LOFOTEN’S LITTLE SISTER

ARRIVING

Senja, Norways second biggest island lies about 350km above the Polar Circle at 69° north. We arrive around 22:30, at Bardufoss airport, which suitingly is called Snowman Airport, once again a place hardly anybody knows,  just the way we like it ! To be honest I didn’t know it existed until I needed a flight to Senja. We get the car, definitely a 4WD, at the SIXT desk. Okay, that’s new, the guy stays inside and we get the car key: your car is outside, deep frozen… with the motor running and the heating at 28°, to defrost I guess. We still can’t open the hatch, so we dump everything on the back seat and head for the hotel. It is minus 18 degrees or so.

HUSØY

After breakfast, and scraping ice off the car for about half an hour we leave for Senja. The drive itself is already an adventure, the weather is sunny and we drive through snowy forests, past cute red cabins, see beautiful mountain peaks gleaming white against a blue and sunny sky. This is great.

At Finnsnes we pass the bridge and are now on the Senja island. We are not getting anywhere because we are stopping at every cute red cabin on the shoreline. The scenery is beautiful all the way. The only downside, there are no restaurants to get a good coffee, just the machines at the petrol stations, of which there aren’t many either. When we turn off towards Husøy the road starts to climb, we get a wonderful view looking down on the fjord, and an even better one after the tunnel, going down. We stop in a hairpin turn and rush to the edge. From here you look down on Husøy and the fjord and the ocean in the back, so special !

The apartment Skipperhuset, booked on airbnb, is amazing, very nicely decorated, enough space, a huge bathroom, and mere steps from the ocean. I look forward to sitting on the deck later (it has glass all around so we’ll be okay) and watch the fishermen come back in, and the seagulls circle around. There are  mountains all around rising straight from the sea. Across the fjord, to the left is the small village of Fjordgard and behind it Senja’s most famous peak, the Segla. Don’t think we’ll climb that in all this snow.

After lunch the weather is changing for the worst, the skyline to the north is pitch-black, so we decide to stay on the island and go to the lighthouse on the northernmost cliffs. We get some cool shots with a dramatic sky and Jürg even gets the drone to do a few rounds. Then we hurry home as it starts to snow. It snows all evening and night, so no chance of northern lights, damn. But we’ll get a good nights sleep. 

UNEXPECTED HIKE & OLD FRIENDS

The next morning we are woken by sun shining in, great ! After a lovely breakfast we head out. We don’t get far, we stop at the same hairpin turn to do the same photo as when we arrived yesterday. Except now it looks brilliant, the yellow houses shine bright and the sun is directly on the island.

We drive over the pass again and head to Fjordgard, Jürg says he wants to drive just past the turnoff to get a picture from on top of the hill. There are already lots of cars and a minibus parked there, a photo tour group, the one we travelled with last year to Lofoten, such coincidence ! It gets even better, suddenly one guy starts yelling, I know you, I know you, and pointing at Jürg.  Well, that often happens so he was ready to say, yeah, I always look like a local. Turns out to be Frank who was with us in Iceland in 2016 with Hougaard & Isak. He was 75 then, so he is like 82 now, but still looks the same and still doing crazy photo tours, incredible this old guy. We follow the path the tour group made and get lovely shots of Mefjordbotn from above.

Then we drive to Fjordgard, give a local a ride, and he tells us we can walk up the mountain between Hesten and Segla. We didn’t really plan that but give it a go. We take our lunch and the thermos jugs with coffee and tea, for a picnic on top. We sort of miss the turn to Hesten and end up going towards Segla, Jürg has his very warm jacket off after 5min, it is bloody hot ! (like almost above zero) We are going in the wrong direction and are really not dressed or prepared for this, so we stop at a little Brorbrua (small shelter in the middle of no where) and have our lunch. Jürg sends the drone up so we do get to see the view on the other side then we heard back and continue on. 

We hope to find a petrol station with a shop, we stupidly have forgotten the water bottles and after the hike all coffee and tea are gone. We drive through Mefjordbotn and Senjahopen, which are supposed to be „bigger“ villages…nothing. Everything is closed and we are dying of thirst. So on to Mefjordvær, there should be a hotel/restaurant there. Yes ! So at last we get to quench our thirst. God, we drove over half the island and not a shop, petrol station or restaurant to be seen. It is definitely not tourist time, and it is Sunday. The sky is getting darker and darker so we head back home in 50min, if you don’t do photo stops this island is not so big ! Drinks on the deck, but it is again snowing and we can’t even see the mountains across. The weather is supposed to get worse in the night, heavy snowfall and storm, we’ll see tomorrow.

SNOWED IN

The wind is howling around the house, the mountains across the fjord are no where to be seen, the snow blows across from right to left in terrible gusts of wind, this is not good. The road over the pass to Huselv on the next fjord is closed due to snow, wind and avalanche danger, bugger. We are stuck here. Shortly before 15:00 my host sends a message, they will probably open at 17:00, but not sure. So we decide to stay here, which kind of really buggers me, but on the other hand, there is not much light left to shoot  anything anyway, and there are worse places to be stuck.

Jürg goes out after dinner to do a shot of Fjordgard with all its lights, it looks like a daytime shot, the full moon is so bright. Lousy timing for this trip he recons. We will set the alarm at 01:00 and 03:30 when there is a tiny chance of an aurora KPN 3-4 and not so much cloud cover. Okay the full moon will probably mess it up, but we must give it a go. Didn’t work out. 

ALL THE SIGHTS, AND AN AURORA

The weather forecast was sunny and only minus 6 degrees, and it is, so let’s hit the road. At Mefjordbotn we drive down to the beach, but the view from on top was 10x better. Good thing we already got that, the little path the tour group had made was now covered under 2m of snow, no chance of getting through. Next stop Ersfjordstranda, which really is a cute beach with a little town and a huge mountain behind it. First we drive to the east side of the bay, then the west side where we park near the golden public toilet called Guldassen, then plough through knee deep snow to reach the beach. Anything for a good photo. 

 

Then one to one of Senja’s most famous viewpoints, Tungeneset, sharp spiky mountains across the fjord, which reflect in a big tidal pool. Except it was almost high tide and big waves kept crashing into the pool, so no reflections at all. Added to that it was absurdly slippery, so getting any further than the end of the boardwalk was almost impossible. A guy was swept in the ocean two days ago and not seen again, so I am going to shoot from this boring spot. There is a couple standing out there, and the lady has a bright pink jacket on, that is just the color blob I needed to make something out of this shot !

Next beach along the road is Steinfjord, which is really a nice beach at the end of a not so deep fjord. It has some cute red and yellow houses, always good for contrast in the all-white photos. We continue to Skaland on the next fjord. This is the kayaking capital of Senja, lots of advertising but as always, all is closed. There is, oh miracle, a shop that is open ! We get a few last supplies but since all the restaurants are closed and it is freezing cold, we sit in the car, park it facing the sun, and eat our own sandwiches for lunch. Now another highlight, Bergsbotn, there is a good view from the road, but when the road climbs there is a modern wooden viewing platform with amazing views. For starters we have it all to ourselves, so we get shots of us on the platform, then the views.  

Finally we reach Hamn, the tiny town on a little island. Our next airbnb is on the adjacent island. Again a lovely apartment with big windows looking out over the ocean, a big kitchen and living space. The only downside, it is freezing cold, no underfloor heating so my new Norway socks are once again the best buy of the trip. We turn the heater, which is actually an air conditioner, to 25 degrees and light the fire in the Swedish oven, thank God for that.

After a quick soup to warm up we head out again. Back to Bergsbotn viewing platform, about a 30-40 min drive. We arrive 16:45, sunset is at 17:00, good timing. We share the platform with two elderly British gentleman with full photo equipment, filters and all, which don’t move and don’t talk. I mean it is minus 9 degrees with windchill factor, and it is blowing heavily, feels like minus 15 ! Shit my fingers are freezing off, I do some shots, get the men on the platform from a side angle, go sit in the car, to warm up. They don’t move. I take an iPhone shot, shit, there is more color. So out of the car again, and try once more, they still haven’t moved ! At 17:20 we pack up and go, it won’t get any better. I am so cold, hit the shower and use all the warm water, then sit on the sofa in full gear with my hot water bottle. 

At 23:00 just when I am off to bed Jürg goes out to check for the auroras one more time. Sleepily I tell him: call me when you see something, not expecting much. Two seconds later he replies: you better come, I can see it with my bare eyes. So in world record speed I put on my five layers of clothing, change the lens on my camera to wide angle, grab my hat and gloves, put on the ice fighter boots and off we go. Just to the bend in the road so we get the lights over the hotel. Then they change and are more to the west. It’s not all that bright but good enough, we’ve seen them at last. Around midnight the fun stops and we go back to bed.

HAMN

Rise and shine, the sun is once again, shining from a cloudless sky, and we know now that can change very quickly around here. The forecast said cloudy from 11:00, snow from 14:00 so better shoot as long as we have light. We get some shots of Ballesvika beach from the road. It is quite nice today, very little wind. But when we get into the car the temperature is at minus 13, we are getting good at this, cold resistant at last ! We continue on west to Gryllefjord, as we come out of the tunnel and head for the bridge, the fjord is to our left and right, no wind so the mountains reflect in the very calm waters. Stop the car and shoot. Again from the other end of the bridge then on to Torsken, the road climbs and from on top we get another great view.

Torsken is a friendly little village where, except for a tiny EXTRA supermarket, every thing is… you’ve guessed it, closed. So another coffee break in the car. We drive through Gryllefjord, a somewhat bigger town and OMG another supermarket, and it actually is open ! But we have everything we need. 

Back towards Hamn where Jürg flies the drone over the lighthouse to save us another scramble through the snow trip. Back home for lunch, which is nicer than eating in the car. After lunch we head east again, still some sunshine, so never totally believe the weather forecast. We do the ice lake just before the tunnel to Bergsbotn, very white. Jürg tries to find a way down, follows elk tracks, but there is no way of getting there, too much snow. Bergsbotn is boring now that the sky is turning grayer by the minute, we continue to Steinfjord but as soon as we leave the tunnel and see the beach we decide to return, just grey in grey is no good. Dramatic skies would have been cool, this is not. It starts snowing again and does so all night.

SNOWED IN AGAIN

Lena, our host, tells us lots of roads are closed today, so we’ll stay here an extra night. Jürg sleeps late and I sit in the living room with a cup of tea and watch the weather change. At times you don’t see the little island across from us, and that is less than 500m. The wind howls around the house and snow is blown against the windows where it stays put, and freezes to strange white patterns. We are invited for lunch at Lena’s right next door, and she has underfloor heating, so yes please, because here I only survive with the heater on 25 degrees, the fireplace glowing all day, my Norwegian socks and a hot water bottle under my feet. We get bread, ham and cheese and waffles which are very nice ! 

After lunch it is not snowing so badly, so we go see the lighthouse behind the hotel. It is nice, but in this weather a true black&white photo. Bugger, I get a mail the Sami reindeer trip is cancelled. That was the highlight of this trip for me. So what the heck, we will do the Polar Park tomorrow. We spend the evening with our laptops and the last food we have, the hotel is fully booked and can’t take us. Three busloads of Asian tourists, I do believe they are full. Jürg even got the Netflix going, juhui, TV time for once.

LEAVING VIA THE POLAR PARK

Our last day here, tomorrow morning we fly home. The weather is perfect again, blue skies and hardly any wind, a mild minus 6 or so. The plan is to leave at 9:00, which works perfectly well. We say goodbye to Lena and are on our way to see the reindeer place. We drive through snowy mountains on a road with snow walls so high we don’t see over them, it is almost like driving on a bob run. We pass frozen lakes covered with snow, gigantic white plains framed by bare spruce trees. There is no snow on the trees because it has all been blown off in yesterdays storm. 

The reindeer thing didn’t work out so well. Let’s head for the Polar park, I’m giving up on reindeer, Jürg will just have to come to Lapland on a Sami Tour with me. The Polar Park is about 60km south of Bardufoss and easily found. It is colder here maybe about minus 12, but in our jackets and with the ice fighter boots we are fine. First we see the moose, then the wolves, there are people in the fenced area with a guide, the wolves are close to them and howl like mad. It is really bugging that there are wired fences all around, so no chance of getting a decent photo. But we see them well, they are beautiful. Then to the bears, two guys are standing close to the fence eating a sandwich, the bears are up on their hind legs, big hairy claws on the fence, they probably smell the food. Poor sods. We take some more fence photos. Then there is a lynx, which just sits there and refuses to open its eyes and then way in the back the reindeer. Not a single one around ! Shit, I am giving up on reindeer ! But as we walk along there are some in the woods, and no fence here, so I get a shot at them. Nothing miraculous, nothing remotely close to what I had wanted, but at least I got a photo

We had a cool trip, literally !

Just beware if you need a toilet here, they are also deep frozen 😉

For our favorite photos :go to gallery

 

Copyright : Astrid Bluemel for bluemelphoto.ch