Latitude: 70.05
Today we decided to go leave our beautiful arctic ocean spot and go find another. The road to Mehamn was an in and out, but we didn’t take the direct way back. We took a detour to another fjord town. And what a great decision that turned out to be.
We drove around the town looking for a toilet, as neither of us wanted to poo in our van. There were no public toilets marked, and by chance I saw the city hall, and in it was a library. And this was the library that kept on giving. First of all, not only did it have a toilet, it also had a shower. We figured two weeks was long enough and made the most of it.
Libraries, like in NZ, also have free internet, so I was able to get this weeks video uploaded. And it also happened to be pensioners day, so they offered us coffee and biscuits! Not because we are pensioners, but because the food had been laid out for them, and they had already left.
After that we drove back out the way we came, still in awe of the amazing scenery and all the snow. The place we had marked to drive to today, was 5 hours drive, but we’d already spent 5 hours mucking around!
We stopped at a garage and got a bar of chocolate and a small bottle of coke, and it cost us $20 NZD!. I know things are expensive here, but this was above and beyond!
It was a sunny day and we really wanted to stay up and experience the midnight sun, rather than just glimpse at it through the curtains. So we kept on driving for 5 hours, or possibly longer. We saw Russia across the water from here. The scenery was nice, but nothing better than what we had already seen. Until we turned off. Then it got interesting. A super-narrow road only fit for one vehicle and flanked by the weird looking jagged rocks.
This scenery went on for about an hour or two and was like nothing I’ve ever seen. It was about 8pm, and we were thankful nobody was coming the other way as there didn’t seem to be too many pull offs. Some places there were sheer drop-offs and it was quite scary, and we had been on the road for almost 12 hours by this stage (not all of it driving).
Eventually we reached the end, and there was a beautiful spot overlooking the arctic ocean, and only a couple of others were there. I had promised Mike a bacon and egg sandwich when we arrived, so I got on with cooking that. Then we mucked around, doing editing, playing chess, filling in time until midnight. Then we went out for a walk.
It was bitterly cold, the wind blowing straight through us. I really wanted to see a puffin but all we saw was a fox and a white-tailed eagle. I would have liked to stay out longer but the wind was causing my eyes to water and they were stinging. But we vlogged the midnight sun, so job done. We’ll probably be knackered tomorrow.