Hitching in Lyngenfjord

The old man stopped to give us a lift. He opened the back of his estate car and helped put our heavy packs in without asking where we were going. He'd been down to Nordkjosbotn to get some dog food and now was heading back to his home near Nordmannvik, about a 3 hour round trip.

He told us that there didn't used to be a road on this bit of the fjord. This was where the Sea-laps (Sea Sami) lived and fished; there was no road to them, only boats.

Then the road was built and later the tunnels to protect the roads from the landslides falling from the sheer slopes in the winter.

He remembered a time when there were lots of people who spoke Kven, something similar to Finnish but different. There were some words that sounded familiar to him but it was hard to understand.

He'd heard that once, more than a thousand Brits had come over, by boat, to work in the mines. That was a long time ago.

Many of the first tourists here were Germans. Many soldiers had been here, during the war, and fallen in love with the place; they came back to visit with their new families.

Now there are lots of Japanese tourists. They come to see the northern lights. Most nights there are half a dozen coaches parked in Skibotn. Most of them stay in Tromsø.

They're building a new tunnel too. Then the trip to get dog-food will only take two-and-a-half hours