Does this look familiar? We’ve continued our journey at the exact spot where we pressed the pause button in September: in front of the Havmannen sculpture in Mo i Rana. The weather was a dream, perfect to ease us back into travelling mode. We soon left the industrial town behind and ventured up the fairly busy E6 towards the Saltfjell and the North proper.

Ok, we said we’d snack a bit less this year, but who can resist a bit of soft ice with sprinkles?!

There was a fair bit of “up”, but as always in Norway, the views at the top more than made up for the effort.

Eventually, we reached the Polarsirkelensenter and officially The North (and some snow.) We won’t see another sunset for the rest of our journey!

A pleasant hour or so over the fjell and downhill next to fantastic white water, and we reached our destination for the night, the Saltfjellet hotell. Dinner was quite light after a buffet lunch, we went for a short walk to the DNT cabin down the hill where we spent a weekend a few winters ago for Andreas’ 50th party (only 2 years late!), and the settled for – surprise, surprise – another early night.