July 16th – nr Storvolleng 25km ENE Mo i Ranna

Sweden

The hire car

Norway

We left our excellent overnight spot around 8 am and got to the LPG gas refilling station about noon, which was good as it closed at 2 pm. The refilling took only a few minutes and then we were on our way back! But now we had the time to do a bit of exploring so we diverted first to a single track but very well maintained side road through a national forest and then by more main roads into Sweden and then back to the main north south E6 route. The countryside is very varied with in some places quite large and lush looking farms growing mainly grass but also potatoes and in some of the southerly places barley and oats. Much of the area particularly in Sweden was a high plateau covered in forests and lots of huge lakes. There were a few small boats but mostly the lakes were just beautiful open expanses of water. Part of the route  near the sign for the Arctic circle was over a  bare and rugged,  rock strewn treeless plateau  just below the snow-line, which reminded us of the train journey across Rannock Moor – particularly as there is a single track railway running beside the road.

We slept in the car again this time up a single-track side road not quite so close to a stream but with beautiful mountain views. There were quite a lot of houses in the surrounding woods but none in view.