Alta Museum and Reisa National Park, Norway Week 62 17th -19th July 2012
                 
A bit of a surprise in the Alta Museum.

We went to see the rock carvings and part of the display was of slate mining.

From about 1850 onwards. Exported to Scotland around the 1920's.

The majority of the museum was devoted to the rock carvings.

 
All that remains of a couple of stoneage dwellings. A couple of dips in the ground.
 
The oldest carvings are 7,000 years before present.

Oldest settlement is 11,000 years.

As the ice melted after the ice age the land rose. The oldest artefacts are higher up the hill - 70m above sea level.

 
The rocks have been cleaned of vegetation and, as is common in Scandinavia, the rock carvings painted red.

We unkindly wondered if it was the ubiquitous Fallon Red!

Took us about 90 minutes to walk round the two main groups of carvings.

 
Mostly literal carvings (not a lot of abstract images).

The technique looked remarkably similar to the carvings we saw in Mutawintji (NW of Broken Hill in Aus). Both outlines and the middles chipped.

Alas, there's no desert varnish here to protect them.

 
Main street Alta.

We needed the supermarket and tourist info.

The tourist info places mainly have only local info so asking about the next place is a bit of a loss.

 
We carried on towards Narvik, about 500 km away.

Meandering around the fjords.

This is not Mitre Peak (Milford Sound, NZ).

 
Occasionally "up and over" between fjords.

At last we can tell the difference between the warning signs for reindeer and moose.

 
All a bit overwhelming really.
 
Salmon farming.
 
We seem to have met the traffic.

Every other vehicle is a motorhome.

We are traveling a bit slower than most of the traffic.

The normal driving habit is people hang back waiting for others to pull over before overtaking. Quite tiring for us. Some stay so far back by the time its safe to overtake the opportunity has gone.

But at least we don't have a convoy of vehicles behind us as we have seen passing the other way.

 
At Storslett we took a detour to the south into Reisadalen.

A couple of hours walk into the Reisa National Park.

When a Norwegian suggests something is expensive then its very expensive.

Thus was the cost of a boat into the park.

We had a bit of local advice and drove as far as we could. About 5km south of Saraelv.

It had rained, the track was a bit overgrown so our trousers were soaked. There were gazillions of mosquitoes. And quaint track markers.

 
Not only that we didn't really get out of the trees so views were fleeting.

After a couple of hours we'd nearly reached the park boundary.

So we turned back.

The local community have produced a little booklet of 10 walks and 5 high points to walk up. Maps and aerial photos with the tracks marked, plus descriptions. We'll know better next time!

 
A greater variety of trees than we've seen for a while.

We are still well north of the Arctic Circle but it must be getting warmer as we head south.

 
We found a pleasant campsite overlooking this lake.

The owner of the cabin came by to check us out.

Lots of useful info.

 
His neighbour is a teacher, there for the holidays.
 
Abisko National Park and Tornahamn, Sweden to Moysalen National Park, Norway Week 63 20th -23rd July 2012
 
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