Hjemmeluft and LOHDIZHJOKKI Luvdiidcohkka

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Hjemmeluft

   Six thousand years ago, someone stood on a polished rock slab beside the head of the Alta fjord and began to peck a reindeer into the stone. Then they did it again, and so did their descendants for the next four thousand years. The result, at Hjemmeluft and the other carving fields around Alta, is the biggest collection of prehistoric rock art in northern Europe, thousands of figures of elk, reindeer, bears, fish, boats and people, and some in curious shamanic poses, drumming or dancing. It was listed by UNESCO in 1985. The carvings were made by hunter-gatherers whose world was the shore, the ice and the seasonal movement of animals, and many show hunting scenes, with the line of a reindeer fence or a figure drawing a bow.

   Read the complete Hjemmeluft write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Hjemmeluft is where the day begins. Next is Transferdalen.

2. 2. Transferdalen

   Alta is the biggest town in Finnmark, the northernmost county of Norway, and it lies at the head of a fjord far inside the Arctic Circle, on the same latitude as northern Alaska and the Siberian coast. East of town, the valley called Transferdalen cuts into the plateau, a place of birch and willow on its lower slopes and bare, rounded fell above, with a river in the bottom and Sámi names on the maps. The peak whose name appears on the ride titles, Luvdiidcohkka, is one of those Sámi names, and the Sámi, whose reindeer herds still move across this land, are the people who have known it longest.

   Read the complete Transferdalen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Transferdalen comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is LOHDIZHJOKKI Luvdiidcohkka.

3. 3. LOHDIZHJOKKI Luvdiidcohkka

   Alta calls itself the northern lights town, and it has some right to the claim. The little town on the Alta fjord, about a degree and a half south of the North Cape, has some of the clearest, most dependable aurora in Norway, and visitors travel from across the world in winter to stand in the cold and wait. In summer, the same sky never gets dark, and the midnight sun lights the fjord and the hills for weeks. The nearest large settlement to this stop on the plateau, Alta has about twelve thousand people, and it is thirty-six kilometres away.

   Read the complete LOHDIZHJOKKI Luvdiidcohkka write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 70 km into the recorded legs you reach LOHDIZHJOKKI Luvdiidcohkka. Next is back through Transferdalen.

4. 4. back through Transferdalen

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Transferdalen write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Transferdalen, late in the day. Next is Hjemmeluft.

5. 5. Hjemmeluft

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Hjemmeluft write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Hjemmeluft. That is the ride.