twofortheroad
motorcycle, but we all had to admit we were loving it. Riding through the switchbacks and across mountain passes, the GPS indicated there was a lake alongside the road, but it was fro- zen now and covered in snow. The sights were just awe inspiring, espe- cially for Aussies like us and Dave from Florida, where sun and sand is more the order of the day. We kept heading north, with Nord-
kapp our main objective. We had read about the Atlantic Highway, and we could see that when Norway designs a tourist road they really put a lot of thought into it. This road with its sweeping “wave” over the Atlantic coast is just incredible. It’s only short, but what a piece of engineering. The weather was cold, but dry, and the water was calm, so we really enjoy this stretch of the coast. ***We just couldn’t shake the cold,
wet weather. Even the locals were complaining about the absence of Norway’s summer. On the day we crossed the Arctic Circle it was snow- ing—again—and the ice warning light was flashing—again. At 66° 33.33, the rain was forming
into ice on Shirley’s visor. When we got off the bikes the rain turned to snow, there was a thick covering of snow all around. It was cold, but magnificent and quite an achieve- ment for all of us. The Arctic Circle here is very different than Alaska. There is life, farms, communities, cities—a far cry from the oil workers’ camps north of the circle in Alaska. We were now in the land of the midnight
sun. For the next few weeks the citizens who live up here would not see darkness. The locals admit to feeling a bit more ener- getic at this time of the year, rather than during the weeks of total darkness in the winter. Everyone has advice about what to see on
trips like this one, and the thing they all agree on is that the Lofoten Islands should not be missed. As we got closer to the islands, we realised what all the fuss has been about. It was spectacular, with small rocky islands in every bay and snow-capped mountains all around us. We headed into Henningsvaer, and the
small road to the town was lovely, though cold and windy, as you would expect. There were two one-lane bridges to get over to get to our hotel which was right on the water, and the lights to control the traffic weren’t
working over the weekend. It was all fine until we encountered a motorhome on the bridge—lucky we weren’t a car or there would have been some backing up to do. On the edge of the bridge were massive
drying racks full of cod heads and bodies drying in the sea breeze. Probably just as well it wasn’t warm! The day we made our run to Nordkapp,
the sun was shining, and we all hoped this would hold until we got to the end of the road. A local warned us that the winds could be so strong they could blow a cara- van or motorhome over. We just couldn’t imagine that happening on such a lovely day. Summer had arrived in northern Nor- way—at least that’s what we thought. Riding across the plateau the wind hit,
and it was most unpleasant. We were all thinking about how bad it would be if it was raining as well. Oops—we should have kept that thought at bay. The Nordkapp Tunnel is about four and a
half miles long (nearly 7k), and when we came out the other side, the weather has deteriorated. It was raining, and the wind was building and building, getting stronger all the time. We hadn’t gone that far when there was another, much shorter tunnel. We pulled up
The road to Nordkapp.
discovery
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