It can be life-saving to follow every sound

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

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It’s 7:30 in the morning. I open my tired eyes and look through the window at the foot of the bed into the blue-dark night. An hour and a half ago, I was already pressing the snooze button on my arm computer every 10 minutes to snooze a little longer. I’m lying there half awake now, listening to a strange noise that I’ve never heard before in Terra Love. When I hear a new sound in a strange place, I am alert. My experience from past expeditions has taught me that following every sound can be life-saving. “Do you hear that?” I ask Tanja. “Do you mean the slight hiss?” she whispers. “Yes,” I reply, throwing my legs over the edge of the bed, climbing down and peering through the cabin’s large skylight. “It’s snowing. The noise is coming from the falling snow.” “I hope we don’t need snow chains after all,” Tanja ponders. “If the roads really do get snowed in and the snow clearing service takes longer to clear them, we simply wait. We can simply sit out many situations with our Terra. That’s one of the great things about a well-equipped expedition vehicle,” I reassure her.

Yesterday it only snowed on the mountain ranges. In the lowlands, on the other hand, the uncomfortable continuous rain drove away the white splendor. Today, Mrs. Holle has also shaken out her comforter over the Lyngenfjord, so the landscape has changed completely. We drive over slightly snow-covered passes. The gritting service has spread salt. We drive slowly and carefully because of the slippery roads. In this weather, we first have to get to know the handling of our 6.1-ton Terra Love. Especially how our new tires (Crossleader Wildtiger T01) behave on ice and snow. We stop at another pass to give Ajaci the opportunity to empty himself. The snow-covered wooden huts, where souvenirs are sold to passers-by in summer, are closed. Three tipi sites bear witness to the fact that this place is run by the Sami. A signpost tree, on which numerous plaques with town names and distances are attached, stretches its crown into the gray sky. Tanja and Ajaci pose for a photo in front of it. Berlin 2590 km, London 3407 km, Rome 4052 km, Damascus 5258 km are just a few of them…