Lofoten Monochromes

Sep8

Lofoten Islands. Day 32 to 35. 30th July to 2nd August 2013.

Links under the image point to posts with colour images and more detail.

Bergen.

Å.

Eggumsveien Nature Reserve.

Near Sortland.

Perhaps at the south end of Andøya.

Andenes.

Manes, Senja.

Gryllefjord.

Andenes to Hamn

Sep8

Andenes to Hamn, Lofoten Islands. Day 35. 2nd August 2013.

The initial images are views from the 4pm ferry from Andenes to Gryllefjord.

From left to right: First there is the ferry from Andenes to Gryllefjord. Then there is a short drive to Hamn. Finally, my route to return to Tromso the next day.

… continuing with views from the ferry….

The lighthouse gives you a sense of scale.

Gryllefjord is starting to appear in the distance.

Gryllefjord.

This is still from the ferry.

Next, a couple of views from the drive to Hamn.

Having arrived in Hamn, settled in and eaten dinner, there was still time for photographs of the sunset.

After sunset, some of the boats moored in the Hamn marina.

However, the next morning I woke up with a swollen leg and greatly reduced mobility. I hobbled to the office and they pointed me to the nearest doctor available in a nearby town, which must have been Finnsnes. The doctor performed a test which indicated that I had Deep Vein Thrombosis. This is a serious condition that can produce a blood that causes a fatal embolism in the brain. However the test was not conclusive and she booked an ultrasound for me at Tromso Hospital. I was instructed to travel straight there by the highway and not stop to take any photographs. When I got to the hospital I was whisked through with amazing speed and efficiency and fortunately I did not have deep vein thrombosis. Instead, I had a Baker’s Cyst, a build-up of fluid behind the knee that would go away by itself in time. In the meantime, my mobility was somewhat restricted. I suspect it was due to pushing myself to far and too many consecutive hours spent on aeroplane or car seats. Later on that day, I was on the plane, on my way to Spitsbergen.

In many ways I don’t think I did Lofoten justice. Due to misadventure, I lost two and a half days out of five and a half, and had to drive past some wonderful vistas and light due to lack of time. More than five and a half days would have been good as well. At least was able to continue with my journey.

Nusfjord to Andenes

Sep7

Nusfjord to Andenes, Lofoten Islands. Day 35. 2nd August 2013.

This was a day with another long drive, this time to catch a ferry. I cannot be sure where most of these images are because my camera GPS was no longer working by this stage. I left Nusfjord at 9:20am. The first image is at 10:55am; probably somewhere around Svolvaer.

This is my route for the day, at least as far as catching the Andenes-Gryllefjord ferry. Click on it for a larger image if you want to read the place names.

11:10am. Also somewhere near Svolvaer.

11:25am. Probably past Svolvaer.

A closer view of the hull of the wrecked boat.

12:15pm. Somewhere before Sortland, I think. Perhaps looking across the small lake of Langvatnet, though you won’t see that name on the map above..

12:25pm for this and the next four images. Somewhere a little way south of Sortland, I would think.

12:40pm for this and the next image. I think it must be Sortland. The ship is called Polar Sirkel. I discovered while trying to identify the location of this image that it changed its name to Polaris later that month.

12:25pm and 12:35pm for the next image. Perhaps they are at the south of the island of Andøya, looking back towards the south at the island of Hinnøya.

Both images are stitched panoramas and if you click on them they go to a larger-than-usual web image.

3:30pm. This is Andenes, while I am waiting for the 4:00pm ferry.

Nusfjord

Sep6

Nusfjord, Lofoten Islands. Day 34 to 35. 1st and 2nd August 2013.

This is the fjord and on the right is the small historic fishing village of Nusfjord. I stayed here for two nights. This image goes to a larger size than usual when you click on it.

This is the blacksmith’s shop, a converted rorbu cabin from before 1877. Maintenance and production of tools for the fishing industry took place here.

There are fifty buildings here, dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries. Thirty-four of them are former fishermen cottages, now available for rent.

Dried fish on the railings. My cabin is on the right at the front. I discover it also appears in a Norwegian stamp (towards the middle)

Note the spear gun mounted on the bow of the ship. This is an historic vessel formerly involved in whaling. I met the owners in the village pub and we had a pleasant evening talking and drinking on the deck. I was invited for a sail but I was on a schedule so unfortunately I had to decline.

This is the cod liver refinery, built around 1910, where cod liver was cooked and refined into cod liver oil.

I seem to recall that the external structure was a project by I think architecture students from a “nearby” university.

The restaurant, where an old boat doubles as a table for the breakfast buffet.

A window table at the restaurant.

The historic general store, dating from 1907, full of a myriad of aged delights.

They don’t make cash registers like that any more.

A wondrous array of old labelled drawers: Ammunition, ? (smaaspiger), Spices (Krydderier), ? (Skoplug), ? (Baadspiger), Threads? (Traadspiger), some kind of spices (Malede Krydderier), Toenail paint (Tör Maling), Building …? (Bygningsspiger), Coffee …? (Kaffetilsaetning), Lamp glass (lampeglas), Coffee (Kaffe), Coffee and Tea (Braendt Kaffe), ? (Oker & Erde).

… And now I leave the village…

… and head out to the open road…

Eggumsveien Nature Reserve

Sep5

Nusfjord, Ballstad, Eggumsveien Nature Reserve, Henningsvaer, Lofoten Islands. Day 34. 1st August 2013.

Buksnes Church.

This was a surprise. Heading from Nusfjord to Ballstad, I suddenly came upon this spectacular church, in dramatic lighting conditions. I took this from the side of the road, some distance away, with a long telephoto lens.

The first church on this site was built in 1324. It was badly damaged by a storm in 1639 and a new church built in 1641. In 1802 that church was torn down and replaced. The 1802 church was also destroyed in a storm in 1882 and a new church built in 1885. That church was struck by lightening in 1903 and burnt down and the current church was built in 1903, in dragon style.

Here is the route of my travels for the day. From Nusfjord (at the south), I headed for Ballstad, Eggumsveien Nature Reserve and Henningsvaer before returning to Nusfjord. Buksnes Church is about 3 kilometres north of Ballstad, near where it says Gravdal. Click the map if you need to see it larger.

The small, tranquil fishing village of Ballstad.

One of the boats may have been out on the high seas for a thousand years or more…

Eggumsveien Nature Reserve.

This is a view across a small lake near the entrance of the reserve. Part of this view is in the reserve and part, out.

As I wandered along the coast, one of the things that caught my eye was the variety of maritime flotsam and jetsam on the rocks.

Some of the views were impressive as well.

… but I came back to the large variety of interesting objects on the rocks.

Walking back to the car, here we have the remains of a World War 2 gun emplacement. I may have taken the earlier image across the small lake from there.

I then drove further on to Henningsvaer. This is where I would have spent my first night in Lofoten had I not had an earlier mix-up with flight bookings.

Henningsvaer.

Exactly where this is I cannot say, but it’s twenty minutes drive north of Henningsvaer.

I think here we are looking across the fjord on the north coast of the island of Flakstadøya, not long before the turnoff to Nusfjord.

The last few images are on the road in to Nusfjord.

Shelter from the storm

Sep4

Å to Nusfjord, Lofoten Islands. Day 33. 31st July 2013.

On my second day in Lofoten, I travelled from Å to my next accommodation in Nusfjord. This is a cemetery on the outskirts of Å.

I think this must be Djupfjorden between Moskenes and Reine. Pity about the power line, maybe, but it was there and I couldn’t be bothered removing it, even in post production. Look how clear the water is, though. It’s probably quite deep.

This is Reine.

Ten minutes north of Reine.

I think this must be the strait between the islands of Moskenesøya and Flakstadøya, the southernmost large islands in the Lofoten archipelago.

This and the next two images are on the side road into Nusfjord.

When I arrived, I found my accommodation had been upgraded. I was now in the centre of the village in a rorbu cabin large enough to sleep eight people.

Nusfjord is a well-restored historical fishing village.

Later in the evening, there was a drama developing involving this yacht with a lone French female sailor.

A storm was blowing in and even in the protected waters of the fjord, the yacht was at risk in its outer mooring.

People from other vessels assisted in moving the yacht from the original moorings,

across the small harbour,

and pulling in to dock on the other side.

However, even here was not protected enough,

so the yacht was pulled along the dock,

taking care not to scrape along the dock,

and up to a much larger vessel,

squeezing carefully and delicately past,

until the yacht was tied up alongside.

‘Twas in another lifetime, one of toil and blood
When blackness was a virtue the road was full of mud
I came in from the wilderness, a creature void of form
“Come in,” she said,
“I’ll give ya shelter from the storm”

Å

Sep2

Å, Lofoten Islands. Day 32. 30th July 2013.

Back to the North Atlantic trip in 2013. Having finished entries for Southwest Canyonlands and New Orleans in 2014 and before that Boolcoomatta Workshop in 2015, Hawaii in 2015 and India earlier in 2014, I resume with this initial post on the Lofoten Islands in Norway. The previous North Atlantic post was Shetland and Aberdeen Monochromes and also see the Index of North Atlantic posts.

Here we are lifting off from Aberdeen Airport, with some of the edge of Aberdeen and the countryside below.

This is Bergen, where we had a brief stopover.

Bergen.

Mountains near Tromso.

Fjords near Tromso.

Main road just south of Tromso.

Earlier in the trip, when I came to fly from Shetland to Aberdeen, I discovered I had made a mistake in the booking date. This meant I had to fly the next day, so I gained an extra day in Shetland and lost a day in Lofoten. This in turn meant I had to drive 500km to my accommodation, which I had intended to do in two days. Because I was so short of time and needed to arrive while someone was still awake, I resolved not to stop on the way to take photographs. This is a shot I took through the car windscreen while driving. However, I discovered that it is possible to take photographs or drive, but not prudent to do both at the same time. On the way I saw some magnificent vistas in perfect lighting conditions but did not stop to take them and did not see those conditions again later. It was a marathon drive and my concentration held up well but there was probably a delayed physical price, as we shall see later.

Here we are now at Å, my destination for the night. It is 11:30pm but we are so far north that it is still light.

Å is a traditional fishing village, specifically fishing for stockfish, though nowadays tourism is the main economic activity. It is the end of the road in the Lofoten islands.

Å is the last letter in the Norwegian alphabet and is a diphthong. To say it, it goes from oo as in roof to awe as a single sound with most of the emphasis on the “awe”.

I was staying upstairs in the building at the middle right.

The railing at the front was straight. This is perspective distortion rather than lens distortion. Because it is a stitched image and appears as fairly small on this page, if you click on it, it goes to a larger image than usual.