Our plan now was to head back onto route 17, known as one of Norway’s most scenic roads to drive (and according to National Geographic one of the 101 most scenic drives in the world) and make our way towards Bodo. We had picked up a useful tourist guide from the Mo i Rama tourist office that gave us some ideas of where we’d like to visit. Leaving Mo i Rama we passed houses covered in English football flags. Liverpool seems to be a big favourite in Scandinavia
The road just kept on throwing up stunning scenery. In the afternoon we had another hour long ferry trip which took us past the Arctic Circle latitude (66 °33’N). A marker sign marked the spot on the land.
Before the next ferry crossing we found a great park up place just off the road with beautiful views over the bay. We watched several fishing boats trawling around through the evening and the sunset was mesmerising as always.
We caught the next ferry the following morning and made our way to catch a shuttle boat to a walking trail up to the Svartisen glacier, the second largest glacier in mainland Norway, with 60 tongues extending into the surrounding valleys. The arm we were visiting stretches down to virtually sea level making it one of the most accessible glaciers to visit.
It was just a 10 minute boat ride which already had amazing views of the glacier, then we walked 3kms along a gravel road where we joined a hiking trail to take us right up to the glacier edge. It was a beautiful sunny day. While the trail was not technically difficult or steep, it was quite hard work treading carefully over the smooth rock surface, but after another 2.5km we were rewarded with a great view of the blue glacial ice. While I sat and took it all in, Colin went right up to the glacier’s edge. He brought me a large ice cube back – sadly there was no G&T to go with it.
The walk down was hard on the joints, but it had been a very worthwhile experience. We saw a seal sunbathing on the way back to the boat jetty too.
We continued on to a place called Storvika where we’d seen a campsite advertised that overlooked a nice bay. When we arrived it looked a bit too family resort for our liking, but being a lovely warm evening, and wanting a long hot shower after the hike, we ended up checking in there. The beach over the road was a beautiful stretch of sand, but unlike some of the locals we weren’t tempted to go for a swim in the icy Arctic water.
The next morning my creaky hip had seized up well and truly, so we headed out for a short spin on the bikes to loosen it up. We cycled a few miles one way from the campsite that took us to a dead end, then back past the campsite to an unusual tourist attraction – one of the fanciest rest areas in the world. The parking area is called Ureddplassen and not only has magnificent views of the ocean (apparently you can see the Lofoten Islands from here on a clear day), there is a monument of a sword fish commemorating a WW2 incident where all the Norwegian crew of a submarine perished when it hit a mine. We felt rather embarrassed that British intelligence had given them duff information – ‘there are no mines in this fjord’ – doh.
The other main attraction if the stylish restroom named as ‘the world’s finest outdoor toilet’. There was a lengthy queue of Germans there when we arrived, but I did finally get a look inside. I don’t know about swanky, but it was big.
Back in Lo11y we carried onto another island to visit the Langsanden beach , a two km stretch of white sand beach. Being holiday season it was pretty parked up when we arrived, but the beach was so large it wasn’t crowded. We did find a great spot to park for the night at the edge of the beach. There was a very nice Norwegian expedition vehicle next to us owned by a Norwegian family who were holidaying here from Trondheim. This was to be our last night in Norway on this trip, so we were glad we’d found such a lovely spot.
The following morning we had booked a boat trip to see a salmon farm. The visitor centre was a little way back down the coast at a place called Gildeskal. The salmon centre was there to pass on knowledge about aquaculture. We were taken out on a rib boat to have a close up look at one of the salmon cages, the type of which that we had been passing most days in Norway. There were around ten of these cages at this site and our guide gave us some interesting facts. Yes, it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for - Colin’s top takeaway facts on salmon farming:
Each of the nets were 140m in diameter and are conical shaped with the bottom being weighted down which went down 50m.
Each of the nets held 100,000 salmon.
It takes salmon between two and three years to reach a weight of five kg when they are ready to harvest.
On the farm we visited they had 1.3 million salmon in 10 locations of up to twelve nets.
They treat the fish for parasites (sea lice) on a regular basis by sucking them up out of the net through a treatment tank on a boat and then into an empty net.
Aquaculture farming has become a massive industry for Norway, now producing 53% of the salmon consumed in the world.
This is even more important for Norway as they have very little agriculture as the landscape doesn't lend itself to arable farming.
Back at the centre there was a small learning centre, largely aimed at kids, but still interesting for the adults. There was also an indoor aquarium where we could watch salmon swimming around a 360 degree tank. The whole experience was free too. The young guy in the centre said it was run by one of the big fish farm companies, so they obviously think it is worth their while to allay peoples concerns about the environmental impact of fish farming.
Our final place to visit in Norway was the Saltstraumen Maelstrom which is about 30km south of Bodo. We had visited here in 2017 and were surprised to see the tourist infrastructure that has spring up in the last 7 years – a hotel, a visitor centre and a huge motorhome campsite. This maelstrom is claimed to be one of the largest in the world and is a set of whirlpools created as the fast flowing tidal water in the strait drains from one fjord to another. The tides change every six hours, so there are better times to view it, but it is still interesting to watch. We particularly liked seeing a group of ducks being washed past out of control.
We would have liked to have revisited Bodo which is the European City of Culture for 2024, but time was against us. We had, maybe naively, thought we would get further north on this trip, but we have a date set to meet some friends near Stockholm at the end of July, but without a doubt we will be back in Norway in the future for some unfinished business.
We set off towards the Swedish border feeling a bit melancholy – we have absolutely loved our time in Norway and definitely weren’t ready to leave. Even the sheep didn’t want us to leave as they lay in the road enjoying the warmth of the tarmac infront of the Lo11y.
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