Storyline: Scandinavia
Sat, Jun 14
Moving further north day. Not that we are not north, but today we’ll take a bus all the way to Tromsø. The farthest north I’ll likely ever be. There was a time we dreamt to ship our van (now long time gone) and drive all the way to the North Cape, Europe’s most northern point at about 71° and some 470km north of the Arctic Circle. But as many other things this will be left as just another dream.
Although this will be a short post, I thought the spectacular bus 100 route north deserved a separate post. As mentioned in earlier posts, Narvik is connected by rail only with Sweden. The Norwegian towns north of Bodo are connected by buses or ferries. Ferries are a popular commuter option in the north.
We woke up to heavy rain. After a long buffet breakfast we decided to find time when the rain wasn’t that strong to cross the bridge to the shopping mall. The bus station is at the other end of the mall. We are taking the famous bus 100 from Narvik to Tromsø. There are 95 intermediate stops.
This is a commuter bus to the North and will take about 4h to cover the 232km distance from Narvik to Tromsø. The company (Svipper) runs 3 buses daily. We are taking the early afternoon one and expect to be at our destination around 5PM.
If I haven’t mentioned it 100 times, people here use public transport even in remote communities. Something I don’t believe the egocentric North Americans will achieve even if (the pessimist of me thinks it’s not “if” it is “when”) our society falls apart.
In North America one’s convenience trumps the societal values and benefits. (a side note: as I transcribe this on August 8, wildfires are raging in Manitoba, Canada and US republicans are blaming Canadians for the smoke that drifts across the border.
As far as I remember we sent them help when fires were raging in Los Angeles. So there, expect more tariffs because we couldn’t stop the smoke at the border! ‘We’re now not dealing with decent people’)
And so, after breakfast and checking out I sat in the hotel lobby with the luggage waiting for the rain to abate, while Alex was taking a video of the bands’ rehearsal. We eventually moved to the shopping mall next to the hotel in somewhat lighter rain and waited there for departure time to come. There are a few bus platforms, but no information anywhere. There is also a waiting room inside the mall with a few people, none of whom speak English. They board a bus that departs for before ours.
There is a bus with Svipper sign in the far end of the station. This bus eventually pulls onto one of the platforms. No sign or anything. I run and ask the driver and he says, yes this will be the bus to Tromsø.
He will open the doors 10 min before departure. Then he gets off and goes somewhere in the mall. Closer to boarding time when we think the rain is a bit slower, we run to that platform and wait there. There is some small protection near the front of the platforms, enough for one person to stand under.
When we finally boarded the bus there were only a few of us. But there will be a lot more getting on in the next few stops, still in Narvik area. This is the first time I’d used the Entur app. I had printed the receipts for the tickets that only reside in the app. For some reason I could not make the app show the tickets.
The driver couldn’t help either. He only knew the Svipper app, which apparently everyone with local knowledge here uses. But I had bought these tickets in March from Canada and Entur was the available app to me then. Or that’s what I could find on the Norwegian site.
I show the receipt for two tickets and driver, not been able to help with the app, accepts it. We depart exactly as scheduled. I’d be also amazed that with 95 scheduled stops, some minutes apart, the driver was able to stick to his schedule.
We crossed Rombaksfjorden on the suspension bridge Hålogalandsbrua and headed North on European Road E6. The views are spectacular and again roads are empty, but well maintained. Occasional bus, truck or RV.
The bus stops often to either drop someone off or take someone on. In the middle of nowhere there would be a car waiting to see someone off to the bus, or to pick someone from the bus.
The bus stop is always marked. There are often small wooden booths designated as bus stops and shelters.
Sometimes the bus goes onto a small road to a community to pick up a person. Some of the designated stops are skipped if no request is made. All this is done through their apps.
In about an hour, we pass the monument of the battle of Narvik. We only had a glance of it, but this is where the allied forces and Germans would engage for the first time.
There were people walking through the field and a few tanks too. Perhaps there was more, but this is all we could see from the bus window.
The road meanders through the river valleys, meadows surrounded by mountains, some small communities here and there and lots of water everywhere.
We drive by a Polar Park side road (basically a zoo with Arctic wildlife), up the hills to a well marked shooting (according to the signs) area.
Not sure if and when they have hunting season or if it is year-round.
Further on, a bus stop, literally in the middle of nowhere. It says Moan on the sign. We just passed by it and continued.
We picked someone in a village called Setermoen. Seemed bigger than the hamlets we’ve been driving by.
(Alex: Given the ease of driving on these well-maintained and uncongested roads I began to muse about renting and RV – there were many rentals on the road – and spending more time exploring off the beaten track. One can but dream…)
The bus stopped for 10 min at Bardufoss, about half way to Tromsø, for a bio-break There were limited facilities in the convenience store so it was a bit of a panic getting the job done and back onto the bus. The driver had said he couldn’t wait for laggards.
There was some kind of festival there. We had some sandwiches that we’d brought for the road. We also still had some of the Swedish wine in one of the backpacks.
After all, to this point we’ve been in Norway only for two nights. We have to finish the wine before our flight from Tromsø to Bodo.
Soon we drive through the village of Nordkjosbotn, where we leave E6. After crossing the water, we turn onto E8 towards Tromsø. Road still spectacular and even more so.
As we approach our destination the road gets busier and busier. It will be really busy entering Tromsø, which for some reason I thought was a small town far north.
As we’ll see in the next post, excluding Oslo, this was one of the busiest towns in Norway we’d visit. Especially in the north.
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