Towards Porsanger Fjord

Day 37: Alta-Olderfjord (111 km)

We left Alta at quarter to nine this morning. Our route today was first uphill, then over a plateau for a long time, and finally back to the coast at Porsanger Fjord.

After a few flat kilometres out of Alta, we soon reached the first uphill part. After 25 kilometres, we had climbed about 250 metres when we reached a Sami camp with a souvenir shop. Here we asked if they had any coffee. They didn’t have coffee at the shop. Instead, we were invited home to an older couple who served us coffee, syrup, cookies and dried reindeer meat, which was very kind.

With new energy, we had ten more kilometres uphill until we reached an altitude of 400 metres. From now it was a plateau with very little vegetation. The roads were straight for many kilometres, but the landscape and the views were very nice.

We took a lunch break after 60 kilometres at a resting place with our own supplies. After 85 kilometres, we reached the next settlement, Skaidi, which had a petrol station/shop/restaurant where we enjoyed a second lunch.

We made good progress today, so instead of cycling around 100 kilometres as planned, we continued down to the coast at the Porsanger Fjord and set up camp after 111 kilometres, which will make the coming final two days even easier.

Tomorrow, if everything works well, we may cycle another 90 kilometres and get to or close to Honningsvåg. This would mean that we would cross the final tunnels, especially the Nordkapp tunnel, which is a 7 kilometres long undersea tunnel, so that we can enjoy a tunnel-free ride on our last day on Friday.

I had a nice encounter with a reindeer today which I captured in a video.