Thu, 31 Jul 2003

author Liz	location Fauske, Salten, Nordland, Norge
posted 10:36 CEST 01/08/03	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

Into the Arctic Circle ( 11 photos )
On Thursday, most of the day was spent driving North along the E6.
We noticed a number of police doing speed checks along the road. The number of deaths on the road in Norway is high, and the national speed limit on nearly all roads is just 80km/h, so it was good to see the police enforcing this. It was a little alarming, however, when about 20 minutes later we were pulled over by a bunch of police, but it turned out they were pulling everyone over for breath-testing. Tim was quite excited as he was driving and it was his first ever breath-test. He was under the 0.02 limit (it was after all only 11am!), and after the Norweigan Policeman squinted at Tim's Aussie licence for a few minutes and discovered the expiry date, he gave us a smile and a wave and sent us on our way.
So the rest of the day ticked by as we roared by forests of fir trees, rivers and cascades, mountains and valleys, and patches of snow.
The most exciting point of the day was driving into the Arctic Circle. We were about 80km north of Mo-i-Rana when a sign appeared saying "Arctic Circle in 2km". So we pulled in at the big tourist shop, took some photos of the marker stone with Tim in shorts and T-shirt eating ice cream, and looked around the fairly barren rocky landscape.
Here it was raining heavily, so we got back on the road still heading north. After a while the sun came out again, and we had a nice evening sitting in the sun in a little caravan park just outside of Fauske, and enjoying the view of Saltfjorden and the mountains.

(customised)