Norge

Only another 100kms (or 10 Swedish milles), over the mountains and through a tunnel lies Norgè where we arrived in Mo I Rana, a somewhat industrial town at the top of a fiord on the day they were experiencing their first winter storm. Not being ‘the season’ the information place was shut, but a friendly young lady in the bookshop helped us with an itinerary for the day. The drive in the car all along the fiord to where the ferries depart to other islands or different parts of the mainland was spectacular and afforded us a look at a small part of Norway, including their interesting letterboxes. The fiords are much more like the Marlborough Sounds than the West coast fiords, except that with the storm there were numerous waterfalls also.

Autumn or is it Winter?

Red Pig was most excited about the proposed trip by hired car north west to Hemavan, the Swedish equivalent of Queenstown, NZ. This meant the opportunity to explore the countryside, see the high mountains (around 1200m so not enormous but nice enough and still with some snow patches), and most of all, delight in the autumn colours, which are really magnificent. The landscape is beautiful; forest, farms, lakes, rivers and streams and then of course the mountains, just waiting for some intrepid hiking. Wearing our own or borrowed gear we hiked up a mountain and along the top to a place called Laisaliden and up a huge roaring river that has sculpted out holes and what were called ‘canals’ instead of ‘channels’ due to a slip in translation. Overnight it snowed

Baltic Sea

In the afternoon, G and H joined Charlotte and their Italian truffle dog (Red Pig was too nervous to accompany them) to see her family’s summer house at the beach on the Baltic sea, which incidentally is hardly salty and has no tide. It must be lovely in summer as the beach is sandy and the sea very calm-more like a lake than the sea. However, this day was very cold with a strong wind blowing, so thank goodness for the house-warmed to keep the indoor plants alive over winter!

Cycle upriver

On a 20km bike ride along the cycle path next to the wide Ume river (which has its headwaters all the way into Norway more than 500 kms away and from which the town Umeå gets its name – pronounced like oo-me-oh) on Sunday morning, we found a lovely church. Bikes and pigs were not however allowed in the picturesque cemetery!

Excercise and eating habits

Golf! Saturday saw the three of us on the golf course accompanying new friends on their usual nine holes (or 18 holes in summer, including the summer version of the 19th hole pictured here). Their day had began with a swim session – the Swedish people generally seem to be very active; no wonder they can and do eat a lot without the consequences that other western eating habits have. Mind you, we haven’t found any energy bars or muesli bars in the shops and far less a selection of chips. However, we have found whole shops devoted to lollies and the chocolate from Finland is very yummy. No-one eats on the trot, all school children receive (free) cooked lunch at school and most people eat a very healthy cooked meal at lunch time, bought from one of the many and various restaurants around the campus.

Soccer

Last night Red Pig had an outing when we were given a ‘biljtett’ (ticket) to the womens’ soccer game in town. Umea’s team has won the Swedish champs for a few years. We went out of interest to see what the crowd was like, but ended up being as excited as anyone there when the local team scored to make it 3-2 in the last two minutes of the game. Then off back home on our bicycles, through the forest tracks en route-what could be nicer?

The Dongers

We have both been lent bicycles by respective colleagues and so have a new freedom to explore more quickly. Cycling is the dominant form of transport here, supported and made safe by the network of cycle/walking tracks, and we have found it very pleasant to be out and about by bicycle. We go to work by bicycle also; it takes 15 minutes instead of the 35 minute walk. It’s easy to wear work clothes and cycle at a gentle pace, instead of the necessary lycra and speed that seems to be the norm in NZ. H's cycle is a classic-at least 40 years old, no gears, huge pedal circumference that makes pedalling (even uphill) relatively easy, although one gets to the stage where one simply cant pedal if the hill is too steep and then everyone simply walks that section. We have been finding new ways of getting to work, to the shops etc and now don’t even require a map unless we are trying to get to a specific address. Pretty good feeling. The only drawback is that it takes at least five minutes to dress up in all the required warm gear for cycling; jacket, gloves, headgear and scarf. Temperatures have certainly dropped since our arrival; it’s regularly 4 or 5 degrees in the morning en route to work and again in the evenings.