Northern Norway Part 2 – Bergen to Alta
I had an early flight to catch to Oslo, then a connecting flight north to Alta. I had been informed by the hotel receptionist that the airport bus left every 10 minutes, but I wandered out to the bus stop to realise that it didn’t, and I would have to wait 20 minutes that I could’ve spent in bed. Determined not to get stressed (I was more worried about missing my flight than anything else!), I spent the next hour worrying about whether I had enough time.
I made it, but with very little room to spare. Mental note – always double triple check transfer/bus times and find out the exact time of the us I need to catch.
After my connecting flight in Oslo, I was soon above a landscape that I wasn’t familiar with. Waking from a rather deep sleep, I glanced down onto the vast, emptiness below and couldn’t quite understand what I was looking at. Initially it appeared to be a beige, lumpy duvet, a vast expanse of untouched wilderness. The colour however was confusing, it could have been sand in parts. I then realised that it was all in fact snow and the low light of the sun was illuminating it with a slightly brown hue.
I looked over a cloudless blue sky with vast frozen lakes, numerous inlets and islands giving way to the sea to the northfrom the plan window. We flew over a large fjord as we touched down on the one-runway airport at Alta. My first thought as we taxied over the glistening, icy runway was I would definitely need snow chains or winter tyres on my van here. Only a few days earlier I’d nearly become stuck driving my van after a dump of snow in Chamonix after putting off buying snow chains for the month I’d been there. I have some now.
I was met in the airport by Gøril from Northern Norway Tourist Board and transferred to our hotel where I did some work. My view of the town’s church was pretty spectacular.
Whilst waiting at the airport earlier in the day, I was sure the sun was about to set. Three hours later, the sun was at the same height, and continued to be at the same height until late. I’d never seen anything like it, but it was testament to how far north I’d come, amazing.
