The weather today is not that great and it turns into a bit of a driving day interspersed with a couple of ferry rides. Given the weather, we had a relaxing start to the day, leaving shortly after 10:30 AM. It takes us only 25minutes to get to Storslett, where we notice a town library. We decide to stop and see if they have internet access and, as all libraries in Norway seem to have, they do. We decide to take the opportunity to check our emails and get some information on the area we will be driving through.
We decide to make the detour out to Skjervøy, which is an old fishing village that escaped the destruction of the retreating Germans who needed the workshops here. The drive out is very beautiful passing along narrow spits of land and passing under the Maursund through a 2,965 meter sub-sea tunnel and over the Skattørsund on a 804 meter bridge.
Once in the town we take a look at the church which dates back to 1728. It is closed, so we cannot check out the interior. Other then that we drive around the town and take a look at the village from the dock. The town is well protected and surrounded by beautiful mountains with one outlet to the ocean.
We make our way back the way we came, making a brief stop at the bridge for a picnic lunch.
We then carry on, re-joining E6 heading southwest. At Spåkenes we take a short detour on a rough dirt road to get a clear and unobstructed view of the Lyngenfjord and the Lyngen Alps in the background. We find a farm, where we park on the street and then make our way down to their dock. From the dock we have some stunning views of the mountains.
The detour is well worth the effort. In this area the Germans built a fort which dominated the entrance to the fjord. Soon we arrive at Olderdalen where we have decided to take the ferry across Lyngenfjord, rather than take the long drive around. We arrive just in time for the ferry, which takes us across the fjord in 40 minutes to Lyngseidet.
While on the peninsula dominated by the Lyngen Alps, we decide to go for a drive around part of the mountain chain. First we pass along the road across the isthmus, which is one of the oldest in Troms. But many of the old curves have been taken out of the road. We soon reach Svensby, where we turn north for a brief round trip detour before returning to catch another ferry.
The drive up along the other side of the Lyngen Alps, even in the cloudy weather we have today is stunning. It is a beautiful spot, one we could come back to one day. The mountains run up along the spine of the peninsula. We take a couple of different branches of the road and get different views of the rivers and plain that leads up towards the mountains.
Then it is time to head back down to Svensby to catch our ferry. Just before the town of Svensby we stop at the local rural museum (closed) to get a look at the exterior of the old fishing huts that used to dot the landscape around here.
The ferry from Svensby to Breivikeidet takes us about 20 minutes. At this point we have decided to skip Tromso. We have seen it briefly on our way north on the Hurtigruten and the weather is not to good. So we head on. We drive for about another hour or so before we reach Nordkjosbotn where we stop for the night. The town seems to be a bit of a crossroads, and comes well equipped with campsites, petrol stations and supermarkets. There are at least two, if not three, of each. We are always amazed that these small towns in Norway have so many competing outlets. But it must be good for us as the petrol is reasonably priced.
We pick one of the campsites, get ourselves a hut and then go and do some grocery shopping. Once back at hut we cook dinner and sort out some of our stuff. After dinner, we decide to go for a brief wander around town, but there is not much to keep us interested other then the soft-ice.