We’re feeling pretty lucky in the aftermath of the flat tyre mishap. The replacement car is so, so much better than the little tinny Kia Picanto we had, and the fuel economy is amazing. We put 60L of diesel in it yesterday, which cost us $170, and the fuel economy calculator thingy in the car reckons we’ll get 1800kms! Every time I look in a place I haven’t looked before, I find another panel of lights and buttons. It beeps whenever one of us does something ‘wrong’. We’re somewhat concerned that we’ll accidentally lock the keys in the car or something equally catastrophic, but I’m sure we’ll get used to it all … eventually.

We’re heading north up the coast to the Arctic Circle. For the last 2 days, we have driven through rural areas, mainly farmland and forests. It’s all so incredibly, impossibly green here, with such beautiful scenery it’s very hard to resist stopping constantly to take yet more photos. There are lots of little villages everywhere, and they look like thriving little communities, most of them with a service station AND a supermarket, and often a school and one or more churches. Most of the buildings are timber, the houses are white, cream or yellow and the outbuildings are red.

I’ve seen the most beautiful wildflowers growing beside the roads – lupins, linaria, foxgloves, canterbury bells, daisies, mostly in shades of white, pink and purple. I found some ligonberry bushes yesterday but the berries weren’t ripe yet. Swedish meatballs are traditionally served with mashed potatoes, a cream-based  gravy and ligonberry jam. We had meatballs & gravy (out of a can) with mashed potatoes (out of a packet) for dinner last night.

I found something cheap here ! A 1 litre stainless steel thermos for $9. Although it’s been a long, long time since I priced one at home and maybe it’s not so cheap in comparison, but I bought one in anticipation of needing lot of hot drinks as we head further north. We’re in a little town at the moment – Namsos – where the sun sets at half-past midnight and rises again at 3.30am.,

Greg checking to see if the water was really cold in the river – it was

One of the many fantastic roadside stops in Norway.

We have driven around many fiords, this one had a waterfall flowing into it.

Camped at Vennesund

We have passed many buildings with sod roofs. This is a cabin at the camping ground we are staying at at Vennesund

Close-up of the sod-roof “garden”