Following in Nansen’s footsteps

The map above shows Nansen’s journey, you can read about it in his inspirational book Furthest North. I’m aiming for Franz Josef Land.

This is my Arctic Trip, and on this page, it begins at the end. If you want to read it the right way ’round scroll down ’til you get to no 1 or use this shortcut link.

Both trips were me fulfilling dreams I’d had for most of my life, both were amazing in totally different ways……how lucky I am! Never stop dreaming, they really do come true…..

So, if you’d like more pictures they’re  here:

Arctic pictures

Thank you, as ever, for coming with me, its been lovely having you along.

Last day today, steaming down Norway’s fjords, its overcast and raining…..I’m looking forward to going home and whatever is the next step that life brings.

Sailing south now, or southwestish if you’re a pedant, and we have a sun that sets, and it even does that on our right…..gradually returning to reality.

Lower slopes of the hills are green now, another thing that’s different way up north.

Getting presents here for the folk back home is a nightmare. Horrid garish useless things like keyrings and fridge magnets abound as do t-shirts that no one would ever wear but with the help of my good friend and fount of all wisdom, Google, and a local supermarket, it’s in the bag, literally!

Lofoten Islands live up to every expectation and more. This is an absolutely wonderful way spend a week or so.

The lovely Nordlys now full of Germans (?) and Brits all slim and active and polite. And a jolly sight younger too. Aaaaaahhhh! (sorry)

We’ve crossed the arctic circle. 66 degrees. I love watching that blue dot on the map….

And so we’re back in the temperate zone which looks like this….

and this….

….home again, cross the sea…..love the song and all that but after 3 days going round my head I wouldn’t mind a change. Mind you the lyrics do include the phrase to be free – very apt!

Yesterday was one of those days when its good to be alive and out on the sea, it was just perfect – blue sky, blue sea, white clouds, steaming along in between the islands and fjords – the landscape of Norway does not disappoint. When we meet a sister Hurtigruten ship going the other way there is a joyful hooting exchange. There was one island completely covered in trees – haven’t seen many of them in weeks.

The Nordlys is extremely well designed – every sort of seat just where you want it to gaze at the sea, or if you feel like standing to look out of the picture windows there’s a handy rail to lean on. There are lifts – and much used. In the main the clientele are people who use lifts. And take full advantage of the copious quantities of (excellent) food…..sometimes I come across one struggling up the stairs and looking as though they would do well to do a bit more of that and a lot less in the restaurant….. There’s a bunch of Americans on board. Now, of course Americans are NOT all like this, and there are other nationalities that do this….but its the ones that are like this that you notice – why are they so LOUD? One woman pushed her way past and in between the chairs all occupied by quiet people just looking at the view, her phone on handsfree, having a loud skype call and shouting constantly “can you SEE the mOUN’ns?” as she worked her way round, holding her phone in front of each of us, up against the picture windows at the front of the ship.

I’ve been spending the odd half hour on the treadmill, well, all that excellent food is hard to resist!

Today its the famous Lofoten Islands, we weave our way between them all day. Its misty and atmospheric. You can go on excursions to do things like small boat rides or horse rides – it means paying £2 or £300 to be bussed somewhere, processed and led on an hour’s activity geared for the type of people described above before being brought back to the ship a couple of hours later at the next port of call. These excursions usually include (more) food and a trip to a museum and you miss the joy of just quietly sailing through this amazing place. No thanks! I’ll have my feet up, my eyes gazing out to sea and my earplugs in!!!!

Have just spent an hour or 2 in Kirkenes, very close to the Russian border, and where we turn round and head south. Had a delightful attack of sea legs, don’t quite know why it didn’t bother me in Svalbarg but today had me rolling down the street in the best drunken sailor fashion. Again, Kirkenes makes Ludlow look very lively! In fact, despite its sleepiness there are all sorts of museums and hikes and stuff but, still somewhat exhausted, I eventually found a really nice coffee shop and enjoyed a good coffee and a think before lurching gently back to my ship.

We stop in Vardo briefly in an hour or so and I will step ashore to remember the Fram who called here on her way out on her epic journey. Of course Tromso was where she landed back at the end of her voyage and was reunited with Nansen, but I was too stressed and pushed to think of them on Monday, so will stay up late tomorrow night and step ashore there again to think of Nansen, the Fram, and all her crew.

And last night we rounded the northernmost tip of mainland Europe at Mehamn, 71⁰ and 12’N ….

This is SO different from the Sea Spirit, lovely in another way. The Nordlys is fitted out (very recently overhauled) in a very modern, solidly functional, very pleasing style. Staff unfailingly courteous and efficient even when I do daft things like apparently try to get buckshee drinks from the bar because I thought just signing for them was enough. I was gravely and politely invited to open an on-board account.  I’ve spent a delightful hour or 2 kipping and sea-gazing out on deck, very glad of my ridiculously OTT red Posiedon parka (which you might have noticed me wearing as I gaze out to sea a couple of posts ago, we get to keep them), would I be seen dead in it in Ludlow? Absolutely never! Will I wear it again and again when I need to nip outside in the cold and the wet? Oh yes!

Here she is at Kirkeness…..

New jacket is perfect by the way!

So, a word about light.

It took me most of our 10 days or so of constant daylight to work out what was mystifying me and why the sun was never where I expected it to be, even when I could work out where I expected it to be, which was, realistically, never…..The sun never goes down, but it never goes up either, it just goes round, quite low in the sky (of course that’s a load of bumkum, its us that’s moving but you get my drift) which is why you get wonderful sunset/sunrise type effects most of the day and why you sail south into the evening sun…….

These 2 pictures were taken 2 minutes apart, looking in opposite directions from the Sea Spirit, at just after 10am…..

We don’t actually sail round the North Cape, its on an island and we sail inside that – we stop at Honningsvag, the most northerly town in Europe, for a few hours and people do various excursions up to the North Cape (the people, that is, who have the odd £2 or £300 to spare for a couple of hours on a coach and, basically visit a museum and a restaurant for even MORE food) or, as I did, amble round the town which makes Ludlow look like a very lively metropolis by comparison. There are many, many souvenir shops and I wandered into a few, partly out of curiosity and partly to pass time on land.

Norway is eye wateringly expensive, you can easily pay £250 or more for an item of (excellent) outdoor clothing or maybe a fiver for a souvenir biro or fridge magnet to take home for friends and family. And then you go into another shop and find really nice down jackets for £45. Managed to resist them, they were a totally vile shade of sickly yellow, or maybe just sick, and not my size anyway, and I don’t need one, already having a very nice one at home. But I did succumb to temptation and bought a very, very nice everyday jacket – one of those things you instinctively know you’ll wear every day for about 10 years and it would be jolly good to replace the somewhat battered and dishevelled one you’ve been wearing for the last 10 years. So brace yourself for a slightly smartened up me when you next see me (assuming we are out of town and its raining….. !!!).

And its raining here, grey and windy, as we round the top of Europe on our lovely graceful ship. I love the way that such a big, modern vessel is nonetheless tethered in port by a couple of ropes round a bollard, and that it’s old tractor tyres that are used to fend her off the quay, and I love the way she slips backwards and turns to head back out to sea afterwards.

I’m EXHAUSTED – keep going to my cabin to get my laptop and do blog and life catchup, and instead falling asleep to the point where it takes a while to come back from. But a while out on deck in the wind and the rain gazing at the sea and the cliffs brings me happily back to the present and joyful immersion in this, my latest adventure.

God I am SO lucky!

Well, nearly dark. I’m still above the arctic circle and its doing its best to get dark but not quite succeeding, its just before midnight and there is still light in the sky.

I’m now into phase 2 of this realising of dreams, on the Nordlys, a Hurtigruten ferry – one of the ones which ply up and down the coast of Norway every single day. Its huge compared with the Sea Spirit but still not that big – less than 600 passengers max. But its lovely, in a completely different way. I arrived stressed out as the plane from Longyearbyen was late and the transfer didn’t turn up, but a taxi got me here. The girl on reception who checked me in wasn’t helpful or even interested and I struggled up to find my room….cabin….oh no, actually according to the room blurb it’s a stateroom….which, after Sea Spirit is very definitely basic, stateroom or no – no mirrored walls or wood panelling or living area or any of that but, hey, its got everything I need and a nice bathroom and its good and solid and clean. I unpacked and decided to explore the ship and found lovely places to sit and stare at the sea with sundeck and sunloungers, on deck jacuzzis, big comfy sofas behind glass to keep the wind off you, nice tables and chairs by the windows and a bar right up on the top deck at the front of the ship with lovely comfy easy chairs right in front of the windows, you can even prop your feet up on the windowsill in front of you as you gaze out at the mountains. I celebrated with a gin!

And its fabulous – we seem to glide elegantly among the mountains on either side, sea flat calm, as we wend our way among the inlets and islands out to sea – we’re only just now reaching open sea 5 hours after leaving Tromso.

Said goodbye to the rest of the Franz Josef Land group – I’ve enjoyed the company of many of them but am feeling very relieved to escape the whole group thing and to have this week to assimilate, and to reflect on and just revel in, my experiences of the last 2 weeks before returning home to take the next step in my life.

2 days at sea heading back to Svalbard, billed as for relaxing and sleeping and debriefing and that sort of thing…..I’ve spent ages on deck just reveling in the amazing light  on the sea, and the surface of the sea in all its different moods and formations, whales swimming past….it is just simply magical. This morning we stopped and drifted, surrounded by humpback whales, we could hear them breathing, feel them rolling over in the water, swimming round the ship, somehow communing with us, closer and closer, we could see their spout holes, the knobbles on their backs, the detail on their tails and fins, on and on they stayed, spending time with us. How lucky am I to be here and be with these magical creatures who choose to linger with us?

The lovely Sea Spirit gracefully conveys us back to Longyearbyen, a 2-day journey across the open sea between FJL and Spitzbergen, no land in sight. On deck this morning, overcast, with sun filtering through to light up the grey sea, flurries of snow. Wonderful!

People are beginning to mutter about when will we get wifi again. We have been 10 days with absolutely no connectivity at all. No wifi, no phone reception, no radio, no TV, no news, no nothing. Have I missed it? Not for a second! Will I be online at the first opportunity? Hmmm, we’ll see. It will be busy in Longyearbyen and there will be other things to do so I’ll probably save it for when I’m safely ensconced on my Hurtigruten ferry, the Nordlys, on Monday night.

Superb lecture this morning on light phenomena, most of the team have specialties and give lectures – all interesting, well presented, accessible, we had one on ice the other day – again, wonderful!

And it turns out we were even further north than our announced Farthest North: 81⁰ and 12’ which has delighted everyone.

….standing on deck watching the last of Franz Josef Land slip by in the early evening, sunlight on the glaciers, blue sky for once, wonderful cloud formations, sea a deep, deep blue and there, a huge body rolled over in the sea in front of me, then a tail – a whale – 3 spouts – 3 (very rare) bowhead whales!