The weather does all sorts of things here these days, but not necessarily what we want it to do. Crossing the Barents Sea is currently not an option, but we are happy here on the Norwegian mainland coast. After some weather-related changes of plans we ended up in Lille Kvalfjord on Stjernøya. Never heard? Neither have we 🙂
Lille Kvalfjord on Stjernøya in Altafjord.
It is really a lost place, with a tiny settlement, but it seems completely deserted. Completely surrounded by steep mountains, the only access appears from the sea. But it is an beautiful place in its own way. Some old huts and houses spread along the shore and in the forest of low birch trees. Huge rocks and steep mountains. And very deep, soft snow. A very lonesome, very quiet place!
Stjernøya has always been an important place for the Sami people, who call it Stierdná. They still keep reindeer here during the summer months.
Click on thumbnail to open an enlarged version of the specific photo.
Then we set course for Hammerfest.
Hammerfest
Hammerfest – cool! None of us would have expected that a week ago. I have never been here before. And now we are suddenly here! Nice!
The “old” centre of Hammerfest in weather that fits the latitude.
Hammerfest is one of those cities that claim to be the northernmost one in the world. This may have been the case at some stage and of course it will depend on your definition of a city. With a good 11,000 inhabitants, it is certainly a good bit larger than Longyearbyen, no doubt.
So we spent Friday here, again with some pretty impressive weather changes.
The monument of the Struve meridian in Hammerfest.
And there are quite a few things to see and to do. There is the town itself, of course, with its streets and shops, pubs and cafés and churches. There is the monument of the Struve meridian, which was quite an impressive bit of scientific work of the early 19th century, covering a geodetic arc from the Black Sea to – exactly – Hammerfest. There is the world famous polar bear club (no, I did not join) and the museum about the regional history, mainly focussing on the awful years of the second world war which brought complete destruction to the whole area. This is why Hammerfest does not have any older buildings.
It is easy to spend a day here.
Now we expect to leave for Bear Island and Spitsbergen tomorrow (Saturday).