True north

Early breakfast, few people around. Made sandwiches for our lunch btw excursions. Up to the lounge with big windows on deck 7, the top. Watched a 10 minute call at Havoysund, surely the smallest port we've called at. They are so efficient. 

Btw 0830 and 0930 is a perfect 'blue hour', before the sun reluctantly rises. Pink light cast over the white and black rocky islands to either side. The land here is mostly deserted, barren, snow-covered rock. Really does feel like a wilderness, finally. Sadly the ship's windows are dirty, but looking out the opposite side to the sunrise, and sitting back from them, the view is splendid.

First outing today at 11am, a visit to two fishing villages. On to a coach at Honningsvag - very snowy wilderness around us. Saw the drying racks for stockfish. We are now above 71 degrees north, at the top of the world. Passed a fjord with cold dark waters, which was an emergency harbour in bad weather. Saw the swimming beach. In summer, they call it Copacabana. We stopped near the North Cape, allegedly the northernmost part of Europe, and took photos.

On to Skarsvag, through pristine white, the first village where Heidi, a local, showed us a video of her husband fishing for king crab, an environmental nightmare but economic boon. She served us spiced tea and waffles with cream and jam and we bought a pair of handknitted socks.  Only 36 people live there, no school or shops. Six thousand reindeer arrive in summer, owned by Sami, and swim back to the mainland in autumn. We saw the sun as it poked briefly above the horizon. Next stop was a slightly larger village where we visited a German artist who makes paper collages of the Lapland landscape, using old magazines, and saw a fishing vessel come in carrying King Crab.

We drove back to the ship, ate our sandwiches and waited for the next excursion. Of course this was when the alarm for the Northern Lights finally went off! We took some pics before we had to rush off to the excursion. But later pics were much better.

We donned our heavy weather clothing in a warehouse, plus helmets and gloves and were bussed to the snowmobiles. After very cursory training, off we went in the pitch dark, trying to control the bouncy vehicles over ruts and slopes at speed. Far more difficult than it looks. Lesley found it v hard to keep up. After ten minutes we stopped in a snowy wilderness to see the Northern lights which by now were a series of green curtains all around us, with stars, planets, satellites and shooting stars visible through them. A magical, unforgettable moment.

 It was hard going to complete the 17 km course, from Kjollefjord to Mehamn and Lesley was slower than most, so when we reached the end and got on the coach, we were slightly late for the ship.

Had another wonderful dinner of arctic char, on a table with a fascinating Aussie woman who worked in theatre and was a garden designer. We even had a glass of beer and a fizz to celebrate a truly great day.