June 10 - Tranoy to Glomfjord

We did not stay up to see the ‘midnight’ sun. The sun set into the clouds behind the Lofotens, and that was that. Being this far north of the Arctic Circle though, it still does not get dark at night.

In the morning, the sun was there with a few broken clouds, and with an easterly wind, the air temperature was a little warmer. Marina made us a wonderful breakfast. We ate this while gazing out to the tall mountains on the eastern horizon. Before leaving, Marina took us on a tour of the lighthouse … right to the top, and outside on to the catwalk. We took our time viewing the panoramic scenery, trying to soak everything into our minds and souls. What a wonderful place this has been. We were lucky that our original booking had to be changed, allowing us to find and stay at the Tranoy Fyr, the Tranoy lighthouse.

Stig-Andre apparently rents the lighthouse from the state, allowing he and his family to run their restaurant and accommodations. So with this arrangement, it is the government’s responsibility to repair the bridge out to the lighthouse. It’s expected that the whole bridge will be replaced by the end of summer. In its present state, many potential customers are not enticed to take the boat ride or more arduous route through the bridge repairs.

After farewells to Marina and Stig-Andre, we were taken ashore in the motor boat. We headed east until we connected with the major north - south highway, E6, where we turned south. Again, the roads are excellent.

As we left the rolling coastal topography with many trees, and rounded hills, we climbed steadily into the mountains. The mountains around quickly rose to 1000 - 1500 m. We drove up through the leafy forests, and soon were above the tree-line and close the snow-line where there was only scrub brush, lichen and lots of rock. The rocky mountain slopes were impressive with their shear cliffs and varied profiles. Many of the cliff faces looked as if they had had layers removed like an onion, a characteristic weathering pattern for some granite intrusive. So, up and down and around we drove on twisting roads through this kind of terrain.

As we were motoring along enjoying the scenery, we were caught and passed by about a dozen BMW motorcyclists. It was the perfect road for touring … lots of twists and turns in the road. Our minds quickly wandered to wishing that we had our bikes with us to enjoy such a road. By the end of the day, we’d probably seen close to 100 motorcycles, i.e., there were as many bikes as cars.

By noon, we had gone through more than14 tunnels, totalling about 19 kms. The longest tunnel was almost 5 km in length. Some tunnels were flat, others climbed or descended, and most were curved. If we weren’t in a tunnel, we were cruising along the edges of the mountains and fjords on what seemed like a rock ledge, or snaking along the valley bottoms beside bubbling streams and cascading waterfalls.

As we approached Fauske, we descended to sea level, and took the turn-off towards Bodo (Hwy 80), and traveled east to Loding. Here, we turned south onto the coastal highway, Kystriksveien (Hwy 17, Bodo to Steinkjer).

Our first stop was at the ‘Saltstraumen’. Every 6 h, 400 cubic metres of water flow through a 150 m wide and 3 km long channel between Saltfjorden and Skjerstadfjorden at speeds of up to 20 knots. We were there midway through the ebbing tide. There was pronounced ebb-dominated flow down the centre, and turbulent remnants of the last flooding tide still trying to fight upstream around the margins of the channel. There was no problem in seeing the location of the eddy line.

We continued south along the coastal highway on a narrow coastal plain with the mountains rising abruptly to our left (500 - 1000 m). The sun disappeared behind cloud, and by this point in the day, there was a cold wind off the sea. The clouds piled up on the mountains, often creating a halo around the taller peaks.

The road continued to wind up, down and around through many small towns until we reached Ornes. We had stopped here on the way north aboard the Nordlys. We were unsuccessful finding a place to stay, so we continued on to Glomfjord where we had success.

Our room looks towards the cloud capped rocky cliffs, and there is the soothing sound of a stream as it heads to its nearby destination. Dinner was ‘stekt torskefilet med tomat og champignon‘ (fried cod). Dessert was ‘pannekake med is og jordbaesaus’ (Norwegian crepes with ice cream and strawberry sauce). What a way to go!

And so, another day comes to a close in our continuing ‘Norse Saga’.