17 June - Tromso to Hammerfest. 274 miles

I am rather chuffed. Today I finally got in to the R&A. But more of that later.

Two fjord crossings would take us to Alta, a nodal point in the far north, and we would then turn north to Hammerfest.

I saw these outside the next door room this morning.

I would be somewhat surprised if the SmartHotel Tromso offers a boot cleaning service (I thought that leaving one's shoes outside for cleaning was a thing of the distant past) but perhaps the owners of these trainers felt they needed a good going over with Cherry Blossom and a fine buff. I hate to think of the depravities that went on in that room.

The day was sunny but cool, turning decidedly chilly when we got into the tundra. Shortly after leaving Tromso, we took the two linked crossings from Breivikeidet and then Lyngseidet, a shorter and more attractive route than following the main road.

There are worse places to wait for a ferry to arrive.

And here are some shots on board.







Then it was same old, same old

Yes, there are a lot of panoramas and my camera is not always good at stitching them together, but everything seems to be in wide vision here.

I was stopped by the police. But they only wanted to ask about the Toad rather than my driving record.

On the first ferry, a local (with an 1800cc Harley) told me that the flora would become increasingly sparse after a certain point and that there was a dividing line beyond which trees would disappear. Whether we were climbing or entering the tundra zone, not long after we unloaded it started to get rather nippy.

But there was one last beauty, one of the finest views I can recall, and I am afraid my phone camera does not do it justice. The light plays tricks, but it really was that blue.

Then we were into tundra proper, first mountainous



and then flatter. It reminded me a little of Mongolia

There were some trees (mainly Birch) but they were thin, stunted, and were only just starting to show their Summer foliage. It's a hard life for them up here.

We passed through the surprisingly large (twice the size of Hammerfest, and wide-ranging) town of Alta, which sits in the centre of the far north. 

The Reindeer are more visible up here. I had to slow for some meandering down the road. In one spot, I was surprised when they did not scarper as I pulled over to take a snap - although this chap was not as close as my cropping makes it look.

One approaches Hammerfest from above.

The cruise ship in the photo left just now, but my attempt at a photo through my room window was blurred. It was quite a sight, disappearing slowly into the haze of the fjord.

The World's northernmost town (and the first to have electric street lights - 1891) its population is only 10,000 but the remarkable thing is that anyone lives this far north, on the 70 degree parallel. It was considered important enough as a trading settlement for us to blockade it in the Napoleonic Wars and it was the main German U Boat base for attacking Arctic convoys. There is no permafrost here and as I write it is feeling quite Summery. There is even a university here. 

But the town centre is unsurprisingly small, with few shops and eateries.

The town's emblem is the Polar Bear,

which brings me to the main reason for my visit. There is more than one way to get in to the R&A, and this is the other. I went to join the Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society.

Only I could not find the place. Google Maps said it had closed ten minutes before. I had come over 2500 miles for this and it's closed.

Thankfully, Google was wrong.

The Cocktail Hour beckons, but to close here is what I have to put up with when I turn to my window (for all of tonight if I am minded - sunrise and sunset at 00.26)

And The Toad (still behaving perfectly) has been put to bed just below.

Tomorrow it is all the way back to Alta, then north to seek the Grail for this expedition. 

PS: On one of the ferries, a Swiss biker who was travelling much the same route as ours but adding the Baltic states sounded unimpressed with everything around us and felt that Swiss mountain passes offered even more grandeur. From where I come from, it looks pretty good.