Day 14 More island hopping and ferry waits

The morning start was delicious. Sweet sounds of birds calling and chirping with an occasional fish stirring the inlet. Hardly any traffic passes by and its all quiet from human intervention. Im greeted with a cheerful Boes and I let him and his little mate Nestor have a nice little walk before breakfast. Even the morning sun pops his head over the clouds to greet the day and I look forward to today’s impressions.

The outlook from the hammock on this morning.

Once again I am surprised by the landscape. Small coastal villages covered by large mountains half buried in rain clouds. Tunnels bypassing the impassable ones surprising from rain into sun into rain again. Long roads sometimes with potholes sometimes renewed tarmac, even splendid bridges.

Hermes has to struggle at time to haul our weight up the 10% inclines and I figured out the blue M-sign on a down hill: Motor breaking. It works fine on the diesel engine and keeps a steady speed at 10% downhill.

I took the final decision to continue to the Lofoten on considering why I am doing this. Part of it is the legacy my mum and dad passed on to me with their inheritance. When I received my share, I had decided to make good use of it and invested part in my mortgage and part as a life investment. The last part I started by buying Hermes at the time. He was only planned to be a hobby object, but on further thoughts I had decided to make a use of it as well. So all I had to do as set a target.

Another ferry ride

So why Norway? Well during my observations at least a few arguments stuck out. One was that it needed to reacheable by driving even when not all the way, it was still within reach. Then there was the choice to bring the boys along, so it had to be dog friendly and easily handled when issues were to rise. Also it needed to be scaled as in I would want the freedom to do the full plan or parts of it. Then there is the unknown to explore not just country wise but also experience wise. I wanted to be able to take away an experience I would never forget and possibly use new insights on a daily basis. And not the least reason, it needed to be beautiful and diverse in climate in my view.

All these I found in Norway. Rugged, divers, easily divided destinations, developed and confrontational. It seemed a very good fit and I had never been to Scandinavia except for Denmark with my babygirl to Legoland. The little only thing not favoring it was the prices in Norway. There is a reason why its called expensive and it feels that even buying a simple cup of coffee in a cup at €3,50. So i had to budget and lan carefully especially when im looking at the distance and time I was planning on doing.

Views that keep amazing

In the meantime I continued to make many enhancements to Hermes and it payed off. It runs smooth has not had engine issues and the only thing that was an acute problem was a busted axle. Even the breaks are doing much better since I found a braking sequence on how to free them again so yay!

It is a nightly departure I will be doing from Bodø at 3:15 but then I will also be arriving early. All I need to do then is claim a nice overnight and daytime spot for our first day on the Lofoten without any travel. Just a chill day to feel that marking point of landing on the islands.

After a long drive today with a lot of scenery i will probably have to recall in my sleep, me and the boys arrived in Bodø. This larger city functions as a departure point for the ferry to Moskenes on the Lofoten. The duration of the trips differ from 3 and 1/4 hour to nearly 7 hours. Why the difference? I have no clue, all I know is that it gets to Moskenes (hopefully).

Oh and this one I just realized. When google maps starts showing you the snowed pictures of maps, just can be aware that its the time we passed the arctic circle! Yes, we are above Nesna now and that means we have passed into the Northern region of the world!

Queing for their departure

So now we are parked to wait for the loading of the previous set. When they are gone we get to park in the reserved lane and I can get some shuteye for a few hours. Until we start to load at 02:45. Then its a quick boarding and more snoring on the boat till arrival. The boys will stay in the car and I’m sure they will do fine. They have been very good in the back for 3300 kilometers already so they will survive a little boat ride as well.