Hunting High and Low

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My drive today from Narvick to Bodo involved finding a number of speciality items.  In preparation for this
I invented a new unit of currency....the Norwegian Beer (NB).   The exchange rate is about £12 to the NB.

Firstly, I managed to leave my only warm outerwear at Heathrow yesterday.  That's right, I am inside the Arctic Circle with nothing warmer than t-shirts.  I briefly considered a splendid Norwegian fisherman's jumper on sale at Oslo Airport....until I worked out that it was almost 15NBs.  Instead, I went to a place called Sports Outlet where a fleece cost me.....wait for it....ONE NB.  How can a fleece cost the same as a beer?  

Next was the obligatory electric beer fridge.  Again the new currency works well and for just 3NB I can now have cold beer whenever I want at the laughably low government off licence price of 0.25NB.

Finally, on arrival into Bodo, I had to find a parking space.   Our Avis rental van is about the size of a small aircraft carrier...this will be handy if we ever want to convert the back into a bowling alley but not ideal for parking.  

The riders have been arriving over the last couple of days with various tales of expired passports, lost bikes, etc and by this evening we should have all the bikes built and be ready to roll.

Bonus Track- Slow Down

I picked the van up in Tromso yesterday and set the Sat Nav for the 150 mile drive to my overnight hotel.  3 hours 55 was the predicted journey time.  What?  WHAT?  It turns out I was unaware of the following:

1/ the speed limits are very low
2/ everyone sticks to the limits*
3/ there are lots of speed cameras (see 2)
4/ nobody overtakes...ever
5/ all junctions are negotiated at snail's pace

*This may be explained by the fact that Norwegian speeding fines are means-tested.  The record was a businessman who was find €121,000 for being 30kph over the limit.

It's going to be a long old week driving the van :-(.  If I don't get a speeding ticket or 3 it will be a miracle.

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