Bodø; Wednesday, 24 May, 2023

The second 100 of the day headed out of Narvik and continued the slow journey South West alongside fjords and up into the mountains before passing through what I imagine are the very impressive Efjordbruene a series of three bridges that link across the Efjord over two small island that sit in the middle of the fjord creating three narrow straits, but were almost impossible to make out through the pounding rain.

About 20 minutes later we arrived at the ferry terminal of Skarberget where we rolled onto the ferry for the 25 minute sail across the Tysfjorden to the town of Bognes.

In the style of integrated transport that only really Norway can achieve our ferry with our 100 bus on it landed in Bognes at the same time as the much larger ferry that had left Lødingen an hour earlier and contained another 100 bus that had come down from Sortland on Vesterålen also docked.

We rolled off the ferry and headed about 10 minutes down the road to a small rest stop area in Storjord and pulled into the parking lot, followed a couple of minutes later by the other 100 bus which we then all transferred onto to complete the journey to Bodø. Whilst I had total faith in Norwegian transport either making it work or getting us to Bodø via another method, it was still a relief once we were on that third bus, especially as it would be the last time we had pot luck with the seating as all other legs from here on were with reserved seating.

From Storjord we continued on the third number 100 of the day for several more hours following the E6 road as it winds its way up mountains and along the edges of fjords and through impressive tunnels (some of which may have also had roadworks and alternate lane traffic working that caused a 20 minute wait to get through) before finally, for the last time, saying goodbye to the road we had been on for most of the journey down from Kirkenes in the town of Fauske

From Fauske the bus continued almost due west along the Skjerstad Fjord and then the Saltfjorden before finally arriving into Bodø and depositing us in the centre of town for the short walk down to our hotel for the night.

Whilst none of the legs of the journey had been the longest single leg this had been the longest day of travel with us arriving into Bodø nearly 13 hours after we left the hotel in Tromsø, so we were glad to get into the hotel, drop our luggage, have a quick drink in the bar and then turn in for the night.