Bucket List Adventure Day 6 - Lofoten Islands to Tromsø and beyond

Vanessa de Vere on 21 November 2017
The Lofoten Islands have beckoned me for years; I have absolutely no idea why.

The sun will be setting as we sail into Stamsund, but I feel sure we wont miss the soaring Lofotveggen, rough and ragged peaks, misshapen and multi-coloured mountains as a backdrop to the westerly skies. Throughout the night we will drift through this Nordland archipelago making our stops; I think it will be a night when I don't sleep. This rare wilderness landscape tempered by the Gulf Stream has a mild climate, majestic mountains and deep fjords, vast colonies of seabirds and long glorious beaches.

If the lights show themselves at all during my journey I would wish it to be here.

Lofoten is home to the 83ft Viking longhouse at Lofotr; and is without doubt one of Norway's key archaeological sites bearing testament to the might of the Vikings. I will be joining the night trip to the longhouse, cleverly arranged between two ports of call and meeting the Chieftain and the Lady of the house for a real Viking feast in the banquet hall, with mead of course. Its not what you know you see. It's who you know!!!

During winter, the Vikings made a sacrifice to ensure the return of the sun and the light - there will be a ritual enactment of a sacrifice to the Gods, praying that the sun will return to avoid Ragnarok, the end of the world.

Another opportunity to see the northern lights in this vast area of unpolluted sky.

During my brief visit to the Lofoten Islands I will be on the lookout for millions of skrei (cod from the Barents sea) on their way back to their northern Norwegian spawning grounds. Perhaps we will have Cod on the menu tomorrow or the Artic Char that was loaded from Sigerford overnight?

We will arrive into Harstad, a municipality comprised entirely of islands, and also covers a large number of smaller islands and islets and white sandy beaches early morning after navigating the the Risøy channel, opened in 1922, which runs 4.8 kilometres long through the Risøysund. It's only 7 metres deep, with a bottom width of 100 metres, so will take some skilful navigation so I hope the bridge team kept off the cloudberry wine during the night!

Tromsø with its incredible landscape is reached just after lunch. It's a small city known as the capital of the Artic and a renowned starting point for many Arctic expeditions - rightly so as I ready myself for my first arctic circle sledging experience powered by canines.

I'm ready to don the bobble hat, the artic parka, (over the Norwegian Cardi) and the snow boots.

Excited doesn't even go there... mush mush...