Polarlightcenter Archives

18 July 201618 July 2016 by Wiebe

Day 124 & 125 | Leaving Lofoten

Day 124 | Saturday July 16

After a very short night there were some problems to fix. The car was now fixed in a primitive way and continuing like this is definitely not an option. Luckily Rob knows everything about electricity so I stranded at the right place. He inspected the car and found a solution to power the computer with a cable from the fusebox in the front of the car. I can now charge and check the status of the car without problems. For now everything seemed fine.

Around 4 the car was fully charged and continued my way. Rob en Threes of the Polarlightcenter had taken care of me very well and gave me some tips about sustainable projects to visit on the way. My next plugger is located in Tromso, more then 400km away which was out of reach. On the map I found Evenskjer, almost halfway down and they had a hotel so this was my best option. This time they couldn’t help me as the owner was not there but fortunately there was a campsite down the road, the Tjeldsundbrua Camping, who could support me. They offered me a place to put my tent on and electricity for the car. This was the first time I would use the tent this trip. Under very heavy rain I managed to put it up and with the rain falling on the roof I felt asleep immediately.

https://www.facebook.com/PlugMeIn/photos/a.357717747770627.1073741829.211949022347501/511722552370145/?type=3&theater

Day 125 | Sunday July 17

I didn’t set an alarm and I woke up at 10.45! Slept more than 13 hours. Hungry as I was I warmed up a soup which I got from Kromkommer in the first week of this trip. I found out it was a few weeks out of date but ey, need to survive here! I found out that the camping was located on a river and almost under a bridge, Tjeldsundbrua, which is also the name of the camping. Stupid that I didn’t figure that out yesterday.

Tromso still was out of reach and wanted to get to Bardufoss today. When I passed Setermoen I had not enough range to make it and charged there for a couple of hours. It was already late in the afternoon.

When I got to Bardufoss I had 30% battery left. I could continue but I was not sure if there would a town or city within the range and from here it was 150km to Tromso so I would easily make that tomorrow. So I decided to find a place to stay here.
I found an hotel called the Bardufoss Hotel, the receptionist had to make a few phone calls and was happy to tell me that she could offer me a room! Also they served dinner here and I was very happy with that as the last time I had a decent meal was lunch yesterday.

Remember I visited Bjorn Nyland aka TeslaBjorn in Oslo? He was very interested in my car and the journey and interviewed me about that. Last night he published the video on his channel, watch it here:

Plug me in unique Volkswagen Golf EV

Pictures of today

The Polarlightcenter

Rob his instruments

Stull using real paper, how cool!

More wires

Rob & Threes

The Bardufoss Hotel

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17 July 2016 by Wiebe

Day 121 – 123 | It’s not always fun

Day 121 | Wednesday July 13

At 6 o’clock I set the alarm as today I wanted to take the ferry from Bodø to Lofoten. It left at 10 but at The Scandic Havet Hotel they tipped me that it would be wise to park in the line very early as it’s a popular line. At 7 I parked my car in front of the line and went back to the hotel for breakfast.

The Scandic Havet Hotel was awarded with one of the best breakfasts in Scandinavia. And this appeared to be very true. They had a huge variety of french bread, coffees, cheeses, cakes etc. Perfect!

At 10 I took the boat the the other side, a 3 hour ride and the longest so far. When I got of the ferry I did not know exactly were to go so I looked for a free wifi place to look up the address. A hitchhiker came to me and appeared to be Dutch. He needed to go in the same direction as me so we shared the ride. He traveled all the way from Holland to here by foot and with the help of other people, nice guy.

At dinnertime I arrived at my hosts, Threes and Rob. Two Dutchies who own the Polarlightcenter in Laukvik on the north side of Austvågøya, the most northern island of the Lofoten. In this center they explain you everything about the Northern Lights, a beautiful phenomenon which can be seen from this area. Rob has a room full of electronic devices, oldschool printers, recorders and I don’t know what to see if there is any polar activity. The polar light (auroras) are produced when there is a disturbance on the sun. When this happens Rob can read this on his devices and now knows that 1 to 4 days later there will be northern light, if it was send to the right direction. An interesting wonder of nature which I unfortunately couldn’t see because it’s light here all day but definitely a reason to come back for.

Day 122 | Thursday July 14

Lofoten is a beautiful island and it became popular only a few years ago so the nature still is very untouched. To discover more of the island I went for a hike. I can tell how it went but it’s better to just check the pictures below.

Day 123 | Friday July 15

In Berlin a few weeks ago I forgot my jacket at Jacob’ place. He send it to Lisa in Lynkoping (Sweden) but it arrived there too late. As I had no address for sure the coming weeks I didn’t know what to do with it. Luckily Lisa send me a message a few days ago that she would go to Lofoten for a few days so she could bring it! Perfect. She was staying with some friends about 100km from Laukvik in Ballstad so I drove there to pick it up.

On the way a tiny cable from the computer in the car broke. This was the same computer that had some problems earlier. I could still keep driving but I can’t see how many % battery I have left and charging is also not possible. I could still connect it with my hands to check the status but this had to be fixed.

On the way back I stopped at a few shops but they said it would be hard to find a plug like that. I kept driving and knew that I had to stop sometime soon because I couldn’t make it on one charge. At a parking for campers I tried to check the status but the screen didn’t turn on anymore. Panic. I called from from Electric Cars Europe. This is the company who made my car, not Detroit Electric which I mentioned earlier.

He told me I had to check the fuses. I had to remove some panels and find my way through a maze of wires before I found them and they appeared to be ok. This meant to cable powering the computer had no current anymore so I needed to power it from somewhere else. I thought I would never manage to do this but some Polish traveler had a 12V cable with them. First we tried to connect it from there car which didn’t work and eventually we managed to power it from the fusebox of my car. Now it was possible to charge it. The polish people invited me in their caravan for some fresh caught fish dinner, really nice people. I can even stay with them if I would come to Poland once.

When I had 45% left I had enough energy to reach Svolvaer, there was a type 2 station and was hoping to recharge so I had enough power to come home. Bad luck, the station was not working. At a hotel I could charge for a few hours and returned home at 3.30 in the morning. It was a really long day. Crazy thing that it was still light at this time as the sun doesn’t come down here at all.

Pictures of this day