Day 54.1

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Captivating Lofoten.

We started the day really early, checked out from City Hotell Bodø at 3:30am and walked the 2km+ to the airport with our full packs. The streets were so quiet you could hear a pin drop but all we could hear was our tempo breathing and quick footsteps. While I did not know the taxi rates in Norway, I was adamant the figure would come up to be astronomical even for a 5min ride. Nevertheless, 2km+ is within our 'walkable radius' of 3km.

The 5:06am Widerøe flight in a small propeller plane from Bodø Airport to Leknes Airport provided a low aerial view of the mountains and fjords of Lofoten so immensely captivating that the hour long flight felt like eternity. The rental car wasn't due for collection until 11am, so that gave us a chance to catch some sleep at the airport.

9 days were planned for Lofoten with 5 of those days in a '94 Mazda 626. I was a little apprehensive about driving on the right side of the road. After all, my only driving experience since getting my license 6 years ago consists of just 2 days in Scotland and that was driving on the familiar left hand side. Having said that, a 5min practice in the carpark provided me with the confidence to get on with it. It wasn't that hard afterall I guess.

The plan was to drive westward along the E10 from Leknes to Lofoten's western most village of Å but not before going up north to Eggum in the top right of the map. Lastly, a ferry departing from Moskenes to Bodø awaits us at the end of the 9 days here.

Stocked up some groceries from a supermarket in Leknes before we embarked on the northward drive to Eggum.   

Day 08.2

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Pushing the limits: Svalbard.

Most people hadn't a clue as to where Svalbard is whenever I mentioned the place. Situated roughly 800km from the North Pole, Svalbard is the northernmost inhabited land accessible by visitors as well as the natural habitat to thousands of polar bears. The archipelago is part of Norway and the name translates to 'Cold Edge', which really lived up to it's reputation.

The only way to get here is to take a 1.5hr flight from Tromsø. I figured if we did not fly to this northern frontier of human settlement while we were here above the Arctic Circle, we would never had that chance to do it anymore. And since we had decided on it, we might as well do something extreme there to test our physical and mental limits. Should we survived this, any further difficulties encountered along the trip would be just be negligible to us after this ordeal.

While waiting for the airport bus outside Longyearbyen Airport.

While waiting to collect our bagpacks from the conveyor belts, I had a good look at the passengers from our flight; Production crews with their big boxes of equipment (hmm.. probably from National Geographic, Discovery Channel or something), teams of big tough looking guys with their huge gears ready for expeditions (all of them looked like some US special forces who can take me out with one punch), burly locals with their goods and supplies. Obviously, we ended up looking like some noobs in the midst of these people..

I took my first step out of the airport and was almost choked by the freezing air outside. The bitterness of the cold was simply out of this world! Never had I experienced such 'painful' and difficulty in breathing that I went back into the warm comfort of the airport arrival hall within a minute. The level of bitter coldness is totally on a whole new level, unimaginable until one had a taste of it. Deep down, I was really excited. This IS the real deal, bring it on!  

Svalbard is notoriously an expensive place to visit, there is little choice of accommodation for us budget backpackers except the Spitsbergen Guesthouse, which still came up to S$230+ per night in a hostel style double room with shared bath. To make it worse, the guesthouse is situated 2.4km from the town centre. It was around 3:30pm by the time we checked into the guesthouse. Couple of hours more to acclimatize ourselves, both body and mind, before tomorrow morning first challenge..

Spitsbergen Guesthouse double room, shared bath, breakfast & Wi-Fi at separate building.