Back to the Norwegian mainland, Bodø

Zagan the motorhome has an amazing view from his windscreen this evening. He’s looking out across the Vestfjorden to the peaks of the Lofoten Islands, our home for the last week or two. The sun has just dropped below the saucer of cloud which is hovering above Bodø like a spaceship, and given us an amazing sunset, a fitting farewell to the islands. Tonight we’re stopping in a car park high above the city at the start of the Keiserstein, The Emperor’s Path, (N67.30118, E14.44281) one of the most popular hikes around here.

Sun setting over the Lofotens

Last night I slept the sleep of a person with an early ferry to catch, not that 10.30am is early, but my mind wanted to be sure we didn’t miss it. I’m always slightly stressed when it comes to ferries as they make me feel poorly, but I have no idea why I was so fixated with the morning ferry, since there was another ferry at 2pm. This fixation saw me lying awake from 5am, despite new neighbours pulling in and playing music around midnight, then banging doors about an hour or so later sending Charlie into security bark-fest.

Not an advert for camping, but the view from Zagan as the moon rose last night

Today I have been mainly tired, and a little bit down if I’m honest. Saying goodbye to our friends and leaving the Lofoten Islands feels a bit like the end of something amazing. I know we have loads of fantastic things still to see, and the Friday feeling would be unbelievable if you told previous life me, as I sat in an office, that I could go and spend the next six weeks or so touring Norway. Nevertheless, today has been a bit of a low day.

Just time for one last view of the beautiful islands

The roads are much quieter now the school holidays are over in Norway

Bye Bye Lofoten Islands

On the road by 9am we made a quick pit-stop at the most picturesque service point we know, before joining the queue for the ferry. It arrived bang on time and for the princely sum of 901 Nok we were literally ferried across the fjord back the mainland. As we arrived our old friend the Hurtigruten was docked (well one of them, there are around 11 of them) and our captain skillfully swung us around and right in next to it.

You know it’s going to be a smooth crossing when they have the garden furniture out

We were hoping to spot whales, but instead all we saw were a few birds

Glad we didn’t need these…

…although this couple, wrapped in sleeping bags, may have wanted one. They lasted out the whole 3.5 hours on the windy side of the ferry

People, cars, aeroplanes – it seems like we are back in civilisation!

Disembarking we found a supermarket for a quick shop before heading back towards the centre to pick the brains of the tourist office. Gaarrrggh! A toll road?! Surely there should be some warning? Apparently not. Just a normal run of the mill road from the port to the town centre is a toll road, our first. No doubt the first of many. As we won’t be home to sort out paying for them we’ve registered our credit card with the powers that be, so now a chunk of money will come off our card and into our ‘toll account’ which will be whittled down as we pass these seemingly innocuous signs. Finally it’ll either take another chunk or eventually give back what we haven’t spent.

Autopass Toll in Bodø

After some great help from the tourist office we headed to our parking for the night. Using the info provided we’ve worked out that for us to take the coastal road between Bodø and Trondheim it will cost around £100 for the seven ferries as we are under 6m long so are charged the same as a car. We think isn’t bad when you think of what it costs to go from Dover to Calais, so job done, our next few days are planned out.

Not sure I could live here, this would scare me every day!

To celebrate we went for a walk along the Emperor’s Path (Keiserstein) to the Emperor’s Cairn (Keiservarden), a small hut built to mark the walk up the hill by Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1891. The cabin has been moved, but the views are still breath-taking.

They recently drafted in Sherpas from Nepal to rebuild the Keiserstein

View from the Keiservaden looking over Bodø

After a well deserved beefburger, chips and beans for tea we’re all ready for a good night’s sleep. The next stage of our adventure starts tomorrow. Bring it on.

Ju x

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