Published: 30.07.2024
The night in our sky-blue little house ends quite early because somehow a few slats in the bunk bed are shifted on the top floor and Peter is about to slip between them. Well, we'd rather not take any risks and leave the bed in a hurry. Looking outside, the bed would probably have been the better alternative. Dark clouds are gathering over the campsite. Hot coffee, blueberry jam bread, cheese, and a situational meeting at the kitchen table. We're on schedule thanks to the fantastic weather of the past weeks. It's 90 kilometers to Karasjok, where the bus departs for Rovaniemi. We have to be there by Thursday. We had imagined the last days to be calm, but not exactly this calm. Yes, the weather does what it wants, and that's just fine. So today we won't travel that far, and due to the weather, we are booking a small room again at a campsite in Lakselv. Until then, it’s just 18 kilometers/140 elevation meters. The E6 runs parallel to the Porsangerfjord and between the mountains, some of which are up to 1000 meters high. However, we only see half of them because the clouds hang so low. There are nice places to swim at the fjord, which Anja, the crazy one, must of course take advantage of. Water temperature: 12 degrees, air: 10 degrees. Well, she didn’t last long, but she certainly earned the cinnamon roll and cappuccino in Lakselv even more. Lakselv has about 2300 inhabitants and is a typical supply center for the surrounding region, nothing more really. A few supermarkets, gas stations (the gas price is currently Fr. 2.60/liter), snowmobile sellers in the middle of summer at 10 degrees, truck repair shops, and not much else, and even less in drizzle. We get our room at the motel. It fits in with Lakselv, but it’s quite nice and has two single beds instead of a bunk bed. The communal kitchen has everything you need, and it’s very clean; we also use the washing machines and dryers. The weather gets a bit nicer in the evening, but Lakselv isn’t during the evening walk. The sun suddenly sets again, 11:17 PM, rising: 1:28 AM. We are now only at the 70th northern latitude, and every day it gets further south. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be sunnier again, according to Peter's weather app. Well, maybe Lakselv will be sunnier too. That would be nice because this is the last day we will see the northern sea - of all places in Lakselv....