Tough decisions

                                                         ...........Monday..........

The alarms were all turned off last night after our late night. So breakfast was leisurely but not too late. The man on the parking booth yesterday had been desperate to sell us breakfast vouchers at a "reduced price", we hadn't bothered so it was cereal again for us, no problem. This gave us all time to come too.

Back in the centre we had a read at all the information boards, there's quite a lot about the Sharnhorst, she was sunk up here in 1943 during the Battle of North Cape. There's also a history of the North Cape, it was first discovered by the Englishman Steven Borough, captain of the Edward Bonaventure in 1553 who was searching for the North East Passage to China, he failed on that mission. There are various other monuments to people who have visited over the hundreds of years since.

After lunch of sausage's in rolls, not the normal type we have back home, which Dag introduced us to it was time to turn Bessie south at least as far as Olderfjord where it was decision time. We have travelled a very long way already, I would have liked to go further east to Vardo, Norways most easterly point, but also to Kirkenes which is right on the Russian border but this was another 380km, about 230 miles and not in the direction we really needed to be going. We also fancied going to Hammerfest but its a dead end road, so the 50km there needs to be reversed. Should we head back down the E6 and back towards Narvik and via the 3 country cairn. Should we head through Finland and down through Sweden or even just carry on right through Sweden.......These are the questions and decisions that have to be made, it is questionable as to when we will next be able to visit this area. We have spoken to few people here from south of the border who have managed to get to this area in about 6 days, but those are 6 big driving days and not something we can do with the boys. 

We elected to head south west and back to Alta, that ruled out Kirkenes (a decision I may regret). We got to our campsite at about 6:15pm so a good number of miles had been done. The weather was lovely and we were able to sit out and have our tea with a nice view. Everyone else in the campsite was very friendly and some good banter was had. There was a lad from England called Ryan Anderton who is en route to the Nordkapp to start on a world record attempt to cycle from there to Gibraltar, the most northern and most southern drivable roads in Europe. I had a blether to him and wished him good luck. The boys had a play on the beach and paddled their feet for a while and then it was time for bed. Myself and Joyce sat out for a while and had a drink watching the sun sink before the mozzies become too unbearable....Joyce headed to bed and I caught up (almost) on the blog and watched what may well be our last midnight sun of this trip. It was lovely, the sun just clipping the top of a low set of hills to the north.

                                                          ............Tuesday.............

It was a gorgeous morning when we woke up, breakfast was had outside and it was really warm quite early on. It does actually get cold at night even though the sun doesn't set, there's not much heat coming from it when its so low in the sky. It was one of those morning's when there just seemed no rush to do anything so we (well, all of us except Joyce) lazed about, the boys on the beach and me sitting looking at maps and writing a wee bit blog. We got showered and slowly got things ready to move, then we chatted to a Norwegian man from Stavanger, he was fed up with busy and fast paced life there and was up for some relaxation and also looking for a house to buy up here where things happen at a slower pace. He was also waiting until 12 o'clock to take his car to the garage to have a wheel bearing replaced so he was in no hurry either. We had a good old chat and we talked about different roads south and our options, and he suggested a few things very similar to what Bjorn had suggested a few weeks back, same roads and things to look at. So, that was it sealed we would head south from Alta and try and get some distance on the better (straighter) roads, everyone has said its boring but it started off quite well the road climbing up through an impressive gorge until it levelled off and we were in the tree's and mile after mile passed just driving through tree's, which are totally infested with mosquitos......we parked for lunch but were confined to the van. After lunch we carried on down to Kautokeino where we stopped to have a look around the church and also the Sami museum, both proved to be very interesting.

Kautokeino is in the county of Finnmark, it is very centrally located and a long way from the sea. Interestingly it has regularly recorded some of the coldest temperature in Norway, down to -45'c or lower, however, it is also one of the driest, almost as dry as the Sahara desert. Its average annual precipitation measures only 350 to 400mm per year. This explains the very sandy areas we have been seeing between the tree's, we did wonder about this. Kautokeino is one of the main cultural centres of the Sami, people who are indigenous to areas of northern Scandinavia and western Russia. 90% of the town's population speak Sami language and their high school teaches in Sami, and also house's the International Centre for Reindeer Husbandry, of course they also speak Norwegian and probably English too. Sadly, unemployment is also quite high in this town however. The museum was a worthwhile visit, it houses exhibits of local Sami traditional dress, articles used in all aspects of living, cooking and looking after and herding their animals. There are also traditional ski's, sledges and buildings built in the traditional style. Its interesting to see the buildings, they have a grass roof, but I was amazed to see what looks like a damp proof course made from Birch bark, and the same material was also wrapped around the edges of roof panels and soffits to protect the wood from the elements. The wooden walls are sealed with lichens to make a cosy little cabin. The beds furnished with reindeer furs to insulate and keep warm. Their traditional dress is beautiful, with very bright colours and intricate patterns. The man at the museum told us that the dress we saw in this museum was fairly specific to this area and if we visited a different town for example, although the style would be similar the colours may be (very) different, almost like our own traditional tartans, specific to certain areas. We popped into the church also which is very brightly decorated, and the old wrought iron headstones in the church yard were interesting too. 

Time was wearing on so we headed south towards the Finnish border but found a place to park next to a lake. Again, we cannot go outside, the mozzies are brutal unfortunately. The semi plan is to head south to the Baltic Sea, though I think the top section is called the Gulf of Bothnia. Apparently the weather should be good here and we can follow it south for a bit down through Sweden and then perhaps head back west into southern Norway if we want, or we could could go down the Finnish side and take a ferry over to Stockholm.......I hate all these decisions that need to be made, lol.