Norway 2009
Info about the pictures :Click HERE to return to the archive.
Dad came over to Sweden to visit for a few days, and we decided to go to Norway for the second part of the trip, to one of the most beautiful areas of the country. Here's a summary of our movements, there is also more specific info under many of the pics.
Day 1 : We started by driving from my house in Flurkmark to Mo I Rana on the north Norwegian coast, taking the E12 across Sweden and up over the mountains. We had two main stops, one to check out the wooden church in Stensele (Swedens oldest, and with the worlds oldest "bible") and the second to eat lunch at a nice rest stop between Hemavan and Umasjö. Also took some pics on the way through the mountains, and then in Mo i Rana on arrival.
Day 2 : Glaciers and caves - We started the day by driving about an hour into the mountains behind Mo i Rana to visit the Svartisen glacier. After a short (20 min) boat trip to the base of the mountain area behind which the ice resided, we then hiked 3 km steeply upwards on quite rough terrain which was amusingly described in the brochures as "slightly uphill" 
. Finally after some awe inspring mountain scenery as well as a very scary waterfall, the glacier loomed into view : large, blue and full of cracks and crevasses. We barely had time to take some photos and admire the scale of it before it was time to make the return journey to get the boat back. After a quick lunch break we drove back towards Mo i Rana and then turned off to visit the Grønli caves, thinking this would be nice and relaxing compared to the glacier hike. But no - it was if anything more strenuous! A narrow winding path with a low roof is not in itself a major challenge, but when said path is also very slippery rock in a poorly lit tunnel ... of course the brochure mentioned nothing about that either ... 
Anyway, it was really cool to see how the water had carved out tunnels, channels and passages - there was also a large granite block which wasn't supposed to be there (no other granite in the area) - it had been carried there by glacial movement.
Day 3 : We set off at a leisurely pace, having all day to cover the 350km distance from Mo i Rana to Bodø. Our only main stop was at the Arctic Circle tourist center - no prizes for guessing where it was located 
- the scenery was actually quite bleak on one side and yes there was still snow, although not at base level. Also stopped to take some more pics of gushing water - incredibly green as it was in most places we saw on our trip. Arrived in Bodø to find the waterfront view outside our hotel somewhere obscured by road works but it didn't bother us, they weren't noisy and we walked along the water front to parts were there wasn't any maintenance going on 
Day 4 : We had received all kinds of tips as to what we could to in the immediate area around Bodø and we settled on Saltströmmen (The Salt Stream). This is supposedly the worlds largest maelstrom (whirlpool) caused by large amounts of water being subjected to strong tidal currents forcing it through a narrow passageway. It was located in a nice area so we went there halfway between tides to get some "calm before the storm" pics, then drove partway down Route 17 (a beautiful tourist road which takes 3 - 4 days in total including a few ferry crossings) to find a secluded spot for lunch. On our return we discovered that the near empty carpark was now bursting at the seams with coaches unloading all manner of tourists eager to see what was no doubt the highlight of their itinerary. Thus we followed them all back down to the waters edges to witness - not much really ... To be fair the water was constantly in motion and at times did look very "whirlpooly" but at others it just looked like a fast flowing river ... however it was novel to see water running quite fast in the wrong direction (upstream). After all that excitement we didn't know if we could cope with anything else, so we took a short walk to a war monument nearby, and then headed back to Bodø to visit the restored bastion. This was actually a nice place from which to observe town as it was the other side of the bay and we did see a number of ships passing by.
On the last day I drove back to Sweden after dropping Dad off at Bodø airport. I took a different route back being that much further north, and the journey was no problem, 8 hours in total with a nice lunch break at a rest stop on the mountainous border between Sweden and Norway. We had a great time, were very lucky with the weather, and could easily have spent twice as long up there. Actually, I could quite easily live there! And it's not that hard to get to either, flights from Bodø to Oslo are as numerous as those between Umeå and Stockholm
All pics taken with Richard's D80, I have also now installed a new program for creating panoramas, called PTGui which is brilliant. I didn't even use a tripod and it sewed the pictures together seamlessly. The panoramas are 1000px wide so you'll have to do a re-resolution to see them without scrolling if you are running anything less than 1024 x 768.
