A fairly early start this morning and a visit to what has been described as one of the saddest places in Northern Norway.  This part of the E6 is descibed as Blood Road High up in a clearing in a pine forest there are two cemeteries.

One is a German one, a memorial to all the German soldiers and sailors who died in the area. They were the enemy, but so many of them were very young, posted to a very hostie environment.   There is also a memorial to the 1600+ sailors who died on the Scharnhorst when she was sunk off Norway on Boxing Day 1943 - only 36 of her crew were saved from the freezing Arctic waters.

The other cemetery and memorial is to the Yugoslavian prisoners of war, mainly Tito's partisans, who died building what is now the E6 road and the railway northwards.   Many of these men died of starvation, cold and exhaustion or were tortured and shot, along with thousands of other Russian prisoners.   The railway extended to Mosjoen before 1940, but the German's wanted it to go further north.   They used 13,000 POW's as slave labour but never completed it. In 1962 it was extended to Fauske, and then 65km west to Bodo.   This is the railway line which crosses the Arctic Circle. ( see photo's in previous entry)

   There is no railway further north than this, except the line which brings iron ore from Kiruna in Sweden to Narvik in Norway. This line was built by navvies in the 19thC and is still used today.

On our way north we stopped for a break and found directions to some stone age rock art. See photos for details. We were fascinated by the glacial channel cut through at he end of the lake
We carried on northwards, to Bognes where the E6 crosses the Tysfjord by ferry to Skarberget. This crossing took about 45 mins, with lovely mountain scenery all around.
We found a great overnight spot overlooking the Efjord, a branch of the Tysfjord.  
The midnight sun is making it increasingly harder to get to sleep. Surprisingly, given that we are well inside the Arctic Circle, it does not feel cold. We are still wearing ordinary clothes- no thermal vests yet.    We sleep well and have never felt cold in bed.