From Ball­stad to Å – 06th Novem­ber 2017

Mon
6 Nov
2017

After a lot of good­byes and fare­wells, ever­y­bo­dy was going his or her way after lea­ving from or with Anti­gua in Bodø. For most, the voya­ge went sou­thwards. For us, it went nor­thwards. Back to Lofo­ten. It is actual­ly pos­si­ble to tra­vel the­re wit­hout a ship 🙂

Ball­stad on Ves­t­vå­gøy was to be our Base­camp for a cou­ple of day to dis­co­ver Lofo­ten from ano­ther per­spec­ti­ve. We want to see a lot of places that are quite easi­ly rea­ched over land, rather than with a ship. We want to take time to let the sub-arc­tic wea­ther (it con­ti­nues to be quite sub-arc­tic, Novem­ber-style) and the nor­dic light touch the eye, soul and memo­ry card wit­hout any rush. We want to enjoy the rug­ged Lofo­ten land­scape wit­hout a tight sche­du­le. A land­scape of steep slo­pes and alpi­ne peaks rising straight up from the shore­li­nes. I try to ima­gi­ne what it might have been like here may­be 12000 years ago, during the last ice age. It is a men­tal jour­ney to nor­thwes­tern Spits­ber­gen. That’s how it must have been like here back then! Today, Lofo­ten is an open air muse­um of pre­vious­ly gla­cia­ted land­scapes, like a pic­tu­re book.

Gal­lery – From Ball­stad to Å – 06th Novem­ber 2017

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

For a first over­view, we tra­vel down to Å, all the way south on Mos­ken­esøy. It is a men­tal jour­ney not only back to the ice age, but also 22 years back for me, when a stay of seve­ral months on the­se islands gave my own con­nec­tion to the far north a strong boost. I find it easy to under­stand why, loo­king at this land­scape today.

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