Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
daily) between Fauske and Bodø. As always, booking online may reap huge savings on the
ticket price. To continue further northwards, you've no option but to hop on a bus.
Around Fauske
Saltdal & Museums
Just off the E6 near Saltnes,
Saltdal Historical Village
(adult/child Nkr50/10; 11am-5pm
mid-Jun-mid-Aug)
is a collection of typical rural and fishing-related buildings. Reception
and cafe (try the local speciality,
møsbromlefse
, a sweetish light pancake laced with cream
and cheese) are in the Skippergården building.
adult/child Nkr50/10; 11am-5pm mid-Jun-mid-Aug)
, in a former German barracks within the
museum grounds, is visited by a 30-minute guided tour. It reveals conditions for Slav and
Russian forced labourers who forged the road and railway northwards. The prisoners'
cemetery, with the remains of some 7000 men, and the nearby graveyard for German sol-
diers are in Botn, about 3km north.
Sulitjelma
As an interpretive panel just north of Fauske will confirm, you're exactly halfway along
the E6. By now, you're probably eager to strangle every slow-moving motorhome driver
on its two-lane highway, so it's an appropriate moment to break free from the Arctic High-
way for a short while.
It's a gorgeous 40km run along the Rv830, up scenic Langvassdalen to the tiny commu-
nity of Sulitjelma. It wasn't always such a backwater; in 1860 a Sami herder discovered
copper ore in the forested country north of Langvatnet and suddenly the Sulitjelma region
was attracting all sorts of opportunists from southern Norway. Large ore deposits were re-
vealed and the Sulitjelma Gruber mining company was founded in 1891. By 1928 the
wood-fuelled smelter had taken its toll on the surrounding birch forests, as did high con-
centrations of carbon dioxide, a by-product of the smelting process. Nowadays, with the
furnaces long since cold, the environment is on its way to recovery.
