Arctic Dirt Tour 13. Day 8 / 566 km. New friends and an unexpected ending.

I woke up to another fine morning in a light drizzle. It was the first bit of rain I had seen since the first day. Beside that, it was a very light drizzle and didn’t really bother me at all. I packed up quickly and headed for Hetta. This, as always, was a day I had been looking forward to. Today my path would finally take me to the old postal road from Kautokeino to Alta. It’s a bit of a classic.

I was looking forward to refueling and having a bit of breakfast and coffee in Hetta. Pulling in to the gas station I saw a dude smoking beside a 990 Adventure. I went to say hi and it turns out that the dude was actually a guy called Tuomas, and headed north. He wasn’t sure about riding the postal road so I invited him to ride with me. It’s be easier to take care of problems with the two of us as opposed to going solo. I was happy to have the company.

We took off to the boring tarmac section before finding the turn off north of Kautokeino. The trail became immediately interesting with water ruts, large stones, roots, mud, puddles and pretty much everything. I was really enjoying myself. Tuomas turned out to be a proficient rider and his 990 Adventure was steadily making good progress.

The scenery turned from overgrown bush country to fell highlands. The scenery opened up to treat us with sweeping views over the barren country. The feeling of emptiness and remoteness was sobering. I thoroughly loved every second of it.

We crossed a river over a good bridge at least once or twice. Further on we came across a section where the bridge had long since disappeared. There was a good crossing on the eastern side of the bridge and that was the only way across.

Tuomas went in first and took the 990 over without too much effort. I went in after him. It was a little tricky keeping the line on the large polished underwater boulders. Well, the throttle is your friend and I crossed without incident.

Pretty much in the middle of the road, there is a crossing with the new road. The northern section was in much better condition. Despite the awesome scenery it just felt a boring after the more technical southern section. We stopped high on the fells to enjoy the peace over a cup of coffee.

Further north, close to the end, the terrain kept climbing and became rockier. We stopped to admire the view and snap a few pics. There was a big parking lot close by with a sidecar Honda and even some camper vans. The adventure was over and we headed to Alta.

We refueled in Alta and I asked Tuomas what his plans were in terms of the route. He said he’d ride to the North Cape and I decided to tag along. I had been in this area a couple of times but never actually made it to the North Cape. This was as good an opportunity as any.

The road was actually a lot more interesting than I had expected. We rode through beautiful coastal scenery in perfect weather. We stopped to brew some beach side coffee before pushing the final leg.

The final leg was equally impressive with great scenery. There were a couple of tunnels, which were very cold and damp. One of them went 230 m below sea level. We finally arrived at our destination.

The North Cape was packed, but the mood was good and the scenery exceptional. I gawked around, taking pics and enjoying the sun. There was a lot of tourists, which was strange after the solitude on the bike. I even visited the souvenir shop for stickers and a sent a postcard home.

We decided to ride back to the first village south and stay at the camp site. The ride back was impressive with the low light. I really hadn’t noticed how remote the setting was. The end of Europe.