Safe Return Doubtful

On my third day on the Island of Jøa I found another trail up above the treeline to a couple of summits, Dunjafjellet above the island’s main village of Dun, population just 47. It was a misty morning with drizzle, another sea Hárr, giving way, just as we finished, to a clearing sky. Jøa has been a good visit, a great place to stay at Rakkavika and rewarding small mountain trails.

I’m leaving the coast for a few days. Not by choice, but by need. I have an appointment in Umeå on the north west coast of the Baltic Sea on Monday morning. It’s about 500 kilometres each way, or six hours, from Grong in Norway, then returning to Mo I Rana. Parts of these roads I have driven before, two years ago. My appointment is with the Migration Service and will last about two minutes, enough time for them to photograph me, and take fingerprints. These are necessary for a Swedish extension tourist visa, which I applied for a few weeks ago. Umeå is the most convenient, and furthest north, of the migration offices, and it is compulsory to attend one in person. I went through the same procedure two years ago, it isn’t completely clear on the website how it works, but I know now, second time around..

I drove to a nature reserve south of Grong on Norway’s arterial road, the E6, where there was a good place to stay, and walk, but it was an evening of heavy stormy rain, so we only got out for 30 minutes or so. Rain at this time of year brings mosquitoes this far inland, so it was a good test of my systems for preventing them overnighting in the van. They worked okay, on this occasion at least.. it’s early season, so they will provide much more difficult tests than this.

This morning we drove on an hour, eastwards towards the Swedish border on a road I travelled in the reverse direction a couple of years ago, to the Blafjella-Skjækerfjella National Park, and a hike Roja and I did, on 29th September. It’s in the archive at https://safe-return-doubtful.com/2022/09/29/day-67-to-blafjella-skjaekerfjella-north-west/ and interesting to contrast an autumnal day with similar weather today, in spring. It’s a very wet few hours out, especially before the trail starts to gain height, with plenty of lochans or bug puddles, in which of course, Roja is in his element.

There was no one around until on the descent we met a guy with his two young daughters and their dog. He was a local, and told me he knew the area extremely well. The reason for his ascent was to replace the metal box which is at the top of most of Norway’s hike-able mountains, the previous one was blown away in a storm a month ago, during which winds were in around 140 kilometres per hour. It has not yet been found. He had enough tools with him to make sure the new one would take 140, and more..

The summit of the trail is at 677 metres, and provides a good view of the National Park that starts there. Typical of Norwegian National Parks, there are few hiking trails within, hunters and intrepid wanderers are off-piste from here on. It was enough for us, a three hour round trip of 8 kilometres on boggy ground throughout.

I directed and ‘voiced over’ a short movie while at the summit..

I’m splitting the journey to Umeå into two days, so drove on for a couple of hours to Strömsund. It’s Premiership Rugby semifinal day, and I wanted to be settled to watch Bath and Sale. Northampton Saracens was tremendous entertainment last night, following Lancashire cricket, which worked well on a wet night.

The clouds of the morning cleared at lunchtime, so it is in fine conditions that we watch the rugby with Roja settled outside next to Strömsvattudal lake. It’s early 20s at 300 metres above sea level here, with a good breeze to keep the mosquitoes moving, and will be a cooler night ahead.

It’s far from ideal to make this 1000 kilometre (plus) detour, but it is the only way I can extended a 90 day Schengen visa. The authorities here in Sweden told me when I enquired, that a fresh 90 days could begin again at the conclusion of the Swedish extension. Something I doubt, but was happy to hear. The fact is, that at the moment, I don’t think anyone knows. It will be when the electronic system, ETIAS, arrives in October, supposedly, that it will become more strict. But even then, I doubt there will be fingerprinting and facial recognition available on all the Schengen borders, at the Western Balkan countries for example.

I also think that more Schengen countries will start to make extension visas available; at the moment, at my reckoning, there are Sweden, Denmark, Portugal and France, each though with their own charge, and their own system of application, some requiring attendance at their embassy in the UK before travelling, others require application only once in the country.

For now anyway, this will mean that I can be away until November.