Ginevrabotnen: Engeløya

Engeløya is a tiny island on the north side of Barent­søya, in the nor­t­hern part of Storfjord which is, in this area, also cal­led Ginev­ra­bot­nen. Engeløya is named after a Ger­man sta­tis­ti­ci­an (Ernst Engel, 1821-96). Mis­ter Engel has, howe­ver, never been to “his” island.

And it is neither known nor visi­ble that anyo­ne has actual­ly ever been the­re. And why should one go the­re? It is a very small island and not easi­ly acces­si­ble due to shal­low waters and the rocky coast. Once on shore, you will find the island to be cover­ed with bould­ers and lar­ge peb­bles in some places and thick car­pets of mos­ses and lichens in other places. During the bree­ding sea­son, the­re will be a lot of ground bree­ders such as arc­tic terns and, near some small ponds, red-throa­ted divers and other birds who app­re­cia­te a small island wit­hout arc­tic foxes.

A small, silent, for­got­ten island, that turns out to be a beau­tiful place if you hap­pen to get clo­se. It will be good if not too many peo­p­le walk across the fra­gi­le vege­ta­ti­on, but con­side­ring the geo­gra­phy, I would think that the risk of too many visi­tors is pret­ty low.

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