Waking up early after yet another noisy and wet night we left camp and got to Bodø’s ferry port sufficiently early to catch the boat we had booked. Departure was at 07:00 and the crossing should take 3.5h. While waiting Franz in the rain was able to plug in the kettle somewhere to make us a much-needed coffee. We could have even caught the 06:00 ferry but as we hadn’t been able to print our online reservation this was not possible. In a country where almost everything is digital this came a bit as a surprise. We were able to board the ferry first and then made our way to the seating area where we got one of the few tables with a power outlet. Once we had left the bay and sailed in open waters the swell was getting quite impressive, rocking the boat significantly but the rest of the journey was rather uneventful apart from the price we had to pay for a small sandwich, a waffle and a bottle of water: 22€…daylight robbery! Welcome to Norway.
The crossing then took actually about 4h and we arrived in Moskenes on Lofoten where we were greeted by low hangingf clouds and a smell of fish. A rather remarkable smell of fish.
And not the fresh kind.
Lofoten is well known for it’s tradition of Stockfish and you can see the wooden racks basically on every corner. At the moment there are mainly the heads on only which according to some research will be sent to Italy to produce fishmeal. Lovely job for the guy who’s got to load and unload the truck.
The other thing that we remarked was that it had stopped raining.
The scenery on Lofoten is spectacular and breathtaking. We could see that even with the weather not being in our favour. Again.
We made our way to the campsite and beach near Gimsøya where the first party during this rally would take place and was about to start.
When we arrived at the party location there were already some teams there but the majority apparently was still in transit. We took the time and strolled the lot to check out the other teams. Did we mention that it had stopped raining?
Jörg then took the opportunity that there was a golf course just a few hundred meters away and disappeared for 9 holes. Lofoten Links is one of the northermost golf courses in the world on a fantastic location with outstanding beauty. But see for yourself:
And the score wasn’t too shabby either.
Then the proceedings started for the party. All teams had obtained a crate of Ratsherrn beer from Hamburg per person at the start in Hamburg and had to bring them to the party. There was a big pile of it at the beach and everyone helped themselves. The organizers had set up a lot of barbecues, tables and benches. There were sausages for free and you could grill our own stuff. Some teams went fishing that day and put their prey on the grill. We had some lovely and thick entrecotes and potatoes with creme fraiche.
There were also some viking games where all teams were to participate but we were kicked out of the competition already in the first round.
We talked to many of the other teams, made some new friends and had a lot of fun around the fire.
Later at night quite a few of the participants went swimming for a Midsommar swim in the North Polar Sea, which was around 6 degrees. We missed out on it due to some wrong information we had received concerning the time for the swim. Sort of…
It was quite chilly anyway with a vicious wind going through our clothes right into our bones.
We went to bed after midnight with the mosquitos still or already at home and the sun still up, which unfortunately we couldn’t see for the cloudy sky that night.
This was our shortest stint during the rally both in distance and time with about 130 km and 3 h in the car plus 4 h on the ferry.
Scuderia Nordica 