Stupid Decisions Sunday

Sunday, 22 July

Today was yet another drive day as we were again heading north to reach the most northern point of Europe.

We made a really brief stop in Narvik, which was a key battle site in WW2. Narvik was a fairly unimpressive place (apart from the panoramic mountain/fjord views which are pretty typical in Norway) except for one thing - the harbour is ice-free all year around which is a pretty rare thing above the arctic circle. Prior to Narvik, the only harbour was one in Sweden which could only receive medium-sized boats, couldn't be expanded and was prone to freeze in winter. When Narvik was built, along with the freight line going into Sweden, the north was opened up thus making it a key strategic landmark for both the Allies and Nazi forces.

The memorial at Narvik

There were a number of battles for Narvik. In the first, the Germans pretty much sailed straight into the harbour, sinking the two Norwegian boats on patrol. A few days later, the English rallied and sank the German ships, but didn't prevent an additional 2500+ soldiers from making it to sure to bolster the German's strength. About 2 weeks later, another operation by Norwegian and French forces recaptured Narvik, however due to fighting on the southern front on the Ankenes peninsula and other developments on the continent the town couldn't be held, and the Allies withdrew from Narvik.

Strangely enough, Norwegian forces played a fairly minor part in the battles for Narvik - instead the English, French Polish forces did the majority of fighting (and dying), a point which several monuments and memorials around the town commemorate.

After a bit longer on the road, we stopped at the Polar Zoo, where the bus' most heartfelt desire of seeing a moose was realised. We got there just in time for a tour of all the predators. The chick doing the tour was possibly the coolest person alive. She was inside the lynx enclosure, and talking about how she has to make sure that she can see all 3 cats at all times because they're sneaky and will try to launch a surprise group attack, and her only protection in the pen was that she was giving them snacks, and how, if the lynx's weren't hungry when they decided to attack she "was in deep shit". Zoos - family fun times, no more.

Long story short. If the lynx isn't hungry when it decides to maul you, you're boned. 

The zoo also has a fairly intense animal/human interaction program,  where both foxes and bears are socialised with keepers from a very young age. Given that the arctic foxes were more grey than white, I was immediately thinking of the results of the famed arctic fox experiment. Given that the foxes we saw were Barnaby-esque in their obvious desire to please the zookeeper, I don't think that wagging tails are too far off for the foxes.

I take it back. Barnaby would never reduce himself to crawling on my back to get food. 

 I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get to see the bear cubs (named Salt and Pepper), but we did see their parents, who share their enclosure with 3 wolves. This is apparently designed to stimulate both species as there is increased competition for food at meal times, and apparently about once a week the wolves attempt a cou to overthrow bear supremacy, so I guess that keeps the bears hopping and the wolves scheming which is apparently good for their mental development.

A mentally stimulated bear. 

We also saw wolves and wolverines. Unlike my mental image, wolverines look like oversized badger/weasel creatures, not a larger, more fierce wolf. They're  really timid animals, apparently, and are detested by a lot of farmers because they prey on farm animals rather than more difficult catches. They are also quite choosy about which farm animals they eat, normally biting several (not-quite fatally), but only taking away one.

The most disappointing animal ever. The Wolverine. I expected it to be at least as attractive as Hugh Jackman.

Apart from the predator animals, there was a herd of reindeer, mountain goats  and moose (or meese, as we have decided that the collective should be) . There was also a petting zoo which had a baby moose (named Tassen) in it, which was adorable.

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE

Baby  MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSE

In no way a polar animal. But who could resist a photo of a goat falling asleep in the food trough?

Upon getting to the campsite, it was time to do the polar plunge. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting, although as I expected my heart to stop and my muscles to cramp instantaneously, it is fair to say my expectations were fairly low. What it was like was being slapped in the face, hard, by cold. Your feet burn, your fingers freeze, your nose becomes brittle and every centimetre of skin erupts into thousands of goosebumps, and then you erupt screaming and crying from the water like a schoolgirl in an elevator with both Justin Beiber and One Direction. Or maybe that last bit was just me.

Running in.
Screaming. 

Running out.
Still screaming.

Afterwards, even the biting coldness of the air isn't so bad, although that's probably because all your nerves have been snap frozen.

We then went and thawed out in the sauna, where pins and needles burn across your entire body in waves.

Then it was pyjamas, sleeping bag, socks and doona time, as well as "ruminate on why you make such bad life choices time".

-Lucy