The far north - part 3: back to the west coast.

Part 3: back to the west coast.

What happened in part 1 and 2: Micha, Yeti, and Jule drove via Stockholm, the Swedish coast, and Inari in Finland to the eastern most part of northern Norway. From here, they were chased by rain to the Northern Cape and to Alta, but then, the clouds disappeared and they saw the midnight sun!

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The weather was not improving so we took a stop at Tromsø, with 74.000 inhabitants the largest town in northern Norway, and with a couple of nice museums well equipped for bad weather. As part of the polar museum there is also an entire old sealing vessel as museum. The MV Polstjerna still lies in the harbor, but in a covered dry dock that is open for visitors. We also passed by the new harbor and another vessel - the icebreaker Polarstern, the research vessel of the German Alfred Wegener institute with which Micha was at Antarctica in 2011, and which I was allowed to visit when it was lying the Cape Town harbor.


West of Tromsø lies the beautiful large island of Kvaløya, which we crossed to get to the small islands of Sommarøya and Hillesøya. Even in bad weather the landscape here is just stunning! We climbed the hill on Hillesøya and I enjoyed the wild coast with the golden beaches and the clear water so much that I decided to come back in winter for my birthday and to see the Northern Lights!


From Sommarøya, we took the ferry to cross over to the island of Senja. This large island between Tromsø and the Lofoten is said to be as rough and beautiful as the Lofoten, but way less touristic. The northern part of Senja consists of several arms with impressive steep granite cliffs divided by deep fjords spotted with little colorful villages. We visited Husøy, a town that covers the entire tiny island with the same name, and took night shelter on the opposite side of the fjord at a cute round hut fitted with a fire place in the middle and reindeer skins to sit on. It was originally constructed as a meeting point by the inhabitants of the town of Fjordgård, but it is free to use for everybody as long as it is taken care of. Usually it was difficult to find dry places to cook and hang out in the evenings, so we were happy to have stumbled across this lovely hut.


The next day we climbed the 650 m high mountain of Segla, an iconic and popular hike which offers a fantastic view of the surrounding fjords and mountains. Laying flat on the rock to look down the vertical cliffs straight to the sea can get you some goosebumps and jelly legs ;) On the pictures you can also already spot our next destination: Senja's highest peak, the Breidtinden!


To climb the 1017 m peak of Breidtinden is not as easy as walking up Segla, so we had to to hope for the weather to improve. But we were lucky again and a spell of good weather was forecasted for the next days! We gave the mountain some time to dry up while hanging out on the fine beach of Ersfjord and doing a warm-up tour through the really dense vegetation of the mountain Hatten (554 m). Hach - FINALLY SUMMER HOLIDAYS!!



And Breidtinden, in bright sunlight as well:



Having successfully climbed the three most spectacular mountains on Senja, we spent another evening at Ballesvika - just another one of these beautiful beaches - before heading to already known areas: the Lofoten!


Continue with part 4: back to the Lofoten!