HIGHS AND LO(WS)FOTEN

Thursday 23rd June 2016...Referendum day...in or out

Wed.22nd.june. .....a low day
A day at leisure but we are miles from anywhere so have to drive out for fun. The obvious is to Å, a town at the very bottom of the LOFOTEN ISLANDS and a box needing ticking for some reason. The advised "60 odd miles" turned out to be exactly 100 miles each way on roads not too wide for the last 30 miles and virtually single track for the last 10, more of which anon. The weather was glorious and the scenery to die for. ..absolutely  magnificent....and if the road was better it would be the best drive ever. Plan A had been to take D&M but they decided not to at the last moment which was wise in hindsight as the journey on the sideways bench seats sans seat belts would not have been pleasant and probably dangerous. Å itself is an interesting old wooden building fishing village, reserved and maintained and still working at catching and drying cod on huge wooden frames.....there's a lot of them about. It also has a traditional bakery selling the most delicious cinnamon buns from a small wood burning oven and which are a must buy experience for which there is a long queue. The place is tourist heaven, coaches,motorhomes,backpackers and cyclists. In fact all of LOFOTEN is packed with motorhomes ,coaches,cyclists and backpackers which is how one of them took off my offside mirror on the return journey. A positive side of driving a RH drive vehicle on the right is that you know exactly how close in to the kerb you are. He came round a bend much to fast, I was nearly stationary and we both saw him coming right at us. Previously mirrors just clip and the protectors save them serious damage but this one was so close that it took the whole thing off and scattered bits 50 yards down the road....he stopped a hundred yards further on and we met picking up bits....no language in common and he wasn't conciliatory  but neither was I so we went our separate  ways.. I managed to find enough bits to cobble together so that I had an excuse for a mirror....the glass was all cracked in both parts but at least held together so I could see anything overtaking or coming up behind.  So I drove to LEKNES where I had spotted an Esso station on the way down that was cheaper than the rest and after refuelling asked the cashier if there was a Fiat garage in town....Luckily there was one 100 yds away and to cut a long story they can help. Hadn't got one in stock but had 2 on order for Thursday,  as they can get through 5 (!!!) a week in the summer...."too many motorhomes on too narrow roads". So I'm going back on Friday (50 miles each way) as Thursday is an excursion day.....tbc