Alta

Day 15

We forgot the g&t’s last night and only remembered as we went for dinner. 🤪.   

Dinner was very good with only the 6 of us once more.

After dinner we went to watch the Headliners doing Top of the Billboards which was a celebration of British music since the 60’s and was an opportunity to sing the hits from all the great bands and artists through the years. We had a sherry and a glass of red wine as we watched and it was very good. Then bed.

Today we have arrived in Alta and our trip is the more sedate Alta Countryside and Scenery. It doesn’t start until later so we will have a leisurely breakfast and coffee.

Yes, a leisurely breakfast in Horizon and a coffee on our balcony. I bunged some more washing on and then we went to have a coffee with Donna and John in the Crows Nest. When we got there we realised we might have a long wait - about 6 hours, as it wasn’t open until late afternoon 😂. So we went back to Raffles. Had a coffee and lovely chat and then back to the cabin to pick up the washing and prepare for our trip.

Then on to another wonderful day!

We got on the coach at 12.45 and drove out through the town of Alta, passing the Northern Lights Cathedral on the way.

We passed some really lovely houses as we left the town. I didn’t ask but it seems as though the architecture is the same here as Iceland with wooden structures clad in either wood or corrugated iron.

Leaving the town the countryside reminded us of Bracknell Forest, near where we used to live in the Uk and where I ran every Saturday. But then the landscape opened up and there were millions of trees as far as the eye could see, all sitting on a bed of slate.

Along with tourism, fishing and building, slate is one of the biggest industries in Alta. The slate from here is renowned around the world. The hardness of slate is measured on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10, diamond, being the hardest and the slate here is 7. It is grey and there is enough to last hundreds of years. Locally they say that if there is a storm and your house blows down, at least the slate roof will still be standing.

There is also plenty of farming in the area, mainly dairy and also hay, which as in Iceland, is harvested during the few summer months and stored in white plastic bales which can last up to two years. However Alta is the furthest north where you can grow crops. They grow a species of barely which can be grown over a period of two years.

We were driving along the Alta river which has the best salmon fishing in the world. Fishing is measured in pounds and it is possible to catch salmon in the Alta River that weigh up to 40lbs (18kg). However it isn’t cheap. If you wish to fish there you can get a one day licence for €10,000 or a 5 day licence for €50,000 - and there is a waiting list!  However for that you so get first class treatment - you stay in 5 star accommodation with your own top chef as well as other perks such as your own guide, your own boat etc. Cheap at half the price!  We are docked right next to the local airport (and in fact have just had to wait for a plane to land before we could leave) and our guide said that in June and July there are private planes lined up in the airport.

However it’s not so expensive for locals. They pay €190 for one day but 4000 people apply in a lottery and only 700 get tickets. But you can take as many people on that to ticket so long as there is only one rod in the water at a time. You also have to identify anyone on your ticket not from the area which is to avoid selling the tickets on, a once profitable activity.

We then headed up to the Alta Canyon which is the biggest canyon in Europe.  It is about 400m deep at its highest point and sits 40km from the town.

The surrounding area is all owned by the Duke of Roxburghe who had been fishing there for many years. He bought a huge swathe back in the 1700’s when land ownership was being established. He thought that the land should belong to the fishermen but the local council decreed it should be owned by the farmers. So in order to own land in that area you have to maintain a field big enough to support one cow.

The views were again stunning and thanks once more to Per Lars because we weren’t sure what to do in Alta but he recommended the Canyon and it was well worth it.

We were on the Alta Plateau following a long and winding road (there’s a song in that, thinking about last night’s show 😀). Many of the leaves were already turning brown, not because autumn is arriving but because there has been so little rain over the last couple of months. There has also been a larvae invasion which has turned a number of the trunks black.

Along the way we passed several cabins of varying sizing but all of which looked fabulous. A great place to stay but I think the guide said they were used more in winter than summer for skiing, trekking on snow mobiles etc. But I could be wrong.

We also saw some Sami lavvu or tents. These are of the same design as the modern tent we had the crab in yesterday but these were still made of wood and nowadays covered in heavy cotton whereas once it was deerskin. Paul our guide told us that the ones we passed were mainly used for tourism but he said he uses one when he goes fishing.

We drove on up to the Alta Hydroelectric Power Station which was completed in 1987 and produces 150 mega watts of electricity. There was great controversy in 1982 when the dam was started both from the local Sami community and the salmon fishers for different reasons but they got together to prevent the dam from being built. However it went ahead and the fishermen are satisfied as there is still plenty of salmon, supplanted by salmon hatcheries run by the hydroelectric company.  I’m not so sure about the Sami people or what actually happened to them, but we were told that following the demonstrations, they did get their own parliament which, whilst lacking in a great deal of power, is relatively well funded.

We saw a short film at the dam and then went out onto it and were able to walk across and take some fabulous photos. They were doing some work which involved someone being lowered 50m over edge of the dam to the safety hatches. Not a job either of us would choose.

From the dam we headed back much the same way to the boat, although we missed out the town, just getting back in time for our 4.30pm departure.

Another magic day.