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Ian Wright begins his Nordic journey high on a cliff
in Stavanger, where he witnesses the
extreme sport of Base Jumping. He journeys
from Staveanger to Bergen by ferry, which takes him
along just 150 of Norway’s 21,000 miles of coastline.
Ian enjoys a night out with locals and travellers in
Bergen and discovers that drinking
in Norway requires a small mortgage.
The next stage of the journey is from Bergen to Voss
by train. The usually highly reliable train breaks down
and Ian has to complete his journey by taxi. He arrives
in Voss before nightfall and camps
out at the edge of a clear lake – not a very comfortable
option but next morning aches and pains are soon forgotten
as Ian takes on nature with a lesson in river boarding.
Ian travels onwards to Stryn, one of
Norway’s three summer ski resorts. The journey
takes two days by coach and Ian has the opportunity
to see Norway’s mountainscapes at their best, as
well as take a short trip in a replica Viking boat.
Ian has a go at a telemart skiing – a traditional
form of skiing that combines downhill and cross country
styles. To help him recover, he takes a quick sauna. Three hundred miles further north by bus to Trondheim,
Ian rents a bike and takes a whistle stop tour of the
town. He then travels by train and plane to Lapland,
the land of the Midnight Sun.
Lapland is also known as Samiland and
it covers parts of Sweden , Russia and Finland. Ian
thumbs a lift from a Sami Reindeer farmer and soon finds
himself erecting a Norwegian Labu or tent. Dinner that
night is dried reindeer meat, which seems to be a staple
of the Sami diet. Before leaving Lapland Ian is invited to a colourful
Sami wedding. After the ceremony the guests enjoy a
lavish feast of, not surprisingly, reindeer meat!
Ian dons his wellies, hat and white overalls and spends
three days gutting fish to earn enough money for a helicopter
flight to Spitzbergen, the Northern
most point of Norway. With a greater population of polar
bears than humans, this island is the closest stretch
of land to the North Pole. The temperatures are way
below freezing and Ian has the opportunity to go ice
diving with some resident researchers. The ultimate challenge of Ian’s Norwegian journey
comes in the form of eight huskies and a sled which
take Ian deep into the wilderness. |
