We had promised to update this page as we settled in to our
new lives in Norway, you might have thought we were never going to get round to
doing this but we have a good excuse…it has been fairly non stop for the past,
well months!
We had been in debate whether or not too do a house removal
from Orkney to our new home, it is just so far that financially it was not
worth it, we didn’t have anything particularly valuable left in Orkney nor did
we have much of the furniture we would be requiring such as beds etc, so added
all together we knew that to replace the few bits would work out cheaper.
We were fairly settled on that decision but just days later
that overpowering sentimental hearts of ours got the best of us, and while we
may have had nothing particularly valuable we had some important items in
the UK in particular Daniels fathers artwork which we could never replace and
so within days of moving in we were dashing off back to the UK. We had looked
for the cheapest possible route to Orkney which saw us spending several nights
in various airports and two nights near Malaga in Spain, from Snow in Tromsø to
30 degrees in the shade it was a fairly rapid culture shock for us!
Eventually we arrived back in Papay where there are only two
car ferries per week, we had our Landrover and Trailer booked on the following
ferry with great intentions of a speedy turn around. We realised however that best-laid
plans of mice and men often go awry and the mammoth task of packing on the
trailer everything we hoped to move with us required some very long days of
sorting… So much later than planned we began the long journey through the UK
and Europe, arriving at the Norwegian border in the snow dressed in shorts and
t-shirt having driven from 28deg Holland almost nonstop (52hours) through
Denmark and Sweden. Customs were understandably keen to have a look in the
trailer which required some dismantling but looked equally as amused by our
summery attire in what felt like mid-winter weather.
A few days to unpack and we were saying goodbye to our house
again to drive all the way back to the UK, change cars and then turn around for
the final leg of the journey. From Suffolk via France, Belgium, Germany,
Denmark, Sweden and back to Norway all in a 31 year old car! We again found
ourselves in some ridiculously warm weather with a heat wave in northern
France, the warmest weather in 41 years. We spent two nights in France, which
saved us from the worst of the heatwave in the non air conditioned car!
Through Europe is a very scenic drive but admittedly having
done it three times in just a couple of weeks we were looking forward to
spending some time out of the car… Over 16000km removal driving, that’s about
3000 lengths of Papay….far more than our typical yearly mileage!
Shortly after returning to our new home we were reminded of
the complications of moving so far from our previous home when Amanda’s Grandad
passed away and Amanda painfully was not in a position to return to be with her
family. Grandad, Jim, will be missed.
While we love our new home there are sacrifices and
disadvantages in moving here. Verging on going in to a bit of a fug we decided
to look at our new home and the reasons we had decided to move here, the
lifestyle we had hoped to have. Something we had loved about Norway during
Papay Arctic Adventure was the nature and countryside, both the views and the
access. So having explored some of the off road tracks on our bikes we decided
to go camping, taking our tent and bbq and forging through the forest and up
the hills behind the house. While it might not have seemed worth it to some
folk this was the silly things we had spoke about when making the decision to
move to Norway and it was exactly the breath of fresh air we needed.
Watching the midnight sun from the hills overlooking the
neighbouring islands on a stunning night was perfect, well, besides the clouds
of midges and horseflies…but a small(ish!!) sacrifice.
We had put an advert locally looking to do some small jobs
while we work on our Norwegian so we marched down early morning with our tent
to get ready to go out to our first work in a long time.
So all in all things are beginning to settle in to place,
but we have far from lost the adventurous spark that brought us here, for now
though we adventure in another way, whether it involves mosquito swatting in
the tent on the edge of the hill watching the sun or rumbling down muddy tracks
on the bikes, fishing in the fjord with rain dripping off our chins or planning
the best route up the mountain, one thing is for sure, the adventure goes on.
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| Leaving on the ferry on the way to the airport in Tromsø |
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| Snow in Tromsø |
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| Far from snow in Andalucia |
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| Sunsetting in Papay, something we don't have in Norway in summer |
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| First journey to the house |
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| Still some snow in the garden in June |
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| New Neighbours... |
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| Back in Scotland |
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| Hiding from the heat in France on the final journey to Norway |
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| Still snow in Norway in late June |
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| Exploring the island by bike |
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| Camping overlooking the islands and mainland |
