Gail and John's travels: Summer 2010, Norway Part 2

Monday 19 July saw us having a good look around Bergen before heading back to collect our cases and drag them to the Hurtigruten terminal for a 2000 hrs departure.

The Nordkapp in Geirangerfjorden - our home

for the next 5 five days on the trip up to Tromsø (Tromso).

The Hurtigruten sails every day from Bergen on a 12 day round trip around to Kirkenes and calls at 34 ports along the way and delivers cargo and passengers.

Cars are driven on and cargo pallets exchanged through side doors. Some stops are for 15 minutes whilst others allow shore excursions for 3 hours or so such as at Trondheim on the way north.

Farewell to Bergen.

The last of the fine warm sunny days until we got to Tromsø.

Next morning the we awoke to rain and low clouds as we sailed into Geirangerfjorden where we left the ship to rejoin it later on the day.

Sailing in the rain!

Geirangerfjorden.

The waterfalls of course need rain to see them at their best. The rainclouds did not produce very good light for photos so this one and others are washed out - I'm not going to cheat and add dark rainclouds elsewhere just to make the picture look more appealing.

Nordkapp and cruise ship at Geiranger.

Onto a bus and off up the side of the fjord to join others at the viewpoint. Geiranger is one of those touristy places where the majority of visitors come by ship. Gerianger is a small town with only a few hundred inhabitants but gets crowded with up to 10,000 visitors with 5 cruise ships at anchor.

This is the view we came to see!

This is the only thing we saw - Nordkapp on the way out to meet up with us at Molde 7½ hours later. Eventhough it was disappointing not to see the fjord, there were plenty of other great sights in store along the way.

Another waterfall. This one reminded me a bit of a day we went into Milford Sound and stopped at The Chasm - 24 busloads of tourists but fortunately there were only 4 here so not as crowded but we had to keep moving to rendezvous with the ship at Molde. As we went up the side of the fjord at Gerianger, we had to go down at some point; Trollstigen was next!

Trollstigen

Looking back at the road snaking its way across the rock face.

Again a reminder of Milford Sound. Imagine a road instead of the Homer Tunnel on the way into Milford. We had a stop shortly after this for a light meal before heading on across another fjord by ferry then to Molde for dinner a couple of hours later.

A welcome sight as north and southbound Hurtigruta pass at Molde.

Thursday 22 July was our busiest day on the cruise. Firstly the crossing of the Arctic Circle occurred at 0715 hrs whilst we were waiting for breakfast. Shortly after we boarded another boat and headed off up another fjord to the Svartisen Glacier.

The Alba near the glacier.

The Svartisen glacier.

After getting off the boat a short walk up to get a closer look at it certainly didn't result in a better photo. At least the warm drink and food supplied as part of the trip was worthwhile. Back to the Alba and off again to catch up with the Nordkapp at Bodø. Along the way we passed a site where the rare white tailed eagle is know to nest.

One of the local escorts.

(Canon 450D, EFS55-250 mm lens at 135mm. f5.6, 1/1250s at ISO-800.)

This lens is a little soft wide open but a reasonable result among the many exposures with the shutter going off at 3.5 times per second!)

The idea here was to spark interest among the fish eagles by feeding the gulls and other birds on bucket of fish guts etc. Eventually we were rewarded when this one came to see what was on offer.

The white tailed fish eagle.

(Canon 450D, EFS 55-250mm lens at 239mm, f5.6, 1/500s , ISO-800.)

Thank you very much.

(Canon 450D, EFS 55-250mm lens at 250mm, f5.6, 1/400s , ISO-800.)

Having fed the eagles it was time to head off again and look for some puffins. This time we were in luck although I was surprised at how small the birds are. It was now raining quite heavily as you can see in the cropped shot.

Puffin

(Canon 450D, EFS 55-250mm lens at 250mm, f7.1, 1/640s , ISO-800.)

After rejoining the Nordkapp at Bodø we set sail across Vestfjorden to Stamsund in the Lofoten Islands. This area of Norway is where the cod spawn in February and March and up to 2,000 fishing boats descend on the Lofotens. Another bus ride here to visit a reconstructed viking chieftans longhouse for a very toursity meal and show before heading on to Svolvær to rejoin the ship.

Distinctive Lofoten mountains

Heavy Lofoten sky

Leaving Svolvær at 2200 hrs (The Hurtigruten does keep very closely to its schedule of arrivals and departures) our day wasn't done yet. Just on midnight we sailed through a 60 m wide gap into Trollfjorden.

Trollfjorden is 1.5 km long. It is usually frozen over in the winter.

Bow and stern thrusters allow the ship to spin on its own axis within 10m of the side of the fjord.

After three and a half turns it was time to head off towards the next port of call. This is about 0100hrs in the morning and broad daylight.

Being above the Arctic Circle, days are long in the summer and so there is still plenty of vegetation here although we are "above" the treeline. Later in the day it was time to leave Nordkapp and go ashore in Tromsø (Tromso).

Tromsø from the near the top of the Fjellheisen (Cable car)

The main part of the town is on the island with the airport on the other side. The small island on the upper left of this photo is where the Tirpitz was finally destroyed by the RAF in WW2. The Cold War also left its mark here. To get to the airport we drove through the centre of the island which was carved out as a massive nuclear bomb shelter.

Permanent snow above Tromsø

Tromsø waterfront.

Nearby is the Polar museum which is really, really good. This was our first fine day since leaving Copenhagen!. Although skies were blue all day, the slightest breath of wind reminded us that we were 380km north the Arctic Circle. Three night here was plenty of time before heading south to Trondheim.