We arrived in Tromso late yesterday and found a parking spot behind the ‘Arctic Cathedral’ which is rated as one of the must’s to see in Norway. After a visit to the cathedral we found the overnight parking area for motor homes just near the bridge which joins the mainland and Tromso Island with the view of the Cathedral up on the hill.
We took our late evening walk over the 1km bridge into Tromso as the Hurtigruten coastal ferry passed underneath.
Once across the bridge we walked through the streets of the town. As it was already late most shops and attractions were closed.
We still enjoyed seeing the two Wooden Churches, one being the Tromsø Cathedral and is is the only Norwegian cathedral made of wood with the church tower and main entrance facing west. It is likely to be the northernmost Protestant cathedral in the world. With 800 seats, it’s also one of Norway’s biggest wooden churches. As a bonus we also found a geo-cache here.
Along the street we bought some Pommes Frites to enjoy while walking and were attacked by scavenous sea gulls, not just your average Australian small sea gulls, these ones have some size to them. One hit Steven’s hat so we stood under a tree outside the church, the branches too low for them to get under. Walked back over the bridge as the Hurtigruten Passenger Ferry went under. This ferry goes in and out of the Norwegain Islands and is an alternative way of seeing the islands instead of driving.
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| AMotorhome service point Tromso |
Got up the next morning to a flat main battery. Steven had been plugged the computer into the car battery the night before. We took out the house battery to jump start the Hymermobile and let the engine run to charge the battery. The water system had a problem as well with very little water coming out the taps. While investigation it became obvious that the water was leaking out on the ground outside. Steven then recalled that if you loose all house battery power the boiler anti freeze solenoid opens and the boiler dumps all the water. Dug our way through our stuff to the boiler solenoid, push the reset and all is well again.
Since we were having a problem day today we also noticed that the carpet was wet and we must have a water leak somewhere. Checked the hoses into the fresh water tank whcih is stored under the lounge seat and also found things stored there were wet. It looked as though the water leaked when filling the tank so we decided to eait until next water fill and Trish would fill the tank and Steven would watch the inflow to check which pipe was leaking.
It was only a short drive to the Cable Car. The cable car takes you up to Storsteinen (421 meters above sea level), with a fantastic view of Tromsø and its surroundings.
From the top there is a network of highland hiking routes and a restaurant with an outdoor mountainside terrace. We took a short walk along one of the trails but returned to the cafe and took the much more relaxing option of drinking hot chocolate on the outdoor terrace overlooking Tromso where there was a great view of the Fjord and Tromso Island and surrounding mountians.
A quick stop at Co-op to stock up on fresh food supples and after a late lunch set off for the day toward Senja Island at 5pm!! Senja is the second largest island in Norway and is located 60 km South West of Tromsø. Our main reason for heading to Senja is to see the rugged coastline on the Western side.
Now on the E8 we drove along the Balsfjorden with stunning views of jaggard mountains with snow capped peaks and pine trees. We turned onto R855, then the R86 to Finnsnes, town of Finnsnes is on the mainland and from there the Gisund bridge leads over to Senja which we crossed at 8:10pm.
We stopped by a river where Steven fished for a while and we had dinner by the river midnight under the midnight sun. We backtracked for a while to reach our stop for the night at the top of a moutain pass Ballesvikskaret which we had driven passed past earlier.
The end of a big day!
