Day 18: Senja, Norway.
It turns out our luck has changed and the clouds had covered the mountains pretty much overnight. It’s crazy though because the landscape is still incredibly beautiful. With cloud shrouding over the mountain peaks and slowly rolling into the fjord below, it gives it a different, but still beautiful feel.
Thankfully due to the cloud, rain and the fact we’d parked next to a mountain it meant the midnight sun left us alone for a little bit and we managed a good sleep. So good we didn’t actually rise out of bed until around 10AM. Not bad considering it was light all night.
We’re fairly isolated on Senja. Even though it’s the second largest island in Norway it still only has 2 supermarkets, a couple of places for fuel and only one main road in, and around the island. With the misted peaks, drizzle and cold weather coming in over night we pretty much had to scrap any hiking plans we had today.
Spending the morning drinking coffee, watching Breaking Bad and doing some general tidying of Doris passed a couple of hours. We soon get bored though and are ready to stretch our legs or get out something. I say we, I mean Nat.
We decided that we’d drive for a little, there is some things to see around here. Including a troll cafe, a supermarket, another small fishing village and of course, countless incredible mountains and backdrops.
Gryllefjord was on the agenda and with it only being around 15-20 miles from where we were. That said though, around fjords, up and over passes, through dark tunnels and around sharp bends meant that it’d likely take us 40-50 minutes to get there.
Hamn I Senja
Possibly the only hotel on Senja? Of course it’s on a tiny little island of its own, and of course it’s incredibly beautiful. We’re in Norway remember!
That said, I’d pick a night in Doris than here anytime. It’s just not my vibe. People in suits, nice cars and drinking wine at lunch. Cool, go for it. But I’ll leave you too it and I’ll be in our 1992 motorhome shall you need me.
The views from the hotel though are incredible. The water here is crystal clear and has a green tinge too it. I’ve only ever seen water like this in Indonesia and well, you kinda of expect it in paradise don’t you? You kinda don’t expect such coloured water in 5 degrees and 66degrees North.
The most perfect house in the world?
As we were driving around a tight bend we spotted this little bridge over too the island. Low and behold there’s a bloody house sitting on top of it. Secluded and really only accessed by boat, could this be the house we’ve been looking for?
Sitting on a bed of rocks in the greenest and clearest water I’ve ever seen, with absolutely no neighbours whatsoever. Talk about a perfect house! The best bit? The two enormous mountains that tower over it on one side, making it appear even smaller than it was.
How expensive is Norway?
When travelling to Norway most people seem to just assume it’s expensive. Either that or they ask what our budget is and how we’re going to manage when in Norway. Well here’s some numbers for you.
Today we paid £3.30 for a loaf of bread.
We paid £2 for 1L of milk.
£3.50 for a big bag of crisps.
You get the idea, it’s fairly expensive BUT we are on an island and it is likely to be a little more inflated on here than it is to be on mainland Norway.
We haven’t filled up with diesel yet, but it looks like its around £1.40/£1.50 per litre before, which isn’t too bad to be fair.
Budgetting is something we’re getting good at now and we’re trying to get to the end of this trip with as much money still in the bank as possible. With that in mind, here’s a couple of things we did before our trip to make it more feasible to travel on a budget.
- We brought lots of things in bulk. Pasta, rice, noodles, coffee, teabags, porridge. All things that can make a meal with something added.
- Stocked up on tins of tuna, beans, chillis, you name it. In hind sight we should have brought more tuna. Tuna is life.
- We buy lots of eggs and bread to make meals cheaper.
- We’ve not eaten out, or will ever eat out on the trip.
- We try not to pay for a campsite if we can help it, typically we’ll do 6 wild camps and 1 paid campsite.
Another day done on Senja.
Considering todays not been the greatest day on the weather front, we don’t feel like we’ve not done anything. We’ve smashed 3 episodes of Breaking Bad. Which by the way, is good but kinda dragging out a little now that we’re on season 4. We’ve shopped, done a couple of little walks and of course, I’ve managed another blog.
Tonight we’re staying at the little troll cafe. Doris is too warm for me to be bothered to go outside and take some pictures though. And apparently the largest troll here has been recently burned down. I’m only into big trolls, not little ones.
Tonights camping location: Skaland, Senja. (Park4Night: Click here)