Crushed by a truck by a hair’s breadth

(Photos of the diary entry can be found at the end of the text).

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Rooaaar!, it roars back from the sharp-edged, dripping rock faces as we drive back into one of the countless tunnels. The road is very narrow, the lights are out and there is no hard shoulder. To reduce the speed, I shift from sixth to fourth gear. Rooaaar!, hisses the engine even louder than before through the closed windows. “A long tunnel,” Tanja notes. “It’s a good thing there are no cars coming towards us,” I reply. The change in temperature between the tunnel and outside causes the windows to mist up. I turn up the window ventilation. Suddenly we are blinded by headlights. To warn the driver, I use the headlight flasher. “He’s not dazzling!” I shout, almost blinded by the glare of the headlights. I shift into third gear to reduce the speed even further. Rooaaar!” it screeches. “I don’t believe it. He’s crazy!” I now shout several times, activating the headlight flasher. Rooaaaaar! He’s coming onto our lane! What’s he doing? Watch out!” Rooaaar! Rooaaaaar! Rooaaaaar! “Ahhh!” we scream. I yank the steering wheel to the right and hit the brakes with all my might as the oncoming truck is about to ram us at full speed. I close my eyes, clutch the steering wheel and wait for the impact. There are only a few centimetres to the rock face on the right. Rooaaar!, it roars like an attacking lion as the tractor roars past the left wing mirror within a hair’s breadth. Without having spied us, its tail lights are lost in the wing mirror. “My God! What was that?” exclaims Tanja excitedly. “Phew, several guardian angels have spread their wings over us,” I say, my whole body trembling. “He seems to have fallen asleep,” Tanja suspects. “Either he wanted to kill himself and us or he really did fall asleep,” I say, shifting into first gear and revving up the Terra again. “Unbelievable. Everything is in perfect order. You think of nothing, enjoy the moment, there’s no traffic and suddenly we have to fear for our lives,” I say, leaving the tunnel again. “That shows us again that we should enjoy life every second. You never know when it will be over. Thank you for reacting so well. I thought he was going to hit us or we were going to crash into the rock face. It’s a good thing I wasn’t at the wheel. I definitely wouldn’t have done it like that.” “Who knows, in some crisis situations, people rise above themselves and you have often proven in our explorer life that you react extremely well in times of crisis. I’m sure you would have mastered it again today,” I say.

We are still 300 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle in the province of Nordland. The village of Å in Lofoten, where we stayed almost two months ago, is 150 kilometers southwest as the crow flies from our current position. Even though we are still in the far north of Norway and it is already mid-November, the thermometer today shows six degrees above zero. Shortly before sunset, at 14:00, the E6 ends in the village of Skarberget. A small ferry takes us across the Tysfjord to the other shore to the village of Bogenes. The snow-covered mountain landscape surrounding the fjord is covered in dark clouds. Where the cloud front breaks up, some peaks shimmer in a faint pink light. A cold wind blows across the water, creating short low waves that slap against the bow of the ferry. Even if the weather is uncomfortable and cold drizzle is blowing in our faces, the landscape has lost none of its impressive beauty. “What does the app say? Is there a parking space here for the night?” asks Tanja. “Some. There’s one a bit remote by a fjord. It looks good, but we’ll have to leave the road and drive through the forest a bit.” “Let’s not do any more experiments, please. We’ve already had enough excitement today.” “We won’t meet any trucks on a forest road,” I joke…