MS Polarlys arrives late into Sortland in the snow

Nordland – crossing the Arctic Circle

Travelling north through the evening and night we saw the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) – but you’ll have to wait for those images – and we entered Nordland from Trøndelag. We travelled past Rørvik and Brønnøysund, Sandnessjøen and Nesna in the dark and sometime before 10:00am (local time) we crossed the Arctic Circle. The photograph below was taken as we approached Ørnes – I think the black and white works well in this shot; it also marks the first real snow we’d seen on the journey north.

Near Ornes in black and white
Near Ørnes in black and white
The island of Fugløya between Ornes and Bodø
The island of Fugløya between Ornes and Bodø

More spectacular coastal scenery as we travelled on to Bodø – which we were not too impressed with – but it was beginning to get dark by then! After that it was on into the county of Troms until we returned to Nordland on our journey south which I describe below.

We’d had to abandon a visit to the North Cape (Nordkapp), the most northerly point in mainland Europe due to an avalanche, so had booked on a trip from Harstad (in Troms) to Sortland (in Nordland). The following two images are of the second part of that coach trip as we journeyed to meet up with the ship in Sortland.

Panorama near Sortland, Lofoten
Panorama near Sortland, Lofoten

A chance to see the MS Polarlys approaching the quay to pick us up after our coach trip through part of the Lofoten Islands …

MS Polarlys arrives late into Sortland in the snow
MS Polarlys arrives late into Sortland in the snow

… back on the boat and travelling south we meandered through the Lofoten Islands in the fading light …

In the Raftsund, somewhere between Stokmarknes and Svolvær
In the Raftsund, somewhere between Stokmarknes and Svolvær

… in black and white (above) and colour (below) …

In the Raftsund, somewhere between Stokmarknes and Svolvær
In the Raftsund, somewhere between Stokmarknes and Svolvær

… and were taken to the entrance of the Trollfjord, which is only 100m wide but beyond whose entrance the scenery is supposed to be spectacular …

Just 100m wide and you're into the Trollfjord
Just 100m wide and you’re into the Trollfjord

… then it was the open sea crossing of Vestfjorden and back towards Nesna …

Sea and mountains, Nesna
Sea and mountains, Nesna

We bade farewell to Nordland at Brønnøysund (see images of the sunset here) and as the light faded I was just able to see Torghatten (the mountain with the hole) with the moon above.

The mountain with a hole in it, Torghatten
The mountain with a hole in it, Torghatten

All in all this part of the trip was perhaps the most photogenic and we had simply wonderful weather for the time we spent in Nordland. There were so many more pictures I could have included in this post and on Flickr – it’s a shame to discard them; perhaps I can include a few more in a book later.

An album of these and other Nordland images can be viewed here on Flickr.

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