Summer 2019 | TOTAL MX-5 |^51[ ROAD TRIP ]
the idea on the head. It’s a shame,
because Mazda UK’s tame photographer,
Dave Smith, took some brilliant shots of
the Aurora Borealis just a couple of days
earlier, and his pictures show the astral
illuminations to be truly spectacular.
Even in the best summer conditions it’s
a ten and a half hour drive south to Luleå.
But this is early March and whilst it isn’t
the absolute depths of a Norwegian
winter, for a pack of Brits more
accustomed to checking if our ‘journey
is really necessary’ after a modest
sprinkle of the white stuff, the snow that
there is without doubt will slow us down.
So a little begrudgingly we sign up for a
5.30am breakfast and a 6.00am
departure the following day.
Which turns out to be a waste of
precious shuteye time... Overnight snow
has caused a minor avalanche that has
blocked the tunnel out of town and the
clean-up operation is likely to take until
9.00am, maybe later. We’re all dressed
and packed, so snoozing on chairs
seems the only sensible thing to do until
the all-clear is given. If you live in this
part of the world then this sort of stuff
must happen all the time: there are other
travellers in the hotel who are also
southward-bound and they appear
nonplussed by the delay.
True to their word, the digger drivers
have unblocked the tunnel by 9.00am
and so it’s time to go out to our MX-5s.
They’re all the latest 181bhp 2.0-litre
models in Soul Red and even in the
middle of a town they seem remarkably
small and dainty and incompatible with
the road conditions we know await them.
A couple of the younger members of our
entourage elect to show how rough and
tough they are by dropping the roof, but
my co-driver, Sharron Livingston, editor
of an online travel magazine, isn’t so
keen on going al fresco and I’m with her
on that one: our roof stays erected.
The mk4’s cabin is bijou so it takes
only a couple of minutes before the
temperature rises high enough for us to
consign our down-filled jackets to the
boot. We confirm with the Mazda lads
that the satnav has the right destination
keyed in, and then with a crunch of snow
from under our studs, we’re off. Slowly.
Because it would be embarrassing to
spin the car in front of the hotel. Turning
left onto the main road through town at
the next T-junction and the mk4’s tail
does a little skid despite a gentle
throttle, reinforcing the value of
prudence during the next 500 miles.
Honningsvåg is a fishing town and
there are plenty of trawlers moored up
as we head towards the open road. As we
clear the conurbation we spot another
source of local income, somewhat larger
than a trawler and parked much further
out to sea – a gas tanker. This stretch of
the Norwegian coast has its waterA couple of the younger members of our
entourage elect to show how rough and tough they
are by dropping the roof
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