Goodbye Arctic Circle

It’s been a couple of days without internet, and mostly spent heading on down towards Trondheim. We have managed to fit in a couple of stops as we meander southwards, including Mo I Rana. Heads up all other Info centres: Mo I Rana has a great scheme going that when you visit the Info Centre the delightful assistants give you a park for free card, valid for 2 days. Hmmm – chances of anyone picking up on this?

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Overnight in the carpark at the railway station was free, quiet, and provided some entertainment watching construction workers piling concrete pipes. As expected, level 3 put too much pressure on level 2, which had level 1 rolling off across the road …

A highlight of the week has been the Setergrotta, caves north of Mo i Rana. Two sets of caves, with the family version having the conventional coloured lights etc. Setergrotta, however, does it au natural, making this a fantastic experience. Even better, we were with a great young guide, a Dutch family, and German tourist – this lot had all come down from Nordkapp. Weather descriptions (snow in August) left us feeling glad we had decided to spend more time in the Lofotens rather than add an extra 1500km roundtrip. The kids in the tour were a hoot, taking off like weasels down a hole, leaving us to follow a lot more cautiously … with the regular ‘tack tack’ as Niki’s helmet connected the roof. A great 2 hour tour – we can certainly feel it the next day.

Currently we are in great little carpark off the main road to Trondheim – and not planning on getting out the van – Oh, except that Niki has to get the levellers under the wheels, so we’ll have a drowned rat in here shortly J The day has seen continuous (like really, non-stop) alternating between raining hard and being torrential. Niki is going through her ‘I love the van’ bit, even though there are no tents around to add to the comparative delight!