). Risky business, as a lot depends on the weather and local prices, but some were quite happy - and some were quite angry. Night is still bright but it is obvious that the Sun settled down below the horizon. Not a single cloud on the sky, so tomorrow morning I expect beginning of the flood.

Church in Arjeplog:

Part of the camping in Storuman:

Borek · Aug 1, 2010

Day eighteenth (July 19^th)
(or the serious loss)

There was no flood, while the sky was cloudy in the morning it was actually quite dry and even not cold. We were able to put some order into things that were lately packed in a hurry, and to strike the tent the way it should be done, with everything dry and it its own place. Browsing the guestbooks again in the morning we have learned that fact camping is almost run by the Poles - while it is owned (or managed) by Leif (no idea what's his surname), there is a Polish couple here that takes care of daily chores. Just after reading about them we meet them. They told us they came here each summer for the last 12 years and we had a short but very nice conversation. Then we packed, waved goodbyes, I started the engine, moved the car just a few meters, stopped to throw the rubbish into the can, started the engine again and something was wrong, I started to wonder why I feel like navi is showing same messages for the third time, so I have turned my attention to it... It was not able to start - that is, it displayed the GARMIN logo screen, then the message "Reading maps" with progress bar - and when the bar was almost complete it started the same routine again. I have spent good 15 minutes trying to revive it, called Junior in Poland so that he could google for a solution (I didn't take the manual with me), tried everything that he found plus some makeshift ideas but after about an hour had to give up. It was not even possible to reset the device to the factory settings, obviously it was not a matter of some software fault, but most likely some hardware malfunction. That was hard. Thanks to idiotic Garmin licensing policy I had two legally bought devices (nuvi and CSx), legal copy of City Navigator map, and to get back to Poland I will have to drive using Sun as a main navigational tool (which is not very difficult at the moment, we are just going sou^th). Well, I am exaggerating a little - as a backup we have a book edition of Europe Road Atlas, we still have City Navigator map on the laptop, and few cities later we bought good map of Sweden, but it is not the same. Day seventeenth log is probably lost, as I doubt it will be recovered, luckily I have backups of all earlier tracks (later edit: no, July 15th was lost too, for different reasons). Now to log our track I have to use CSx - it is possible, but much more cumbersome, as I have to remember to switch it on/off at the right moments.

Rest of the day was rather nice - we were driving south, stopping now and then to take pictures. My idea was to follow nuvi advices about interesting points on our way today, but that approach was no longer possible. There were several showers, long just enough to wash insects from the windshield. In cities I was asking in tourist information offices for a wireless internet, but it was either not free (and as of today I am not yet ready to pay for 4 hours when I need 15 minutes to check my mail), or only in a library that opens next hour (no way we are going to wait that long) and so on. We planned to camp in a wild, but again it was hard to find a place (mostly wet forest around) so we ended in another camping. Cheap, nice, and no internet. Guy at the reception told us next camping is about 15 kilometers from here, and he wasn't sure if they have connection - but he was sure his camping is much calmer, so we decided to stay.

Wild man of Storuman (Vildmannen i Storuman)

Borek · Aug 1, 2010

Day nineteenth (July 20^th)

Second day of navigating without nuvi - we are approaching region where there is more than just one road going south. But so far navigation wasn't very difficult, we got a little bit lost in Östersund only, but then we had to enter the city without any map, so in fact it can be considered a complete success. Not only we have found the center (and left it later) but also located a tourist information office with a free, wireless internet - so I was finally able to receive and answer my mails (and there were several important ones). I told the clerk in tourist office that we have about half an hour and asked what landmarks we should see in Östersund - and he directed us to the city hall and university, which is an adapted military complex. City hall is large and impressive (as for relatively small city) and university was a very nice example of a conversion - old military function of the complex is obvious, it is in the shape and placing of the buildings, with huge square in the middle, if you have ever seen old military complexes there is no doubt about the original use of the place, but now it is painted bright yellow and looks surprisingly fresh. Clerk told us also to see a port, but that was a huge disappointment, as in fact there was nothing to see there. All in all we have spent two hours in the city and went south again, to turn west - we want to go to Norway again, to see a Borgund stave church. Let's call it a 700km (one way) side trip.

Two nice surprises on our way west today. First was a church in Vemdalen - I was enchanted by the building. Simple, but quite different from most churches (octagonal in shape), if I remember correctly build somewhere in 18th century, with impressive wooden bell tower. Second was the meteorite crater - not the first one on our trip, and not as impressive as the one in Kaali, but still a crater, with about 44 meter diameter.

We planned our trip for tomorrow and noted city names and road numbers. I guess it will be a difficult day, as the road is twisted, with many changes of directions, and it requires much more detailed map than the one we have in a road atlas.

Mid Sweden University Campus in Östersund:

Church in Vemdalen:

Inside the church - sign says something like "put a light for your beloved ones". I put one for my Mom, her birthday would be on July 22nd. Sign asked for 2 SEK, I had 2 NOK only, hopefully they will understood.

Borek · Aug 1, 2010

Day twentieth (July 21^st)

We started the day doing a thing I was taught forty years ago to never do - striking a wet tent. But we had no choice, it was raining most of the time, and we have to move. We lost the way immediately - when leaving camping instead of turning left I have turned right. I should turn right, but about a kilometer later, so we did additional 40 km before we really started going. Later it was much better, at least if we speak about navigating, as weather was bad, it was raining almost the whole day, with a (lucky) dry interval when we stopped in Røros. Interesting place, city that looks a little bit like taken from the wild west, built around a copper mine.

When we got to the next camping it was not raining, but the soil was so wet it was making funny sounds under feet. As expected, tent material got wetted and there were a darker stains visible in many places. If it will rain, it may leak.

Church in Røros:

Røros main street:

Røros old street (from what I understand these buildings were moved here from different places):

That's more or less how I remember Norway - clouds, Sun, water and mountains, all at the same time:

Borek · Aug 1, 2010

Day twenty first (July 22^nd)
(when we visit church that was not stolen

)

Luckily it was not raining in the night - or perhaps it was not raining strong enough. But the weather was getting better with each hour, so we not only managed to fold an almost dry tent, but also had a lot of fantastic views during the day. Fantastic views even before we go to the Borgund stave church. To get there we had to move from one valley to another, that meant driving up to almost 1400 m above the sea level, to a completely treeless high land (Valdresflya). Interestingly we have seen the same phenomenon I wrote about earlier - birch as the most resistant tree, growing even higher than the spruce.

And the church (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borgund_stave_church) was fantastic. Hundreds years ago there were over 1000 similar churches all over the Norway, but only several remain, judging from the pictures I have seen of those the one in Burgund is the most interesting one, dissimilar to any churches I have seen earlier in my life. It is much smaller than I expected after seeing the pictures, but it was definitely worth of making this additional 700 km.

Camping was expensive, even more expensive than those far north, on Magerøya island. Expensive, more expensive, Norwegian. For us, Poles, western Europe is relatively expensive. In western Europe Scandinavia is considered to be expensive, and Norway is expensive even for Scandinavians from other Scandinavian countries. Our neighbor at the camping was a really nice guy (Andre's compatriot) and will be remembered for two reasons - first he jumped to help to put the poles through the sleeves seeing me doing it alone (Marzena left and went to check where the toilets and kitchen was, that's how we did on each camping), and later he proved snoring can be heard outside of the camper.

Somewhere high, on the way to Borgund:

Borgund stave church itself:

And a detail:

Borek · Aug 1, 2010

Day twenty second (July 23^rd)

Night was surprisingly cold. However, we have our old sleeping bags with us, as a special reserve - they were larger, so we can use both new ones and old ones at the same time. Actually we combined old ones into one large and crawled inside in new ones. It was not easy, but looks like inside both we can sleep in warmth even below freezing. Note that our new sleeping bags are rated as +7 deg C minimum, but we are both rather slim and not as hot as we used to be

Road was again nice and twisted, just as I like, but only till Gjøvik. We went there hoping to see Skibladner suggested bo Arildno, but no luck - Skibladner was somewhere on its way between cities over the Mjøsa lake. Probably other day of the week we could manage to see it, but its Friday schedule worked against us. Short walk in Gjøvik (not much to see, to not say nothing to see) and off we go. And - for the first time since at least Helsinki - we were driving on the congested road, in a traffic jam. Luckily not for long, just enough to remind that world is not always as beautiful as in the last two weeks. On our way to low prices of Sweden we visited fortress in Kongsvinger - it is refurnished at the moment, so is partially in scaffolds and partially closed, but still shows how such places were built in 17th century. There is also a nice old town below.

We stopped on the camping around 20 kilometers behind the border and paid 80 SEK for two persons, tent and a car per night. Last night in Norway we have paid 200 Norwegian crowns for the same - and you have to remember that Swedish crown is around 80% of Norwegian crown. This comparison is not completely fair, the camping in Sweden is the cheapest we have seen so far and camping in Norway was not only the most expensive but also had a better standard, but this better standard means reception open 24h per day and restaurant at the camping - for which you pay separately. Other than that both campings have paid showers, very similar kitchen facilities (which are things that we use) and wireless internet. This is crazy.

Borek · Aug 1, 2010

Day twenty third (July 24^th)
(when we see rocks carved by humans and rocks carved by glaciers)

Today we plan to drive for just about 200 km, so no hurry - but somehow we managed to be ready about an hour earlier than usual. Most of the time we drove through a rural Sweden - completely different from the mighty forest we have seen before the Norwegian loop. No large fields, as terrain is rugged and in many places rocky, but many patches of meadows (mostly mowed down) or crops, with farms scattered throughout the country. That's completely different from the landscape we are used to in Poland, in Poland there are villages surrounded by fields, in Sweden there are no well defined villages, mostly single farms separated from others.

Main target of today's drive - rock carvings in Vitlycke Museum. No, we are not great fans of this type of art, it just happened to be close to our way and we decided to compare it with what we have seen in Alta. I know, I will sound boring, but our first observations are not about the rock carvings, but again about money. In Alta everything was behind the fence and we had to pay, here everything is free, both rocks and museum. There are much less carved rocks here (or at least much less rocks to see, from what I understand there are much more, but they are scattered in the large area). In a way they are very similar, although in Alta there were more animals, while here there are much more ships and boats - but that's not necessarily true, that's my opinion after seeing just a small sample.

After seeing the museum we decided to just spend some time on the shore, after all we are on the coast. Where we went there was no beach (perhaps there are beaches in other places, we don't know), but rocks. I guess Andre would like them, as they are an obvious witnesses of the past - they are nicely polished by glacier and they carry traces of abrasion. Weather was perfect for us, not hot, but just warm enough so that we felt comfortable without bathing suits. Rocks, Sun, sea and dry vegetation on the rocks - a little bit surreal in Sweden, as that's the landscape we are used to see two thousands kilometers to the south, in Croatia.

Later we had a problem finding place for night. Campings were large and packed and we don't like crowd, so we planned to camp in the wild, but it turned out to be very difficult. While completely legal, it is not easy to find a good place in the well developed country where each suitable place is already occupied by crops, pastures or houses. After almost an hour of unsuccessful driving we finally decided to stay at a camping - and it is probably the worst place we were spending night so far, with next tents just a few foots away and campers/caravans around. But that's just for one night.

Rock carvings near the Vitlycke museum:

Abraded landscape:

Port in Fjällbacka:

Borek · Aug 1, 2010

Day twenty fourth (July 25^th)

Just because night starts with a clear sky doesn't mean it can't end with a rain. I can't say for sure as I was sleeping, but I wasn't sleeping well (Marzena took a large part of the airbed and I wasn't able neither to push her back to her side nor to find a comfortable position on what she left) and I think I haven't heard the rain till it was around 8 a.m. In effect I was forced to strike the tent wet again. And it rained for most of the day, it stopped around 5 p.m. or something like that, so we even didn't stop to take any pictures. Instead we lost our way near Trolhattan and we were going in circles. Road looked like a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. To some extent it was funny, to some extent it was irritating. Reason was simple - we didn't want to follow main roads. Once you are on the highway you race through the country very fast, but you can't see the country - for that it is better to follow local roads, sometimes blocked by sheep, sometimes blocked by harvester or tractor - that's my favorite way of traveling. We were not in a hurry, but we also have no map precise enough and without the nuvi navigating such roads is next to impossible. Finally we aborted the idea and went back to the main roads. Sadly, it wasn't possible to follow local roads far in the north (there are no local roads there, they are happy to have the main one), it is not possible to follow local roads in the south (no nuvi).

Somewhere on the road we found a ATM and - as we were almost out of cash - we decided to get 200 SEK. Somehow Marzena misread the instructions and took 2000 SEK. Now, instead of being short on cash, we have too much.

Using main roads reaching our target destination was a breeze. And our destination today was a Grimeton Radio station, the only one left almost intact of the several VLF radio stations built in the mid twenties of the last century in an attempt to build worldwide telecommunication network. Why here? There were three such radio stations in Europe, one of them was in Warsaw (or more like in a village Babice - then outside of the city, now in the city if I remember well). Warsaw radio station has been destroyed by Germans during WWII, Grimeton radio station is very similar and I am sure group of my friends (interested in history if Warsaw) will be happy to see pictures taken here. But we got to the radio station about half an hour after it was closed to visitors, so we just took a few pictures of antenna masts and building and went looking for camping to get back tomorrow. First we drove to Ullared camping but after seeing the line of cars waiting to enter we decided it doesn't make sense to wait. From what I found Ullared has a large and popular shopping center and people come here from all over Sweden. We are not that into spending our money here, so we went to look for other camping, closer to the sea. And on our way there we spotted a nice, large parking, close to the nature reserve, with nice green grass and enough place to put our tent - so we are camping in the wild tonight. We are not alone - there are two campers less than 40 meters from us, one is from Norway, other one from France.

Grimeton antenna, as seen from the place where we have slept (six masts of it, the single, thin pole is a modern TV antenna):

Borek · Aug 1, 2010

Day twenty fifth (July 26^th)
(devoted to ancient radio techniques)

Day started with a nice, dry weather. After packing we went to see the radio station and Alexanderson alternator - interesting to see an electromechanical solution to what was later done using just electronics. Funny thing - we have learned that one of the reasons for selecting Grimeton as the radio station localization was its name - easy to pronounce in English speaking countries. Other reason was much more technical - there is just an open sea, without any obstacles, between Swedish coast and Long Island (where the main radio station of the system was located), that helped in the signal propagation. As it was still early after leaving Grimeton we drove to the coast for another walk, and then in the direction of Ystad. Somewhere on the way there we passed the 8000 km.

There are important differences between the way farm buildings here and farther north look like. Barn in the north (both in Sweden and Norway) was a two storey building, with a ramp leading to the upper part. Barns here look very similar to the barns in Poland - one level, and large doors on two sides, so that it is possible to drive a haywain through. In general there are a lot of similarities between the buildings here and in northern Poland, probably both areas were settled/developed at the same time and/or by the settlers coming from the same places.

Today's camping is small and a little bit strange - it is just a part of a farm, with showers and toilets in one of the farm buildings, and with farm smells hanging in the air. But it is cheap, clean and the water in the showers is nicely hot, so we don't complain too much.

Grimeton radio station building:

Alexanderson alternator itself - actual alternator is the large round thing in the back, everything else is just to keep it rotating at the correct speed (above 2000 rpm). Output power was in the 200 kW range.

Borek · Aug 1, 2010

Day twenty sixth (July 27^th)
(when we see a stone ship and sail away in an iron one)

Perfect weather all the time, perhaps even a little bit too hot. After striking the tent we start going to see Ales stenar - that's why we came here. We want to take pictures, but it turns out to be quite difficult - there is a crowd around. Especially around a guy telling people about his own findinings about the astronomy of the place, and how most of the stones are related to the calendar of the vikings. IMHO he draws far fetched conclusions, even if it is absolutely obvious that the ship orientation is based on the cardinal directions.

Next step - Karlskrona. There was a runestone somewhere close to the road, but I completely forgot about it while driving. As usual we want to bard the ferry, but we are not sure if we will be able to buy tickets - and as usual, we buy tickets for the next ferry without any problem. We wanted to see the city, unfortunately, we don't have much time and without working nuvi we are just afraid we won't be able to get to the harbor back in time. Even trying to find McDonald which we have seen close to the harbor we got a little bit lost, so we decide risk is too high and we just wait for the ferry sitting in the car. Around 9 p.m. (or a little bit later) we depart in the direction of Gdynia. That is the most expensive night of the trip - in a two berth cabin which is probably smaller than our inner tent (although a little bit higher).

Ales stenar:

Maglehem church - not that it is in any way special, but we liked it and stopped to take pictures.

Borek · Aug 1, 2010

Day twenty seventh (July 28^th)

We were waken up at 6 a.m. with a "Morning has broken". Nice, but way too early, I think my watch wasn't sure how to place the hands, it is not used to being watched before 8 a.m. Weather has again changed during the night and it is raining, but this time it doesn't matter - at least it doesn't mean problems with striking the tent. Gdynia welcomes us with a heavy rain - but from here we have again working navigation, as I have a good map of Poland in CSx. Not that getting to Warsaw could be difficult, it is one of the main roads in northern Poland and I know it relatively good. I hoped to see my relative, but we have not told him when we will be in Poland and we got to his country house where he spends each summer it turned out he was not there - he went to his home in Sopot just two days earlier. So we hit the road and went directly to Warsaw. We were home back just before 4 p.m.

arildno · Aug 1, 2010

Thank you Borek, for that presentation!
And thank you, for all the money you generously left behind here in Norway! :devil:

waht · Aug 1, 2010

Most amazing trip Borek and Marzena. I'm in awe at the scenery and interesting stops.

OmCheeto · Aug 1, 2010

Argh. https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=2751719&postcount=34".

Good to see so many familiar landmarks though in retrospect.

The world needs more great road trips.

Monique · Aug 1, 2010

I did a road trip through Norway last year (for a week), an absolutely beautiful country! I'm sure you both had a great time, although I think the distance you covered is really vast.