Crossing the line

 

‘Crossing the line’ in the maritime world is filled with ceremony and celebration. When a sailor first crosses the equator at sea King Neptune’s welcome is memorable. Crossing the line into the Arctic Circle comes without ceremony, but is equally exciting.

 

A long, but restful overnight train journey from Trondheim, in a tiny sleeper, delivers us across the 66 parallel into the Arctic Circle to arrive at the seaside town of Bodo. This is followed by an incredibly scenic, three and a half hour express ferry which delivers us to Svolvaer, the gateway to what some describe as the most dramatically beautiful scenery in the world. At 68º north Norway’s Lofoten Islands are something else.

 

Huge snow-capped mountains, incredibly deep green fjords, which contain the largest deep water coral reef in the world, shallow fjords with clear aqua coloured water that resembles the tropics, beautifully painted wooden houses dwarfed by soaring cliff faces and huge mountains. Photos taken on an Iphone can never represent their majesty. Around every bend the scenery repeats with subtle changes on perfection.

 

Somewhat surprisingly, within the Arctic circle are beautiful white, sandy, surf beaches. Astoundingly there are surf schools in action with good numbers of students doing their best to learn to surf. Kayaking and hiking are also popular as locals and visitors are determined to immerse themselves in this dramatic landscape.

 

The colourful houses and imposing mountaintops of Lofoten are also the inspiration for the setting of Elsa’s home in the Frozen movies. The weather is in the teens in early summer. Even mid-winter the weather is much warmer than would be expected this far north. Lofoten is blessed with the warm water North Atlantic and Norwegian currents (5-10º) which prevent the fjords from icing over in winter and convinces the locals that its okay to surf.

 

Just around the corner from our, comfortable beautifully restored 200-year-old wooden Airbnb cottage another slightly larger cottage is worth the admission fee. The largest Viking longhouse ever discovered was accidently unearthed by a local farmer doing his ploughing. This longhouse and surrounding farm have been reconstructed and now form part of the Lofoten Viking Museum. Within it are precious ancient artefacts, a reconstructed Viking boat on the edge of the fjord and on the farm a few very odd looking sheep, supposedly similar to those kept by the Vikings.

 

Finally, no description of Lofoten would be complete without the mention of dead fish. Cod is caught, dried and exported in huge amounts to all parts of Europe. The drying process is quite low tech with thousands of fish strung onto wooden

structures near quaint little harbours. With the odd scarecrow to repel the birds it is a sight and smell that has no equal.

 

Lofoten at 68º north is a very long way from Penguin, Tasmania at 41º south. Chatting with locals we are often reminded by their comments ‘You are a long way from home!’ True. But our conclusion is that despite the distance Norway is definitely worth the effort. Also, if you are going to come to Norway then you haven’t seen the best until you reach the Lofoten Islands. Of course, this time of year when the sun does not set it at all from the 25 May until the 17 July, it is much more enjoyable than in midwinter when the sun does not rise at all from 9 December until the 4 January. The scenery at that time of the year may be hard to appreciate.