Day 33: Tromsø-Nordmannvik (93 km)
Today I have to praise the meteorologists: They predicted very accurately that it would start raining this morning and keep raining all day. We left Tromsø at 9:30, and it had just started raining lightly. But it soon got worse. Our goal today was, despite the weather, to take the last two ferries on our trip and reduce the distance to Alta to under 200 kilometres so that we can reach Alta on Tuesday.
After 51 kilometres, we reached the first ferry from Breivikeidet to Svensby. Our timing was quite bad and we had to wait for one hour. They didn’t have a waiting room which most ferry harbours have, but a toilet with a floor heating, so it was warm and cozy in there.
The second and final ferry of this trip (at some point I need to count them all, but I believe I have taken between twenty and twenty-five) took us from Lyngseidet to Olderdalen. This time, our timing was perfect and the ferry left five minutes after we arrived there.
After cycling for one more hour, we started looking out for tent spots. This was difficult today because it had been raining heavily all day, and all meadows were really wet and the ground very soft. We found one spot with a gravel ground which worked OK. The disadvantage with this place: it is quite close to a camping site. And indeed, after half an hour – I was just eating my soup – the co-owner of the camping site drove by, honked and told us from his caravan that we were too close to the camping site and couldn’t stay here. We played the “sorry didn’t know” card and told him we couldn’t leave again because of the weather. He said something about being back in a few hours and left. It is eleven o’clock in the evening now and still raining heavily, so I guess he won’t be back.
We can be quite happy with our performance today – cycling more than 90 kilometres in the worst weather I have had so far on this trip. Alta is 196 kilometres away. I didn’t take any picture today. Imagine me being wet during the day and lying in tent during the evening, poking the roof of my tent from time to time so that the lake which forms in the middle of it will run down to the side. Let’s hope that the weather report is correct tomorrow as well. Then it should stop raining at some point in the morning – probably after we leave.