23 August

I woke at 0400 to see the morning sun streaming through the window. So I did the only thing I could and rolled over and woke again at 0450, when it was time to get up. Organising clothes and packing for the day took a few minutes so the wake-up call arrived before I got into the shower.
All was ready by 0520 so the suitcase went out and I went down.
Nearly all were there; we got our instructions and our box breakfast and went outside. Alas, for the first time, we were missing two – the two youngest on the tour! They did arrive in a short time, fortunately still within the allocated time. We all walked to the bus (some put bags on there instead of taking them on the ferry) and then to the ferry (if I say it was only three hundred metres in total, does it seem less of an effort?). After a short wait we got our tickets and boarded the ferry. By about 0620 the ferry was on its way. I had already had breakfast (three slices of bread, slices of cheese and two different types of meat) and had explored parts of the ferry (quite small compared to the ones from Germany to Denmark, and the Tasmanian ferries, but quite large given the size of the town we came from) by the time we left the dock.
The ferry seemed very lightly loaded and so we were spread all around. The “sundeck” would have been sunny if there was any sun and the ship’s wheel would have seemed useful if it was actually connected to anything. It was a chance to sit, relax, do my blog writing from yesterday, read a little of the Lonely Planet guide on Scandinavia and compare it to what I had already seen, chat to a few more members of the tour and look at the scenery. Surprisingly along the way I saw … the SUN! Alas it was only briefly, but it was visible.
Later in the morning the ship seemed to become busier. It was the tourists already on the boat who had now got up out of bed. They had been on since Bergen an some were from England and others were from Europe (and least some from Germany, because they were the nationalities I was chatting to. Then, at about 1115, the all-too-brief ferry experience was over. We all huddled around the disembarkation point as we had to be scanned upon leaving the ferry at Hammerfest. Our group headed back to our bus while others headed off on tour buses or on foot to explore the town. We just left items on the bus and had an hour to have lunch and explore. With some others I wandered along to fiind something to eat and see a little of the town at the same time. Hammerfest is the site of a large LNG installation.
The town was setting up for some festival, with a tented enclosure capable of seating a few hundred at a time, at least five barbecues and a lot of sauce! There was a large stage with dancers rehearsing and another for a band. After wandering around I got a drink and bread rolls at a supermarket (nok27,50, compared to nok36 for just a drink on the ferry) and took some photos around the main square. Time vanished quickly and so it was back to the bus for our trip to Alta and our stop for the night.
We had to cross from an island back onto the mainland so it was through another tunnel before we could do that. After, we travelled along one fjord, over the central plateau and back to a river and fjord at Alta. The drive was two hours and the scenery changed from bare rock with occasional grass cover (and plenty of reindeer, even whole herds at some places) through to forest with mountain streams and plenty of holiday houses, then through to the plateau with no trees, little settlement and only scatters Sami houses. But in what seemed like no time at all, but really the whole two hours, we descended into Alta. Here the vegetation was thicker, the trees were taller, the river wider and a considerable settlement of nearly 10 000. We went straight to the museum where we set off on a short hike to see rock carvings. Our local guide (who I found out after was a graduated secondary school student who was planning on studying medicine in Spain in a Norwegian Private University) went into great detail in explaining the rock carvings, They had been done between 6 500 and 5 000 BC at the upper level and 5 500 and 4 000 BC at the lower level. They were reflections of the way of life at the time, perhaps with a religious and communicative purpose. As well as showing the relationship between different animals and the peoples, it also showed the relative places and numbers of men and women in ship crews (see if you can tell that there were two men and one woman on each ship).
After, I went over the museum which, while being small, did cover the local area admirably. It says a lot that one document covering mining in the 1830s made the comment that the visit “… was admirable because of the fine tea and the misses with the low-cut necks on the dresses …” – perhaps more than anything else that human nature has not changed very much in two hundred years.
It was back on the bus and to the hotel. Although it was the same chain as last night, the service and surroundings were a lot better. I settled in my room and processed and uploaded all my photos for the past few days and yesterday’s blog before going down for tea at 1900. The food and the company was very enjoyable and it wasn’t until nearly 2100 that I returned to finish today’s blog, do my washing (yesterday and today), post the blog and then retire to sleep, perhaps to catch up on what I may have missed out this morning.
The mobile is on to charge, as is the laptop.