Sun
14 Nov
2021

Ves­t­fjord, this lar­ge, half-open stretch of water bet­ween Lofo­ten and the Nor­we­gi­an main­land, can be a bit of a bas­tard. I remem­ber defi­ni­te­ly more head­winds and unp­lea­sant waves during the many crossings of Ves­t­fjord than fair sai­ling winds. Also this time it was a bum­py road from Kabel­våg to Bodø. But well, that’s life, we’ve got­ta take it as it comes. Wea­ther.

In Bodø, this voya­ge came to an end, and hence my nor­t­hern sea­son in this slight­ly mixed year 2021. It brought less time in the Arc­tic than I had ori­gi­nal­ly been hoping for but more than feared at some stage.

It was a beau­tiful and good, cer­tain­ly inclu­ding this final voya­ge on SV Anti­gua. Gre­at thanks to ever­y­bo­dy who was part of this time! First of all Cap­tain Ser­ge and his good crew – I am loo­king for­ward to see­ing you again next year up north (or else­whe­re, for that sake)! Mean­while, safe and hap­py sai­ling!

This is the last tra­vel blog ent­ry for this year. If you want to con­ti­nue enjoy­ing the beau­ty and fasci­na­ti­on of the Arc­tic also in Decem­ber and Janu­ary, then join Bir­git Lutz and my during our online pre­sen­ta­ti­on series “Der ark­ti­sche Mitt­woch” (Ger­man) 🙂

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

Sat
13 Nov
2021

Con­side­ring the wea­ther, this was defi­ni­te­ly the per­fect day for a visit to the Lofotr Viking muse­um in Borg on the Lofo­ten island of Ves­t­vå­gøy. Con­side­ring the wind, a bus ride was cer­tain­ly bet­ter than a ship voya­ge today, and loo­king at the rain, a bus ride was cer­tain­ly bet­ter than hiking today … so that work­ed well 🙂

The Lofotr Viking muse­um is real­ly inte­res­t­ing, inclu­ding a beau­tiful recon­s­truc­tion of a 83 m long chieftain’s house. We were lucky to get a gui­ded tour by Chris­ti­an, a true viking and as powerful­ly elo­quent as coro­na pro­of. Altog­e­ther it was almost temp­ting to try viking life here for a while … well, almost, I quite like living in our modern times and I wouldn’t exch­an­ge it for a pro­ba­b­ly much shorter and defi­ni­te­ly much har­der life in the 8th or 9th cen­tu­ry.

And it was not “only” the muse­um. My per­so­nal high­light was the sight­ing of an adult male elk near the road on Ves­t­vå­gøy – the traf­fic situa­ti­on didn’t allow us to stop, unfort­u­na­te­ly – and then we did seve­ral stops to enjoy the Lofo­ten sce­n­ery on the way back on Ves­t­vå­gøy, Gim­søy and Aus­t­vå­gøy. Beau­tiful land­scapes, espe­ci­al­ly as the clouds kind­ly kept their water during tho­se moments.

In the end, we still had time for a visit in the famous Lofo­ten aqua­ri­um in Kabel­våg.

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

Fri
12 Nov
2021

Troll­fjord is wide­ly famous for its stun­ning sce­n­ery and sea eagles (they live any­whe­re in the wide regi­on up here, but Troll­fjord is defi­ni­te­ly a good place to see them). We were the­re in the right time to see the won­derful land­scape in its full beau­ty.

The same appli­es to the sea eagles. We got to see an ama­zing num­ber of them. That was, to some degree, coin­ci­dence, but not an enti­re­ly natu­ral one: while we were play­ing in Troll­fjord, a smal­ler motor boat came in with tou­rists, pro­ba­b­ly from Svol­vær, and star­ted put­ting out pie­ces of fish. The sea eagles cle­ar­ly knew the ritu­al, as they came down even befo­re that boat had actual­ly stop­ped! Dir­ty trick, pos­si­bly, but it works quite obvious­ly well.

A few hours later we went along­side in Kabel­våg, the his­to­ri­cal cent­re of the Lofo­ten islands. We went to have a good look around in wea­ther that was get­ting incre­asing­ly less enjoya­ble. The fore­cast pro­mi­ses rather unp­lea­sant con­di­ti­ons for the days to come.

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

Fri
12 Nov
2021

The litt­le har­bour of Skrol­s­vik on the sou­the­as­tern point of the love­ly island of Sen­ja lies some­what deser­ted bet­ween the sea, some small islands and moun­ta­ins with gre­at hiking rou­tes.

In cer­tain ear­lier times, the stra­te­gi­cal posi­ti­on attrac­ted „visi­tors“ with pro­no­un­ced­ly less peaceful inten­ti­ons. During the occu­pa­ti­on in the war years from 1940, the Ger­man Wehr­macht built a coas­tal for­ti­fi­ca­ti­on here to con­trol the nor­t­hern ship­ping rou­te to the important port of Nar­vik. It is, again and again, incre­di­ble how much effort peo­p­le put into things that are just made to des­troy other things. The guns, later kept by the Nor­we­gi­an mili­ta­ry for many years, are now slow­ly rus­ting away, and the bun­kers are more and more wea­the­ring and cover­ed by vege­ta­ti­on.

Later we made a stop in Har­stad, a cent­re of civi­li­sa­ti­on on Hin­nøya in Ves­terå­len.

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

Sun
7 Nov
2021

On Satur­day evening we arri­ved in Ham­nes just in time to see a most ama­zing nor­t­hern light. A green spi­ral with some pur­ple edges was dancing in rapid move­ments over the sky. Stun­ning!

And so was the fol­lo­wing day. A gol­den mor­ning in Ham­nes on the island of Uløya. Hiking opti­ons are vir­tual­ly end­less – as far as you can walk or as time allows.

Crui­sing out of Lyn­gen­fjord was just as impres­si­ve and beau­tiful. The wea­ther chan­ged rapidly from gol­den sun­light to dark grey snow squalls with a hint of pur­ple. Ama­zing and quick­ly chan­ging light con­di­ti­ons in front of the scenic back­ground of the Lyn­gen Alps.

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

Sun
7 Nov
2021

Back on the waves again with good old Anti­gua! We have one week ahead of us, sear­ching for beau­tiful impres­si­ons and expe­ri­en­ces in north Nor­way on the way from Trom­sø to Bodø.

Kvæn­an­gen is actual­ly not real­ly on this way, but we have got enough time for some extra miles. The wea­ther is fine, we know that the wha­les are the­re, so we set cour­se to the nor­the­ast.

And this tur­ned out to be a good decis­i­on 🙂

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

Fri
5 Nov
2021

The (almost) last evening, the last day. Finn­kro­ken on the island of Reinøya. An old tra­ding place, now kind of a muse­um, camp­fi­re atmo­sphe­re in a lavu, a holy place of the Sami peo­p­le, wide views over fjell and fjord.

A last cou­ple of hours sai­ling time take us to Trom­sø, whe­re this trip comes to an end. It was a good one, thank you all very much! Save tra­vels back home or good onward jour­ney, and see you next time! 🙂

As far as I am con­cer­ned, I have the shor­test move ever. From Cape Race to Anti­gua. Both ships are lying along­side each other. We will take off again tonight!

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

Tue
2 Nov
2021

Kvæn­an­gen has given us ple­nty of beau­ty the last cou­ple of days. But we had not yet seen much of the famous orcas, other than a very brief and distant sight­ing two days ago. May­be today? This would be our third and last attempt. It is not that ever­y­thing comes easi­ly and for free in the the far north. Well, the two pre­vious wha­le­wat­ching excur­si­ons had been beau­tiful – with hump­back and fin wha­les – but we were still hoping for orcas.

And we did see them today. What an incre­di­ble mor­ning!

Later we went and had a look at Skjer­vøy, the metro­po­lis of the Kvæn­an­gen area. The first har­bour whe­re the Fram came back to civi­li­sa­ti­on in 1896 after her famous drift across the Arc­tic Oce­an. Good to stretch legs a bit!

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

Tue
2 Nov
2021

The wind had blown us away from seve­ral litt­le piers during the last cou­ple of days. Many of the­se litt­le piers are doubtful at best, and may even hap­pen that you approach one just to find out that it doesn’t exist any­mo­re … but today, we final­ly mana­ged to go along­side at Skor­pa. A beau­tiful litt­le island, with fan­ta­stic sce­n­ery – the hig­her per­spec­ti­ves requi­re some inte­res­t­ing hiking, though – and silent wit­nesses of island life of the past, which does not exist any­mo­re.

The most impres­si­ve bit of sce­n­ery in the who­le Kvæn­an­gen area, howe­ver, may well be Jøkel­fjord with its moun­ta­ins that tower a good 1000 met­res abo­ve the water and a gla­cier that is han­ging down over the hig­hest cliffs at the head of the fjord.

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

Mon
1 Nov
2021

Kvæn­an­gen – a won­derful area! Did I men­ti­on that befo­re? Doesn’t mat­ter.

We are having a gre­at time. Stun­ning light, sce­n­ery, wha­les, and a gre­at auro­ra borea­lis last night. We were ancho­ring as the­re was no pier available in the area, so that was not quite per­fect for pho­to­gra­phy, but I think I got some reasonable pic­tures any­way 🙂

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

Sat
30 Oct
2021

We spent the night in Nord-Len­an­gen and con­tin­ued from the­re to the nor­the­ast to reach the Kvæn­an­gen area today. An ama­zing area! The sce­n­ery, the light, sea eagles, wha­les, …

But have a look yours­elf. Some impres­si­ons wit­hout too many more words:

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

Fri
29 Oct
2021

The polar night has come down over Spits­ber­gen. In the Trom­sø area in north Nor­way, the sun still makes it abo­ve the hori­zon for exac­ty 7 hours as of today. It is get­ting less and less every day now.

Next to the dark­ness, the her­ring has retur­ned to the fjords in north Nor­way.

This means that chan­ces are good now for both nor­t­hern lights and orcas. And that’s what it is (almost) all about for us for a while now. I will be on MS Cape Race for a week now, a ship that I have not been on befo­re. But ever­y­bo­dy keeps tel­ling me that she is gre­at so I did cer­tain­ly not want to miss the oppor­tu­ni­ty as I got the offer to join now. A beau­tiful ship! And a very warm and fri­end­ly wel­co­me. Gre­at!

The­re were still a cou­ple of hours time in Trom­sø befo­re we were get­ting rea­dy to go. I took the chan­ce for an update on the regio­nal geo­lo­gy in Trom­sø muse­um. The famous ter­rel­la was unfort­u­na­te­ly not on dis­play right now, becau­se of recon­s­truc­tion work :-/ well, next time.

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

Now we are on the way, under a beau­tiful sky of stars, even the Mil­ky Way comes out nice­ly, but no nor­t­hern lights yet. Well, we’ll see what the next days bring! The pre­dic­ted Kp value for tomor­row (Satur­day) is real­ly high, so may­be the lights will even be visi­ble from nor­t­hern cen­tral Euro­pe? Fin­gers crossed! Not so good for the north Nor­way area, but we’ll see. We have got time, so our chan­ces for nor­t­hern lights are good any­way. Fin­gers crossed.

Sky of stars over Ull­sfjor­den nor­the­ast of Trom­sø
(pho­to taken from the ship during crui­sing).

Thu
23 Sep
2021

Lucki­ly, we had the hea­vy seas and swell of the open west coast now behind us, but wind and rain fol­lo­wed us into Isfjord. After a good look at Barents­burg in day­light, we had a very grey and wet after­noon in Bore­buk­ta.

The next day was much bet­ter, and the clouds around Gips­huks­let­ta added some love­ly effects to the moun­ta­ins.

Bil­lefjord loo­ked pret­ty fog­gy, so we opted for Tem­pel­fjord ins­tead whe­re we had clear visi­bi­li­ty and fine views of the stun­ning sce­n­ery to round the day and hence the trip off.

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

So now this year’s sea­son “Spits­ber­gen under sail” of our litt­le com­pa­ny Geo­gra­phi­schen Rei­se­ge­sell­schaft is now histo­ry. The sum­mer was shorter than we had ori­gi­nal­ly been hoping for, but we were among­st the few hap­py peo­p­le who got to sail up here this year at all!

A big thanks to ever­y­bo­dy who con­tri­bu­ted to a gre­at third and final sai­ling voya­ge for us this arc­tic sum­mer: Cap­tain Mario and his crew, Fran­ka and Ire­ne and all of you on board who made this voya­ge and the who­le sum­mer so enjoya­ble!

Sun
19 Sep
2021

The pas­sa­ge from Kongsfjord to Isfjord was, well, a moving expe­ri­ence. It does not hap­pen every day that we start a pas­sa­ge and return becau­se we just can’t advan­ce against wind and waves.

A day later it was much bet­ter. Still some quite hea­vy well in outer Isfjord, but soon we were along­side in Barents­burg. And not much later in the bar, enjoy­ing a beer.

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

Sat
18 Sep
2021

Last night we went along­side in Ny-Åle­sund, Spitsbergen’s nor­t­hern­most sett­le­ment. Loo­king at the wea­ther fore­cast, we thought: now or never, some­thing that tur­ned out to be quite true. In the mor­ning, we went out to have a look at the place.

The wind picked up con­sider­a­b­ly towards the after­noon, and it beca­me quite clear that we wouldn’t make any fur­ther landings today any­mo­re, so we went for a ship crui­se in Kross­fjord. Any visit out­side on deck pro­vi­ded us with any volu­me of very fresh air that you could desi­re in no time.

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