Skjer­vøy – Orcas and nor­t­hern lights!

Mon
29 Oct
2018

Based on some infor­ma­ti­on of recent sightin­gs and a bit of opti­mism, we had set cour­se nor­the­ast towards the waters around Skjerøya, at 70 degrees north. Usual­ly we don’t get far on this trip! But con­side­ring the Orca sightin­gs that had been made by others the­re in recent days, we wan­ted to give it a try.

We were not dis­ap­poin­ted!

Orcas near Skjer­vøy.

Of cour­se we used the oppor­tu­ni­ty to visit Skjer­vøy, an small island with a sett­le­ment and har­bour that all bear the same name. This is whe­re Fri­dt­jof Nansen’s Fram final­ly retur­ned to civi­li­sa­ti­on after her famous 3 year drift across the Arc­tic Oce­an (1893-1896). Nan­sen hims­elf, accom­pa­nied by Hjal­mar Johan­sen, had famously left the ship in 1895 to reach the north pole (which did not work), so they were not on board when the Fram rea­ched Skjer­vøy. A gre­at bit of polar histo­ry, and this place was part of it. This alo­ne was actual­ly a good reason to visit.

Skjer­vøy: island, har­bour, sett­le­ment.

As it tur­ned out, the­re are some good hiking oppor­tu­ni­ties on Skjer­vøya. Curr­ent­ly limi­t­ed as the sun is going down just befo­re 3 p.m., but it was enough for a short walk to get some fine views of the place.

And as if this hadn’t been enough for a good day, we even got some first nor­t­hern lights later the same evening! Not very strong and the pho­to con­di­ti­ons were not ide­al on the moving ship, but still … nor­t­hern light is nor­t­hern light 🙂

Nor­t­hern light near Skjer­vøy.

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