Tuesday August 18th 2015. Alta 29 km

18- 08- 2015   |  
Harrie Huijben
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Toch nog een uitzonderlijke plek met beetje landbouw zo noordelijk

At this Northern altitude still farming.

Pakken silo, ook de eerste sinds een paar maanden

Pakken silo, I haven’t seen these since months.

Zelfs een korenveld, het eerste sinds 2 maanden

Even a wheat field. The first one in 2 months.

image

Aankomst op camping in Alta

Arrival at Strandcamping in Alta.

“My” Kroation at the reception of Alta Strandcamping

Zicht vanaf de receptie van de camping op mijn hut in de verte

View from reception to my cabin far away.

Met de fiets naar het centrum voor boodschappen

Cycling to Alta center for shopping.

Hypermoderne kathedraal van Alta

Completely new cathedral of Alta.

Geheel nieuwe centrum van Alta. Mensen hebben zomer in het hoofd.

After 2nd WW completely new rebuilt center of Alta. People have summer in mind.

After a clear day and a long, heavy trip, we finally arrive in Alta, the last or one but last resort before Cape North. Maybe Honningsvag will still be a town. I’ll have to go there in a couple of days. A young man behind the campsite reception desk helps me. He turns out to be Croatian. I thought there was food for sale here but besides some cookies there is nothing. I can borrow his mountain bike, if I pay, to cycle 6 km. to Alta, to go shopping. The supermarket is open until 9 pm. Then also taking a look at the super modern cathedral. Photo. In the cathedral there was a photo exhibition about the wreckage of Kautokeino and Alta during the Second World War. Nothing was left. The whole region has been bombed and burned down by the Germans. Now, I also understand that my host Mikkels, a Samen, a few days ago was still fulminating against the Germans. Like rats, almost all of them Sami, perished here of cold and hunger. The cattle/rendeer were slaughtered by the German soldiers. A complete disaster. The few who survived were taken away as a prisoner of war or evacuated. Therefore, of course, the brand new, state-of-the-art church. Also the center of Alta was totally new, but it did not look unpleasant. Or does that reflect the beautiful weather and the airy clothes and excitement of the people? Here too, in the high North, there are a lot of immigrants, at least it seems so when you look at the appearances of people. I take a meal salad in the center for the first time in weeks, while I have Tosca at home at the campsite for a few hours to guard the tent. It’s a challenge to be together with such an energetic dog day and night. For once I am a few hours without a handbinder, it’s a relief.
 When I ride back, I notice that there are extensive coniferous forests around Alta, so here it is warmer than the regions I crossed the past few weeks. In those regions were only petite birches with barely leaf. Photo. A meadow with some cows. I even saw a few pitches where hay had been made and with silo packages . I have not seen that in weeks / months. And on top of all that a cornfield. Photos. With that the owner can boast, like in the Nl. with a fig tree, with a semi-ripe fig.
After biking back I first make a cup of coffee. How fat is the milk I put in the coffee. Turns out to be a kind of yoghurt. Yes, that happens if you do not understand the language. Now I only hope that the pizza pack indeed contains pizza. Tosca swims in the river next to the campsite and I am sweating in the warm late evening sun, writing in front of my cabin.
 The Croatian camping aid comes collecting the rent of his bicycle. In about 10 d. I’ll go back to Croatia, he says. I ask him what he’s going to do when he’s back in Croatia. I’m from a village between Zagreb and the sea, he says. We have some fields. I studied economics, but I can’t make any money with it. Got 700 E per month. I canceled the job and offered my services at the campsite. At first I just knocked in the city on the doors and asked for work. But they only wanted people who spoke Norwegian. Here at the campsite I earn 3000 E per month. Almost 4 x as much as in Croatia. At home, I want to start a walnut plantation. Is not that very labor intensive, I ask him. The raising and processing of the nuts is all automatic, he explains. Nut prices have been rising for a long time. They can be processed into honey, in chocolate or oil. My girlfriend is now in the US, in the state of Wyoming: 5x as big as all of Croatia and only 200,000 people. Do not you want to go there or to Canada? No, Croatia! People are searching. Some have the guts, to try new ways. Some choose relative security at home. All is o.k., but once you have chosen do not complain!

Spilling soup on my Sunday pants. Then showering again, with pants on. And so the days remain very occupied. Around me, Italians, Norwegians, Germans and Finns, Dutch and so a Croatian. I think everyone who comes here goes to Cape North. But no one applies for contact. Besides, I do not have time for it either. As for the rock drawings and the canyon near Alta, I have no transport and it does not fit in my planning. Of course I visited them, but on the i-pad! Thoroughly completing the day takes all the time. It therefore remains a kind of survival.