The first day of a new month, I got in first with the pinch and a punch!
This morning we got to the Moskosel Navvy Museum before it opened. The museum depicts life and conditions of the railway builders in the 19th century, but what we were really there for were the genuine northern Swedish dumplings. But we had to wait til about 11:00 when out they came steaming hot! I'm sure we were doing something wrong by eating the savoury dumplings with berry jam though.
We then continued on the road to Gällivare sidetracking when saw the
sign for Storfosen only 28km down a side road.
Storfosen was impressive! Over a 600m stretch, the river descends
about 50m making these Europe's largest rapids. It was quite amazing
seeing the power of the water hurdle down!! Even the eddies that were
rushing back up stream was about the size of a grade 2 rapid!!
We had an interesting conversation with a local who pointed out that we are at the same latitude as the north of Canada, and the Antarctic coast. The difference here though, is the warm gulf stream currents which keep the Scandinavian region fertile and not barren - making this area possible to live in over the centuries.
Well worth the little side trip, the next stop was the latitude of 66°33' degrees, otherwise known as the Arctic circle - the most southerly point that the sun stays above the horizon for a whole 24
hour period, I guess it also means it is the point where the sun doesn't rise in winter. Ironically though, this evening it is the darkest we've had in Sweden, as the black rain clouds have descended on us!!!
Our plan to climb Mt Dundret for the midnight sun has been put on hold, instead we have parked up outside the Jokkmokk information centre and taken advantage of the free wifi internet access!
No comments:
Post a Comment