Wednesday 4th February: a lot of snow and a closed road, now what?

Sørkjosen - Narvik: 310km

Todays destination was Riksgränsen, just over the Swedish border. The last stop before Jokkmokk where both raid groups will meet.

After yesterday we learned that it’s not strange for roads to be closed because of the weather and as weather is still not to good we checked the websites. The road over the border and to the hotel was indeed closed, but according to the website it would be open at for. So the plan was to make sure to be there at that time.

But first breakfast and digging out the cars.

After we packed the car we hit the road. Weather at that time was already cloudy so we couldn’t see much of the normally great views on this famous road. Nevertheless it was still impressive. Specially the icicles hanging from the rocks aside the road. 

Icicles

Frozen mountains 

Between the clouds and snowstorms we managed to see some of the surroundings. 




But view was mostly white. At a certain moment Tanguy had to do his private this so we stopped on a parking along the way. There was a Samishop as well so I finally got my birthday present, new wollen Sami soks. The ones I got in 2016 were al worn down, so time for new ones. 

When we came out of the shop an army convoy parked in front of our cars, naturally we had to take some pictures. 

After this mice unexpected intermezzo we drove of. Along the way we saw more army convoy’s, we think that there was a army settlement over there.

We followed our way on the E6, a very busy mainroad. We had a truck on our tail for a while untill he found it enough and passed us.

 

We survived, a truck always leaves a big cloud of snow dust behind it so you can’t see anything for a few seconds. Just hope the road goes straight.

Last part to the gate it became dark already, but it stopped snowing so hard. 

When we came at the gate of the road to Sweden it was still closed. We lined up with other trucks and cars to wait until the road would open at four. And then four became six, and then half past eight and then it was clear it wouldn’t open anymore today.

For a moment we thought the road would open

But no, so we waited for over for hours.

When it became clear that the road would stay closed we decided to find a place to stay overnight and think what to do tomorrow. Fife teams ended up in a lovely B&B, three other teams found a hotel in Narvik.

Getting up the road at the B&B was another challenge. It was a steep and very icy road to the house. The Belgium Akadiane and the 4WD 2cv did a good jobs. The other normal 2CV’s got up with a run-up or snow chains. We didn’t manage on our own, and were to lazy to put the chains on. So after three tries the 4WD gave us a tow.

Al in front of the house

First we had the save arrival drink and then the team from The Swiss, Capricorn meets Reindeer cooked us diner with the supplies the owner provided.

It was delicious after this long day.

We ended the day deciding what to do tomorrow. We made a few calls with some locals we know, asked the owner some device and decided mot to take the risk of getting stuck for a clossed road again, but instead take the d-tour north, almost twice as long, and get a very early start so that we will still be in Jokkmokk on time.

But before we could turn into our beds e found out that other guests parked their big electric automatic behind our cars and blocked our way. So we asked the guy to park it somewhere else, and guess what..... he got terribly stuck. Gertjan took over the steeringwheel and we showed some good team effort to puss the 1800 kilo car back on the road and park it on the beginning of the way up and out of our way in the morning. 

And finally we went to bed with the alarm set on 4:00 hours 🙈