Refill, Recycle and Relax

Its hard being on the go every day, not bad hard but just continuous, so it was a lazy start for us today and the backtrack into Svolvaer for gas was a bit of a nuisance as well. We had hoped to be a bit further up the road last night but there was no point as we needed to top up the gas, this is the first time since we left home. The first cylinder was used up and we were well into the second, only trouble is the gauges are totally unreliable and you cannot tell how much you have used. We should have filled up before now but hadn't. So after a 8 o'clock rise, breakfast and a slightly overdue shower we got the van all sorted for the next few days. That means emptying the loo, filling up with fresh and drinking water, emptying our grey water (dishes water etc), doing the hoovering and cleaning the bathroom and it all takes a little while, it was a lovely morning and we were in no great rush. The boys had a play in the swing park and at about 11am when we left the campsite to go back and get filled up with gas (hopefully).....our filling point is inside the gas bottle locker and some places don't like this, this was the acid test.

We went back to the station and asked for assistance, it was not self service. By the time I got out the shop the young lad had the gun attached to the filler point and was filling the gas up.......no need to worry here then!! The gun cut out after putting in just under 17 litres. One cylinder from empty takes around 11.5 litres to fill it so we had used 1/2 our second cylinder also, just as well we filled up. The cost for this refill was 176NOK so probably £16, not bad for 42 nights usage, and also very good considering a single  exchange cylinder at home cost a minimum of £23, but usually more. We have not used our gas heating at all, so this has been purely for hot water, cooking and dish washing water. We have tried to use electricity for everything when on a campsite hook up. We needed it filled though, as when we move further north it continues to get colder, I do think we are acclimatised to this though as there hasn't been an evening where we have been close to putting on the heating. And we did pull a wee sneaky one for this trip, I have a little electric heater that we will use if in a campsite and we need it. Toady I also recycled another batch of empty beer cans. My bag was full and taking up too much space so we went into find the Pant reclamation machine at the shop, you just pop your empty cans or bottles in one at a time, it knows what you have put in (there is no fooling the machine, I tried with a coke can) and you are credited with the deposit you have paid on your beer can when you buy it. So, my 25 beer cans gave me 50NOK back, that's a fiver and just about enough to buy another 2 can of beer, lol. You pay 2NOK Pant on a 500ml beer can, and 3NOK pant on a plastic bottle, maybe like a fresh orange bottle.

Today was warm again, shorts were order of the day though we weren't out in it much, after filling up and getting some food and more importantly the beer supplies (Sunday is getting closer, lol). We had a quick lunch and then headed around the 888 road around the Laukvika area of the island, this is a beautiful bit of road, big mountains on one side and gorgeous sandy beaches and turquoise waters on the other-very reminiscent of the Luskentyre area on Harris. We could have stopped for the day along this road but we needed to make progress. So, back on the E10 heading east and then a detour south to Digermulen which was nice, very Scottish type scenery. Its quite a narrow fjord and we had read that the Hurtigruten cruise ship passes down here and it would be soon, so we found a suitable parking spot, got an ice cream out each and sat and waited. Pretty soon the boat was spotted and we went outside for the boys to wave and take a picture, I hoped the captain would give a honk on his horn for us but he didn't, perhaps noise pollution is not acceptable in such a lovely area.

Back on the E10 and we mused about taking the ferry from Hanoy to Lonkan and decided to do that, the jetty looked rather deserted and the timetable from whatever year (it looked unused for a while) said the last crossing was at 16:45, we had missed it anyway. So, we were driving east then and around the Moysalen National park on Vesteralen. This is another area with high mountains, higher than on Lofoten and also glaciated, unfortunately they were in clouds so we couldn't see the summits. Time was wearing on but we found a spot to park up in the hills. We were hopeful of spotting an Elk here, it seems like the perfect terrain.

Now, I have to hold my hands up here and admit to a bit of Norwegian island ignorance. Before embarking on this trip I had thought that the whole island archipelago west of Narvik was Lofoten. However we have been put straight on this, Lofoten is the south western group of islands of Rost, Værøy, Moskenosoya, Flakstadøya, Vestagoy,  Gimsøya and Austvagoy.  Lofoten ends at the Fjord
the Hurtigrrutten express boat sailed down today called the Raftsundet, pretty much where my black line runs down to Digermulen on the map picture. From this line east and the more northern group of islands consisting mainly of Hinoya,  Andoya and Langoya are actually called Vesteralen and separate from Lofoten. Its great to learn something new and hopefully I have got the detail correct.