I don't know what was the most disconcerting ! Taking yet another corner / bridge to discover yet another road toll sign that would soon have us owning part of the Norwegian Road Network, reading the lunch time menu and discovering that a small bottle of beer was going for $16 or finding myself busting for a "wee" standing beside the waters of the Saltstrumen bridge knowing that it was well covered with world wide webcams. While accepting that we all strive for moments of fame the idea of appearing on a webcam being shown around the world taking a "wee" was not the type of fame I was looking for ! What was making my last choice infinitely harder though was the fact that the Saltstrumen was in the tidal process of channelling 4 trillion litres of water through a narrow 150 metre gap with the resultant sound of the waters 20 knot speed almost doubling me over in agony !
On our 2nd to last day in Norway we left the city confines of Bodo rejoining the not so civilised habits of high speed motorists while working our way 30kms to the location of the famed Saltstrumen "Maelstrom"apparently the site of the worlds largest and fastest tidal movement ! In retrospect I was glad that our first planned visit that morning, the National Aviation museum of Norway, was closed as the 2 hours saved came in handy as we went back and forwards over the Salstrumen bridge trying to work out where the actual Maestrom site actually was ! We need not have worried about looking for a sign because there just wasn't one ! Eventually we worked our way down an unsigned road to get within walking distance of the bridge and the tidal channel.
Even 2 hours before high tide the force of the current was incredibly strong (up to 20 knots!) making a mockery of the nearby emergency life preservers. By the time you'd have thrown in the preserver the intended recipient would have been a mile downstream !
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As the tidal strength grew we clambered up on to the bridge to get a great birds eye view of the forming whirlpools almost reaching the size of funnels that remind you in structure of those from seafaring fables !
With our Norwegain adventure now over we journied back to Bodo aiport handing over our hire car and walking into town (just over 1 & 1/2 kms) simultaneously contemplating the $25-$30 taxi fares we'd been charged on two occasions while acknowledging that Norway is just a little on the expensive side !
The walk back in the sunshine at least put such matters in the past and had us looking forward to our journey tomorrow to Iceland to join up with our daughter Tegan and Son in law Billy for our Iceland adventure ... well the arrival maybe but not the 4.00a.m. wake up !
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