Roadtrip Norway · 2023
Oslo · Preikestolen · Stavanger · Trolltunga · Jostedalsbreen National Park & Glacier · Geirangerfjord · Trollstigen · Lofoten Islands · Røst
August 19, 2023
In Search of Atlantic Puffins - Lofoten Islands II
"PUFFINS!" I shout excitedly and shake my boyfriend with both hands as if I had just won an award. Probably the award for the passenger displaying the biggest bird. But that's what it's all about: the bird. This is the bird I've wanted to see in the wild for many years: a puffin. A PUFFIN! Those puffy black and white birds with big orange beaks that look like fluffy, flying penguins!
We're on the ferry to Røst, about three hours by sea from the main islands of Norway's Lofoten Islands.
For the three hundredth time, I nervously check to make sure I have all my spare camera batteries. What if seagulls come and steal them from me?
Around 1 PM we arrive. Røst. A few red, wooden Norwegian houses and a small harbor. A small center console boat and its skipper are waiting for us. We now start off on a four-hour exploration of tiny rocks, cliffs, and bays. Always keeping a lookout. Waiting. Hoping.
August 5, 2023
In Search of the Midnight Sun - Lofoten Islands I.
"Great," I call out towards the sea. It's 30 minutes past midnight and we're standing on the summit of Ryten
Mountain on the Lofoten Islands in Norway, over 60 miles north of the Arctic Circle. The perfect camp spot to see the midnight sun.
Across from us to the west are mountain ranges with sharp peaks and rugged cliffs. Below lies a bay with white sand and turquoise water. To the north, lies the vast ocean horizon. What we see of it: nothing. Everything is white. The weather report lied. Instead of "partly cloudy", The Fog surrounds us completely. My boyfriend has laid out stone trail markers so we can find our way back from the summit to the lower-lying tent. Visibility is less than ten yards.
So here we hike up with our backpacks, tripod, camera, and tent onto this crappy mountain, get up in the middle of the night just to see this crappy sun, and then this!
How Caribbean-Arctic beautiful it was on Ryten Mountain the next morning. How we finally saw the ole midnight sun and what that felt like, you can read here.
July 22, 2023
On the Edge of Fjords and Glaciers – Southern Norway.
Cool mountain air flows into my lungs as I breathe in deeply. Then I hold my breath for a long time. Goosebumps begin to rise on my arms as I slowly lie down with my belly flat on the rock. I hang my face over the cliff's edge. There is nothing. For 2300 feet downward, there is nothing. Then, at the very bottom, lies an aquamarine fjord. In the distance, I see some snowy peaks. But mostly, nothing. I'm lying on Norway's Trolltunga—the Troll's Tongue, a large tongue-shaped outcropping. Six-mile hike to get there and a six-mile hike back. We took our trekking backpacks and spend the night in a tent on the mountaintop.
We are on a road trip through the south of Norway. A land of fjords and cliffs, surreal mountain formations, and trolls. At times we get up at 3:45am to climb a pulpit rock, or camp in the wilderness, or climb a glacier with ice axes. Come with us on a journey where you keep forgetting to breathe.