On an archipeligo
I know, I was lazy last night, but the aurora pictures really do speak for themselves. There was a high chance of seeing the northern lights again last night, but it was mostly cloudy. But, as usual, I'm getting ahead of myself.
I finally did get to sleep, though I woke up regularly to look out the window in case the Northern lights decided to kick into high gear again. If they did, I didn't see them, but after the show I was fortunate enough to see, I have no complaints!
In the morning, I loaded up and headed a kilometer down the road to the German fort. I know so little Norwegian history that it's actually sad, but the Germans invaded Norway in 1940 and occupied the country until 1945. They built fortifications around the country, including Skrolsvik Fort, which was built in 1941. After the war, the Norwegians used the site for some time, but it's totally deserted now. You can walk around it, and there are bunkers and even guns still in place. There are a lot of signs saying you enter at your own risk, but if you stay out of bunkers, it was safe. Oh, and another white-tailed eagle flew over. I spent about an hour there, and was thoroughly chilled by the time I left. (Yes, I have a coat, gloves, and hat, but for some reason, left them all in the car.)
Despite all of the gloomy weather forecasts for the day, "mostly cloudy" turned into a crisp, blue sky day. It made the amazing scenery even more dramatic, with snow topped peaks against the blue sky.
The leaves are turning, and that also makes for some dramatic contrasts. And, as a side issue, like Iceland, there are a lot of swans here. They are whooper swans, and I counted 49 in a flock on this river.
My car is a hybrid, but I did finally need to find gas. That has been an adventure in itself. The Circle K chain is here, and I've been going there for familiarity's sake, but the gas pumps speak Norwegian, not English. So, it's a challenge to try and figure out which answer is right when I'm trying to pay for gas. And then, I couldn't figure out how to get the nozzle into the fuel tank. The car has no gas cap, and the nozzle would just barely go in the hole. When I tried it, the pump would shut off immediately. There were illustrations inside the door of the fuel compartment, but it took me forever to figure out that you have to literally jam the nozzle in. I guess there is some kind of seal that you go through, because there was resistance, but I finally got it done and the car fueled. As a bonus, Circle K has the most delicious pastries, including chocolate croissants!
Oh, I almost forgot. There was an abandoned building at the fort that I took a lot of pictures of. I don't know why it appealed to me, but it did.
I headed inland toward my next Airbnb, stopping for an hour at Polar Park. Honestly, I found it a bit disappointing, though it was good exercise, hiking up the mountain where all the animal enclosures are. The enclosures are quite large, so it's not too zoo-like, and they have only a handful of native species. Of course, for me photography is the main attraction, and I had to photograph through chainlink fencing. On the other hand, you can get quite close to the animals. There are signs everywhere warning that the animals bite, i.e., do not stick your fingers into the lynx cage. The other problem was that they were doing construction, including using a hammer-type thing to break up a boulder in the road. It was really loud and annoying. I did get to see lynxes, wolves, Arctic foxes, and bears. Oh, and deer, but who needs to see deer.
From there, it was less than 10 miles to Huskylodge, which is probably my favorite Airbnb ever. Here is my cabin:
There was a river running about 100 feet away (source of all water, including drinking water), and mountains on all sides. I had a small wood stove and there was a lot of birch stacked by the cabin. It kept things toasty! There are about 50 sled dogs and 4 llamas. I got to talk to the dogs and they were wonderful! Like all dogs, some just wanted love and others wanted distance. I particularly liked one named Caramel!
And, since I discovered I left something in the cabin, I'm going to go back briefly on Saturday and get another dose of dog love.
I ordered breakfast for this morning, and it was lovely! I finally got to try the local brown cheese, which has a strange, almost sweet flavor. There were 4 types of cheese, pâté, several types of sausage, fruit, veggies, jam, butter, and that's shrimp in the center. The drinks were apple juice and oat milk. There was also a basket of bread that had a hard boiled egg in it. I ate too much and enjoyed it.
I headed south down the Lofoten peninsula. The scenery was dramatic, but it rained the entire way. It was also a very long drive, something like 6 hours. But I'm here for 2 nights, so hopefully the weather will improve. The Airbnb host told me about a nearby hike that I'll do tomorrow, rain or not!
I honestly think that the scenery here is more dramatic and varied than what I saw in Iceland. Iceland is lovely and has amazing waterfalls—I'm definitely looking forward to another week there—but everything here is just...more. There are waterfalls and snow-capped mountains, and lots of rocky cliffs. Even if it hadn't been raining today, I don't know if I could have captured the magnificence. I think if someone asked me which place I prefer, I'd chose this area over Iceland. Both are expensive to visit (food and gas are high) but hotels and Airbnbs are quite reasonable here.
Oh, how could I forget! I saw moose and reindeer on the drive! I didn't get any images of the reindeer—they were just off the road in the woods—but there were probably about 20 of them. The colors were varied, with some appearing really light in color. Some had antlers too, and I discovered that both male and female reindeer have antlers, but only the females keep them in the winter.
The moose were also right by the highway, grazing, and I took lots of pictures. They looked back at me, but didn't seem bothered. There were 3 of them.
Lots to see !! Looks like it was fun !!