Goodbye Norway

As predicted since our last updating attempt the facilities for internet related activities have been very thin on the ground. So just a quick overview of our activities over the last 3 weeks since we left Trondheim. We caught a train North to Mo i Rana as the stretch did not get particularly good reviews. We had an unexpected meet up with two people from Kirsty's homearea. We had hoped for a fresh start after our rest in Trondheim but were hampered by the fact that Kirsty's front pannier broke of and went through the front wheel taking out two spokes. It being Sunday we were a bit at a loss what to do, luckily Kirsty's was OK just a wobbly wheel. We decided to find a campspot for the night and were walking up a quiet lane when we noticed we were being followed by a car, we feared the worst but... it turned out that the guys in the car (who were keen cyclist) had seen us and worked out thar something was wrong. They took of with the front wheel and were back in 30 minutes, our Norwegian angels. We headed North over the old coastal route RV17 past stunning mountain scenery heading for Bodo. Just outside Bodo it was Daan's turn to have bike troubles the rim of the back wheel split, after limping into Bodo we were again very lucky to find a cycle shop that had all the right parts. This enabled us to get the afternoon ferry to the Lofoten we decided to visit one of the smaller islands first (Vageroy). We spend three fantastic days on the island walking around and relaxing although one day was rainbound in the tent. We did not see the thousands of puffins promised in the brochure but we did see specially bred Puffindogs (Lundehund) for hunting the puffins they have six toes, a bendy neck and can close their ears againts the dust in the puffin burrows. We also spotted several white tailed sea eagles.We then continued onto the main Lofoten and exited from Solvaer back to the Norwegian mainland. We passed through Narvik we we had another minor mishap when Kirsty's wheel got stuck in the railtrack luckily only a scuffed knee and slightly shaken. We continued to The Nowewegian - Swedish border and after getting trully soaked stayed at a hostel in Riksgränsen just in Sweden. We had hoped to catch a train to the Southern parts of Sweden but found out theat after a recent take over of the rail company bikes are no longer carried this led us to cycling nearly 80 miles yesterday to an enlarged version of Rannoch moor the landscape just remains the same for kilometers on end but thanksfully it is relatively flat. We are now in Kiruna and hopefully can take a bus further south as apart from it being slightly boring this place is also a nightmare for the mosquitos.