Back through Troms

Hiking with dogs

Hello from Nordland--we are again in the county where the midpoint of the country is located. We have been taking it pretty easy with the pace on the way home and have spent time visiting friends, going hiking, and seeing what people in the north are up to on a daily basis.

Feeding the cows (and cleaning)

In Langfjordbotn we stayed with Ida and Andreas and their accompanying four legged friends. They have a cabin in the mountains right behind the farm and we spent a day hiking up, fishing, playing games and enjoying the 24 hrs of daylight. The next day we hiked down (while fishing and stopping for a break with coffee and Ida's homemade lefsa). While we were there we also got to participate in different parts of the farm, such as feeding the dogs and milking the cows!

Enjoying the sunshine (plus lots of mosquitos) at the cabin

Petter and Trine--thank you for carrying our bags!

Starting at Ida's house, one of Tyler's friends, Petter, was nice enough to take most of our baggage in his car for a few days. He was on his way south to visit his family and had the time to take it slow, go hiking and meet up with us along the way. This worked perfectly and it was nice to both be free of the weight and to have good company.

Tyler specialty flourless chocolate cake

The next stop on the way home was with Marit and her family in Otoren. We got quite the rain storms on the afternoon of our arrival and the next day, so we decided to pass on riding and instead catch up on the journal and make some chocolate cake! There was also a midnight fishing expedition where Tyler caught three fish! Two of them were eaten right away on the beach and the other one we ate for lunch--doesn't get much fresher than that! The meals that we had were truly incredible and it is too bad that we didn't take pictures to show the moose meatballs or the mounds of potatoes and creamed corn that was prepared!

Happily well fed and happy to see each other again

Next was a night in the tent--our first during a rainy spell. It was just fine, but it also had us on the road rather early the next day. We had plans to meet up with the Benonisen's on their way north to Tromsø at a small town called Bjerkvik. We were treated to pizza, soda, and icecream, which made our day since we had run pretty low on food (read--we had honey, the last of the bread and raisins with coffee). Renewed, we restocked our own pantry and marched on.