The route between Gargia and Masi on the Finnmark Plateau nowadays involves a long detour north to meet the Riksvei 93, before a one hour drive south to Masi.
The southern route, which the tourists’ GPS plumped for, is nowadays used only by off-road bikes and quad bikes.
It was in any case never used in winter as it traverses the perilous Beskedes mountain ridge.
“The two tourists took it all very well,” Freddy Eilertsen from Viking Rescue Service Alta told the local Nordlys newspaper. “We decided to salvage the car when it got light again the next day, and as a result the two were picked up by a dog team. It seemed like they had a good time.”