0337 Polar Park Arctic Wildlife Centre to Rotsundelo

24^th Aug 2015

Great fjords, Tromso, and more ferries !

It was a bit of a grey morning while we packed up at the Polar Park, but once we got on the road north towards Tromso, the sun slowly broke through until we had some great blue skies.  We travelled along beside several lakes and even passed a Norwegian Army convoy driving tracked vehicles that I think were personnel carriers, along with tracked trailers as well.  There were probably 10 of them, and they were moving along at a fair speed.  Later we passed a number of Army trucks – Obviously off on manoevres in the bush somewhere.

The mist and cloud was hanging around at the mountains beside us, in many cases leaving the top of the mountains visible – Just obscuring the middle section, which gave an interesting and quite ghostly view of everything.  There was a section where all the villages seem to have a thing for bicycles – They painted them in all sorts of colours and chained them to poles and fences along the way – Quite interesting.  The finale was when we stopped at a rest area there was a giant sculpture of a bicycle mounted on the bridge above us !

Eventually we reached the bottom of the Tromso fjord, and the weather improved as we drove north up beside the fjord for the last hour or so before we reached Tromso.  We pulled over in one viewing spot and saw a motor home with British plates – And on the back it had “Don’t follow me, Follow Jesus” – They were obviously on a religious tour of the area ! 

Coming into Tromso, you realize that the city

is actually on an island in the middle of the fjord, although as the city has expanded there are suburbs stretching off the island onto the mainland on either side of the fjord.  There is an enormous bridge stretching across the fjord, and we drove over this and into the centre.  Driving in the centre was (for me !) difficult – Without any obvious signposts there are roads which suddenly are for buses and taxis only – So you are driving along a road and suddenly see a complicated sign (because I have never

seen such a sign before) that infers you can’t go any further !  The first time I carried on regardless, I got dirty looks from taxi drivers and pedestrians alike, and another time a taxi blocked the road and just refused to move – I had to back all the way out !!  Not fun.  We decided to go and check out local campsites, but found them VERY expensive – Far more so than even normal Norwegian high prices !  So we decided to see what we could of Tromso during the afternoon then get out of town and head north to cheaper areas.  Once back in

Tromso centre, I slowly mastered the signs and managed to park down by the wharf area, and we went for a walk.  Certainly not the most attractive town – It is more famous for the high number of bars and many students from the University.  Some of the older wooden buildings are very attractive, but the newer ones are a bit “concrety”.  If you travel to areas with extreme temperatures (hot or cold), like Dampier or Port Hedland in Australia, Russia, or Alaska or Canada up in the Arctic, you notice that the buildings are often windowless, or nearly so – The external walls are solid to protect from the heat / cold, and as a result the towns look very bleak.  You have to go inside many of the buildings where they are warm (or cool !) and welcoming – It takes a while to get used to this kind of architecture.  Tromso has a number of buildings like this, so is not (IMHO) a very attractive town visually.  

Down around the wharf area is the opposite – The older buildings, and a couple of the hotels, are really quite attractive.  While we were wandering around, we saw the local coastal Hurtigruten cruise / ferry ship Vesteralen docked, with passengers disembarking onto coaches for quick tours of the area.  Seeing the ship here was interesting because we saw it departs from the Lofoten Islands a couple of days ago – We just beat it up the coast to Tromso by a couple of hours !

After leaving Tromso, we thought we had to back track some distance south to get back onto the main road north.  But on studying the maps closer Janet found a little road that cut across a couple of islands, with 2 ferries to join them, and saving us a lot of distance and time, even though the cost of the ferries had to be figured in there.  So we set off to Breivikeidet, past some great scenery, although it was cold and windy despite the sunshine.  When we got to the ferry terminal we had half an hour to wait, and were entertained by 4 kite surfers who were make the most of the wind – But I hope they had warm dry suits on as it must have been freezing out there.  Our ferry then arrived and we boarded for the short ride over to Svensby.

From Svensby, almost everyone on the ferry then convoyed for about 40 minutes to the next ferry at Lyngen, where we didn’t have to wait too long, although there were a number of big semi trailers in the line ahead of us.  We all managed to squeeze on the ferry, but some of the gaps between vehicles were an inch or less in places !!  Across this slightly longer ferry crossing to Olderdalen, across the majestic Lyngen Fjord, and then we were off again.  We only went for about an hour, looking for a place to camp –

Initially we tried to find a suitable place on a little spit of land where in good weather the views over the fjord are supposed to be great, and in winter views of the Northern Lights are a feature.  Unfortunately, there was neither a view or Northern lights, and indeed not even a camping spot, so we carried on.  Eventually we found a good little site just off the main road, where we were the only people apart from a couple of Italian cyclists.  Tourists are getting thin on the ground up here now as it cools down quickly, so quite a lot of the tourist places (accomodation, attractions etc) are  already closing down for the winter.  But this one was open, and we had a pleasant and much needed nights sleep with hot showers being more than welcome after 2 nights in free camps. 

Pics are here :-  https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0337PolarParkToRotsundelo?authkey=Gv1sRgCOfr2YO6iKnJzwE