Svesfjorden, Middle of Norway
During the night Endeavour cruised smoothly northwards to new fjords. After two days of sunny weather we had our first encounter with a polar front: warm air masses clashing with cold ones from the Arctic. This brought rainy weather and increased winds as we gathered for breakfast. Undeterred, our captain pressed on! This weather change was a perfect introduction for today’s lecture, “Winds, Waves and Weather”, which explained the meteorology of this dramatic coast.
Luckily, the polar front moved northwards as we finished lunch, and the weather turned back to flat sea and blue skies. With several Zodiacs and all the kayaks in action we went to explore an environment untouched by the modern world: Svesfjorden, a tiny little fjord almost midway along the coast of Norway. This is one of many areas where the traditional farming is facing great changes due to declining rural economies.
We went ashore at Sandvik, the very head of Svesfjorden, where the only inhabitants were a few sheep, grazing in their meadow paradise. Willow trees and pristine birch forests framed the coastal grassland. Everywhere under our feet there were wildflowers, ferns, lichens and mosses. The absence of disturbing sounds was arresting. The woodland bird song soothed everybody as we walked through virgin birch forest and climbed alongside a wild stream to a huge canyon. As we lifted our gaze to the hills we could see how the ancient glaciers had scraped the landscape bare. On the smooth flanks only a few tiny trees were clinging to small fissures in a precarious soil.
The lower meadows were obviously farmed more actively in the old days, as a couple of stone ruins bore witness. The farmers have gone, but this hidden paradise has kept its beauty. We left the area with a sense of tranquility and a glimpse of a landscape that may soon also be gone.
During the night Endeavour cruised smoothly northwards to new fjords. After two days of sunny weather we had our first encounter with a polar front: warm air masses clashing with cold ones from the Arctic. This brought rainy weather and increased winds as we gathered for breakfast. Undeterred, our captain pressed on! This weather change was a perfect introduction for today’s lecture, “Winds, Waves and Weather”, which explained the meteorology of this dramatic coast.
Luckily, the polar front moved northwards as we finished lunch, and the weather turned back to flat sea and blue skies. With several Zodiacs and all the kayaks in action we went to explore an environment untouched by the modern world: Svesfjorden, a tiny little fjord almost midway along the coast of Norway. This is one of many areas where the traditional farming is facing great changes due to declining rural economies.
We went ashore at Sandvik, the very head of Svesfjorden, where the only inhabitants were a few sheep, grazing in their meadow paradise. Willow trees and pristine birch forests framed the coastal grassland. Everywhere under our feet there were wildflowers, ferns, lichens and mosses. The absence of disturbing sounds was arresting. The woodland bird song soothed everybody as we walked through virgin birch forest and climbed alongside a wild stream to a huge canyon. As we lifted our gaze to the hills we could see how the ancient glaciers had scraped the landscape bare. On the smooth flanks only a few tiny trees were clinging to small fissures in a precarious soil.
The lower meadows were obviously farmed more actively in the old days, as a couple of stone ruins bore witness. The farmers have gone, but this hidden paradise has kept its beauty. We left the area with a sense of tranquility and a glimpse of a landscape that may soon also be gone.
