Hi from the high latitudes of Scandinavia (Lapland, Sweden),

We left Oslo last Monday after the brakes had been checked out.
It was just the pads sticking, and the Fiat workshop fixed that, and we were on the road again in under 2 hours.
An overnight stop in Lillehammer by the lake, then on to Trondheim for 2 nights.
Trondheim is the ancient capital of Norway (now usurped by Oslo, of course), with a nice old town and river, and a vast cathedral where all the Norwegian monarchs have been crowned over the centuries.

It then took us another 3 days to reach Narvik – 900+ Km, where we stayed on Saturday night, with stops at Mosjoen (Mersh-ewon) and Fauske.

On the way we crossed the Arctic Circle at 66o 33’ N, where we had lunch at the Arctic Circle centre and took some photos to prove it.
The centre is on a bleak, wind-swept plateau at 600m elevation, with high peaks and patches of snow around, even in mid-summer.

The Arctic Circle marks the southern extent of the midnight sun, i.e. it stays in the sky for 24 hours a day for 2 months in mid-summer.
Apparently we have missed seeing this by one week – it ended on 21 July.
Even so, the sun doesn’t set until 10.30pm where we are, and it stays light as ‘twilight’ until it rises again at 1.30am, so it doesn’t actually get dark at all.

We pushed on northwards, with stunning views of the high mountain peaks & fjords, high altitude lakes and rushing rivers and waterfalls.
Many of the mountain tops are so steep they are bare rock, with lots of forest on the lower slopes, and scattered villages and farms along the fjords.
It is a lot like driving around the South Island of NZ through the Lewis and Arthurs Passes, Westland & Fjordland, all rolled into one, but endless – going for thousands of kilometres.

Anyway, the weather has been lousy, with the odd fine day amongst many wet and cold ones, so in Narvik we decided to abandon any further progress north.
We had planned to go as far as Tromso – another 225 km, but the forecast was still not good, so we have headed south again on the E10 back over the mountains into Sweden and plan to then go into Finland, through Lapland.

The roads have been excellent so far right through Sweden and Norway, until today that is, when we struck 26 km of road-works in one stretch – rough as guts with mud, potholes, and no traffic management, so we ended up driving over heaps of shingle and rocks as they carried on working with diggers, graders and trucks etc.
Poor old d’Hobby pulled through but we were worried the suspension wasn’t going to make it at times.
We are now in Pajala (pronounced Pie-ella) in Lapland, Sweden, in the start of mosquito country we think.
We are right by a very big river, and it has been raining again, with mild temperatures, so we’ve shut everything up tight with the fly screens, and hope for the best.
Onwards into Finland tomorrow.