Day 17 Maelstroms and Glaciers!

So, we managed a couple of hours sleep in the ferry lane. I was up before 6am as the ferry left at 7. Lyn was still in bed at 6.15, as he as convinced we had loads of time to shower etc. Nope, he was soon rushing like hell, as they don’t mess around. Cars come off and cars drive straight on! We were right at the front of the ferry, and went upstairs to the saloon as this was to be a 3 hour journey. I was still feeling awful, and still freezing, so I put Lyn’ big coat on and slept for the 3 hours! Where are my flushes when I need them!

I felt quite sad to be leaving the Lofotens, although we still have a hell of a trip to do, as we are going to drive down Route 17 down the coast of Norway. This is classed as one of the world’s most scenic drives. The Kystriksveien goes from Bodo to Steinkjer in the south, but the only guide we can find for free does it all in reverse, so I am trying to follow the guide backwards! It is about 650km long and should take us about 5 days, bu we will need to catch 7 ferries en route.

By chance we were the first vehicle off the ferry, and the next part of our holiday started.

Our first stop was at Saltstraumen. This is a small strait about 10km south of Bodo with the world’s fastest tide. If you time it right and consult the tide time tables you can catch one of the 4 tides a day and see the famous maelstrom. We timed it so we could visit at high tide, when 400 million cubic metres of water rush through the 150m wide and 3km long sound, at speeds of up to 20 knots. This causes whirlpools up to 10m in diameter and 4-5m deep. We walked to the top of the bridge to watch it, and looked down on the swirling waters and the jet skiers and RIB trips that had come out to play on it. It was quite impressive.

We then drove and drove down route 17. So much beautiful scenery; fjords, tunnels, mountains, sea…it was endless, but in a good way. We stopped off at a beautiful rest area, where there was a monument for the Norwegian submarine Uredd (fearless) which sank after hitting a German mine in 1943 during Operation Seagull. The waters were supposed to be safe according to British intelligence, but this was not the case, and for 42 years it lay at the bottom of the fjord with a big hole in the hull at 105m deep. It is now a war grave, and a beautiful monument of a swordfish points out in the direction of it. This rest stop is fabulous, and has, apparently, the most beautiful public toilet in the world!

We were heading towards towards the Svartisen glacier where we wanted to stay the night. Before we could get there we had to navigate the very scary tunnel. Norway is full of tunnels; why go round a mountain when you can go through them? This tunnel is 7624m long, and was opened in 1986. It was the longest tunnel in Norway when it was opened, but is now the fourth longest. The boring machine was 6.25m wide, so the lanes are too narrow to have a centre line, which makes it difficult to pass oncoming traffic on the 7km straight. Oh and it’s dark, very dark! We were glad to get out of there, especially when we realised we were under a glacier with 200m thick ice above our heads!

We had passed a cyclist cycling furiously up one of the mountain roads, which was no mean feat. He later arrived where we were staying, and set up his little tent. Lyn had a chat with him, and he is cycling from Bodo to Oslo over 5 weeks, and had cycled through that awful tunnel, even though you are not supposed to! Crazy man! We gave him some protein bars to help him on his way.

We got to a fabulous rest stop with a perfect view of the glacier. The Svartisen glacier is the largest low lying glacier in Europe. It’s the second largest glacier in Norway; it is 370 km squared, with 60 glacier tongues. You can travel out to it by boat, and also hike on it on organised trips. We would have loved to do a kayaking trip around the mouth of it, and kayak around the icebergs that have broken away, but time, and Lyn’s bad shoulder were not allowing this time! We just had to take in the view from a distance, and that was impressive enough! What a place to spend the night!