The Lofoten and Vesteralen Islands - The Wall in the West

On the western side of the fjord, the Lofoten and Vesteralen Islands form what appears to be an impenetrable and continuous wall of jagged peaks stretching away into the far distance to the north. One Norwegian term for the islands is the "Lofotveggen" (Lofoten Wall)



From a distance it looks like the Cuillin ridge of Skye, but much, much longer. The nautical charts show that Lofoten/Vesteralen is a tight-packed archipelago split by narrow fjords and channels. The whole archipelago is around 150km long.




In the clear air, it was difficult to work out how far away the islands were. Refractive effects made them seem very close, but they were in fact many kilometers away. Interestingly, this effect hasn't been replicated by the camera.

The whole area of Vestfjorden and the Lofoten & Vesteralen Islands looks like a wonderful place to explore by sea kayak.

One day maybe!

Arctic Sunrise

There's a special quality to an arctic sunrise. The light spreads to fill the sky with glorious colour.

The coastal mountains were silhouetted in the frigid air as the sun began to clear the horizon

As the sun was rising, the moon was still well above the horizon. The start of another day of amazing air clarity

Northern Norway

I've recently had the opportunity to work off the Norwegian coast; including a few days in Vestfjorden, well inside the Arctic Circle between Bodo and Narvik.

Vestfjorden is a very large fjord - in Scotland similar sized bodies of water would be called Firths. It's bounded on the seaward side by the Lofoten and Vesteralen Islands, and on the eastern side by a rugged coastline dotted with islands and split by narrow fjords. After two days of very poor weather with visibilty down to under a kilometer and driving snow, the weather cleared to reveal a spectacular scene.




The mountains rise sheer from the sea in soaring towers. These hills on the island of Hamaroya are about 800 metres high, and there are many bigger mountains farther inland.



Average daytime temperatures were around minus 8 Celcius, and any breeze was bitingly cold. As dusk began to fall each evening, the mountains took on a beautiful pink alpenglow.