Epic Arctic Overlanding Adventure: Carol's Best Day Ever.

it's just my imagination but bigger and wilder. They just come trotting right across the field here. You can see them with binoculars. You can see them high up in the mountains. They're all over the place here. It's really a neat area. Really wild. We're gonna get as many pictures as we can and we're gonna go for a hike up into these mountains here to try to find... Carol's gonna try to find that shed. Right, Carol? Yep. There's a light bulb. Oh, yeah. They blend into the rocks. It started raining a little bit but this town is really something else. All the homes are nestled in the rocks and then there's just pathways that the reindeer have made all throughout the rocks with all the wildflowers everywhere. And then when you go and look at the sea or the bay... I don't know what they call these. There's just wild... like there's birds of all sorts everywhere. Sailboats, fishing vessels out there. It is really something else. And it's so quiet. Like even when you're camping with like 20 or more other camper vans, it's dead quiet all the time. Like there's no loud music. There's no one talking super loud. Everyone's just soaking it in and out here for the experience of nature I guess. A lot of these homes are so pretty. And then there's some that are abandoned here. But I'll show you the rocks while I talk to you. And then out of the blue you'll just see a big reindeer just pop up and move and they blend right into the rocks. You don't even know they're there until you've passed them basically. It's been driving me nuts so I finally googled it to see whether reindeer and caribou are the same species. And apparently they are. So they're exactly the same animal. Especially in wild populations. So they say in America we call them caribou unless they're domesticated or in you know agriculture or farms or have them in herds or things like that. Then we call them reindeer. Here in Europe they're mostly called reindeer but they're the same species. So now we know. Is one bigger than the other though? Kind of like moose species? Like they are bigger in certain areas? Possibly yeah. I think the more wild they are the bigger they get. These guys seem big. Yeah here they seem about the same size as caribou that we've seen in the Arctic in Canada and in the U.S. So yeah. It's good to know. Glad you got that off your chest Pete. Yeah. Now we can go for a coffee. You see all these what were they homes or were they I don't know there's no plaque to read. Yeah but I was also doing some research on this little town of Hammingberg which is an abandoned fishing village but people come up here they still own homes so they do spend their summer vacation up here because it's so quiet and we're way up in the Arctic and it's just it actually is an amazing place we've been here just our second day but I could easily spend a month up here it's just that type of place but those buildings here you can still see some of the original buildings and that's because even though it was occupied during World War two this is one of the few villages that weren't taken down by the what do they call it the scorched earth policy so it got spared somehow that's nice because there's a lot of really old buildings here. Beautiful. You guys probably can't see it but there's a herd of reindeer right there just chilling out in town you can see on the road all the droppings everywhere and all the sights and smells like wildflowers and close to her nest. They go and sit like that to distract you away from her eggs we should walk on by. It's okay little girl we're not gonna bother your nest. Here just like in the last town we stumble upon more ruins from the Nazi occupation of World War two. Wow. Only now after visiting these sites talking with locals and reading the comments from our Norwegian viewers are we beginning to grasp the devastation the war left on northern Norway. Nearby Kirkenes was a Nazi stronghold with 160,000 troops. It became the second most bombed place in Europe after Malta. Raids striking nearly every three days for three years. Civilians hid underground in mines to survive. This was off the trail a little ways but look at that. When the Nazis retreated in 1944 they burned almost everything. Homes, schools, churches, even livestock. Entire communities were erased. Hemdingburg was one of the few places spared. Its ruins still whisper the story of a history few outside of Norway know. From all the watching all the World War two movies as a kid just walking towards that pill box had a eerie feeling like someone's gonna pop up any second. It's crazy there's so many remnants. All the bases of the huge guns there must have been four or five massive guns up here and then I guess that pill box kind of protected the whole area. What a crazy place. Wow like look at the white sand clear ocean water in this town. Unbelievable. There's an insane amount of World War two infrastructure still in place up here. Pretty neat to walk through the ruins and remember you know they say if you don't learn from history you're destined to repeat it. It was good to walk through places like this. It wasn't that long ago you know think about it 80 years. These days were anticipated in 1942 in words spoken by an American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt. If there is anyone who still wonders why this war is being fought let him look to Norway. If there is anyone who has any delusion that this war could have been averted let him look to Norway and if there is anyone who doubts of the Democratic will to win again I say let him look to Norway. She has little chicks off to the side so she's leading us away from her brood of chicks. Let's go let's take her bait make her feel better. The cafe just opened here and we're gonna go get a coffee or something and enjoy the beautiful view. It seems to be a tradition here having a coffee and a waffle in the morning and I tell you what, it tastes pretty good. We're actually in Hammingberg where we spent the night. I've been looking online to see where we are in terms of latitude and longitude. We're actually 120 kilometers north of Taktiakta which is a fine part to believe. This area even though it's way in within the Arctic Circle it is protected in terms of the temperature by the jet stream which in Taktiakta and Yukon and Northwest Territories and Alaska it's much much colder. You've got permafrost which you don't have here so there are some differences but it's neat to be up here in this beautiful little cafe enjoying a Norwegian treat. After warming up at the cafe over a delicious coffee and waffle we decided to begin working our way southward down the coast. Over the years of overland travel Carol has developed a keen eye almost a sixth sense for discovering epic camp spots and wild places. So as we were driving out of town a little dirt road winding north along a beautiful river caught her attention. We pulled over at a gravel patch beside the river and noticed the road narrowing as it disappeared deeper into the mountains. Unsure whether it was passable by truck we turned to a local fisherman nearby to ask if he knew where it led. I just spoke to some folks that were camping back in there they actually walked about seven kilometers back into the along the river he's a fly fisherman but he said you can we could get in there and camp at the end of the road so let's go you want to do it yeah we have enough food we have enough well we'll make it yeah we have some freeze-dried meals and I don't know I think a few cans of tuna so that where we were last night was the end of the road for most folks for RVs and things like that but this is the end of the end of the road it's a lot way back here in the mountains a lot of folks go fly-fishing from here or they backpack into the mountains and there was a gentleman and his wife parked at the very end and they just left and they said you're welcome it's your spot so we're gonna head back in there and then we feel like we're camped as far back as you can get on the eastern side of Norway so yesterday I went about 12 kilometers the other way on this beautiful reindeer trail going around a lake yeah it was just really quiet no one out there whoa no one out there but me and so that was nice a nice change from the crowds to just peaceful Pete has a swollen Achilles tendon right now so he's kind of nursing that unfortunately so we've been reading up on some stretches and things to help him out with that but he's gonna take yesterday and today well yesterday he did like a 10k hike with me but by the end of it he was like uncomfortable and so we decided last evening when I went out again that he would rest it up kind of elevate it and yeah so I'm just gonna check out either by the river or going up into the hills here our mountains it's been raining quite hard this morning and I didn't wear my Gore-Tex boots which I think I'll regret but I would find one you know what's the craziest thing is when we were driving in here going to the most easterly point or I can't remember I can't think right there was this beautiful old cabin and Pete and I were just driving a little bit like well not fast but just you know how you're just so into like looking at all the reindeer and what's around you was like breathtaking and then I turned at the last minute to my right and saw this beautiful cabin and all sudden this reindeer looked up and he only had one antler I was just so sad I missed that picture because I had Pete's big lens on the camera and I like haunted me for the last two days and I was like I was telling the boys and Caroline I'm like that was the perfect picture for the Arctic you know because it wasn't perfect like he had only one and then it was about this size too like he was a young young reindeer and I think maybe he dropped this and then I found it from here when you're climbing in the mountains like kilometers passed by like crazy I gotta tell Pete hey Pete I might be too much in the valley I'll have to hoof it up to the top of the hill because it you go up and then way down and it's kind of more line-of-sight I wonder this is unbelievable I was had my new vortex goggles which I've been just loving and just searching searching like I have a headache I was just I gotta climb higher to let Pete know I I'm still stunned this is amazing like I remember I was talking to someone I'm like my number one thing is in Norway I mean in Finland and Sweden too but I'm like Norway was my number one and to be here it's just the same feeling as in when I found two really old caribou way out there and caribou antlers yeah well done I knew there was something there only the whites are sticking out but they were only about 10 feet from each other this is the same feeling just a hundred more kilometers more north than Tuk which blows my mind because it's so it feels so different here not as a oh what do you call it arctic-y but it is but oh my word but yeah I was talking to someone I said that's my dream and they're like yeah that's like very highly unlikely like especially this time of year you know so many people have come this way just got breathe and try and get in line up over this like look at this guys this is the best day ever hey Pete you're not gonna believe it I found one I swear it's the same one that that guy was missing the young bull yeah you would have never seen it unless you basically walked upon it like but I saw something I was sitting on a all-white like granite rock probably a half a kilometer away I'm like I don't know just something looks different but by the time I got here I would have stepped right over it maybe 5k I'll come back I might just keep on heading just a little bit up over this Ridge and it smells it still has all of its velvet on so I promise you it's that guys that I wanted to take the picture of okay I'm gonna pack this on my backpack and then head maybe a half a kilometer towards the river and then back to you okay that guy reindeer okay I'm gonna put this way guys you can almost see fall colors coming in already on some of the tundra oh it's just so beautiful I think tundra is my favorite landscape and then all the mountains I love that the mist rolling through well have a big hike back I think I'll put my binoculars away so I'm not tempted to keep looking find a caribou trail and make my way back what a beautiful experience this has been and I'm just so excited I love being out here by myself I mean with Pete would have been even better but sometimes just to you can't think of any problems you're just watching your footing watching the different trails and wildlife and the that your surroundings is just breathtaking it's unbelievable unbelievable is the word of the day here we go back on a trail all the berries are coming into bloom there's quite a few of the red berries if you're from here let me know what that is like yesterday when Pete and I were hiking I had glass every once in a while and then I saw this guy with two dogs and he goes right over all the spots that I was kind of looking at watching him just clip it onto the back of his backpack I was just I wanted that so bad I was like trying not to be jealous I was very happy for him you know he went out there and looked a little bit harder than everyone else if anyone I often wonder that I'm like Pete do you think any of the other women here are thinking about sheds he's like probably not I love guys caribou trails just everywhere I think I'm gonna keep this rock as a reminder of that big one I sat on and then spotted the shed remember it all right we're on the trail now it's about five kilometers back from here and there you can kind of see the truck almost back wow nice just like that one I wanted to take a picture of it's pretty special it's still got its velvet on still does and it's young and it just like you can see where it just snapped off unfortunately but good for you for me he was probably looking at me going hey over there I left it for you if you look for it that's pretty cool nice you can see where it snapped oh yeah I have to get that velvet off it kind of smells but I think it's cute good morning that was a really remote beautiful camp here so glad we found this spot Carol went for a hike this morning with the intention of doing what she always does which is looking for reindeer antlers or any kind of antlers at all and sure enough she found one this morning so that's super exciting yeah good job Joe so now we're gonna make our way back out of here and it's a very narrow trail right now and then it gets onto a very narrow paved road through some really unique formations you probably saw on the way in here and then we go past all the way back down to I think it was called Vazzo and that's where we filled up with water and we'll go fill up with water there and maybe spend the night there we'll see how it goes smells like they're eating something super fragrant almost like eucalyptus but I think it's the bushes yeah well there's sage some type of sage there's a whale swimming out here we've seen about five or six of them now just driving along but also up in Hemmingburg I'm thinking I mean it's a big big beast it's it's got a dorsal fin but not nearly as tall as a orca but maybe a big pilot whale a little too far out to capture with this lens oh but he's just going up and down if anyone's in there nice view of the fjord like there's one spot here oh nice white sand everywhere that's kind of cool like that spot right there give them their privacy but I'm sure it kind of goes all over the place look at I mean there's a camp spot up there even Pete they're like no they look so cozy yeah I hate that feeling you're like we really needed time by ourselves little do they know we're not gonna bother them we're just gonna go right on by beautiful spot yeah I love it good job Pete so update on the apps we've been using park for night a lot more than I overlander even though some we found some epic spots on I overlander lately we're batting a thousand here with park for night even though last night that was just on an instinct yeah last night was Carol just said do you mind going down that dirt road for a minute I was like what for just let's try it and it turned out to be well we we saw fishermen fly-fishing and then there was a big parking lot and then we talked to someone and they were like of course there's another four three four kilometers I like how quiet it is so we're good front to back and I'll just check side to side here someone is asking what that app is it comes with iPhone I just have it in my settings it's there's a measuring tool and a level combined so yeah I didn't even have to download that this residue has been here and it was the approval sticker from shipping so it's in all our shots using a bit of WD-40 to try and loosen it up I'll just let that sit there we put the excess I say let let it sit penetrate the adhesive hopefully we can get it off of there it's in all our camera shots but it's also blocks a portion of the windshield well these are big and juicy I need to pick him get a bowl come back out here in the morning with them there's just thousands of them everywhere I found an antler, at least a little piece of one, I'll keep it. Some camp spots are just too serene and beautiful to leave in the morning. Norway has given us so many of these places, but here along the rugged coast of northern Norway we decide to linger a few days. Carol spends the time working on her antler, peeling the velvet, washing, and drying it in the sun and wind. Each day we edge closer to the Russian border and the end of our Norwegian adventure, but it's not over yet. Join us next week as we taste traditional Norwegian food, whale, arctic char, reindeer tongue, then we'll head out onto the ocean to fish for king crab and dive deeper into the culture and traditions of the far north. What do you got? Whales. One off first, and then make a small snip there, and a small snip there. Thanks for watching. If you've missed a video or two along the way, click the link at the end to get all caught up. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share. And in the meantime, we'll see you down the road.