Advertisement
Published: July 20th 2019
Have you ever waited for a couple of hours for the sun to rise and it’s teasing you on the edge of the world, dotting up between distant islands, but just not quite making the effort? It was windy and cold, so by 2am we gave up and went to bed. That’s how my day ended - waiting for the sun to rise. Welcome to the Arctic Circle!
My plan to start the day was to get up around 3am again to get a timelapse of the sunrise, but when it came down to it, I decided bed was better. Yesterday must have been long, as my sleep was also long and I didn’t wake until 10am. So breakfast was late and we missed the first landmark of note - some bridge.
The next landmark was around 11am and we stood on the sunny side of the deck waiting for a mountain with a hole in it. As with all remotely interesting points of interest in Norway, the origination story of this hole included a few trolls, a beautiful woman plus a hat. An older gent started talking to us, mostly about cameras, plus cruising. He said usually on
cruises, he ended up being banished to the lifeboats before too long and his wife nodded. Like most people onboard they were cruise regulars and even knew the entertainments officer having travelled with him previously.
After a few circuits of the deck, we settled on our fave spot - front of Deck 10, ready to see the Seven Sisters which was originally one mountain but due to ice erosion now has 7 peaks. Or 6. Or 9. Depending on which bits you count. Obviously there was a troll story connected to it, but I missed that one, but it had something to do with 7 beautiful troll sisters turning to stone. There were quite a few people on deck with us and many chatted. Even my ‘I won’t like anyone on the cruise’ hubby was smiling as he shot the breeze with various folk. It was a sight to see. Many people were interested in my Osmo Pocket with which I was attempting timelapses, occasionally successfully. One of the ship’s speakers asked for my contact details in the hope of using them in future talks, so the pressure is now on. Then I completely failed at the 7 Sisters
timelapse. Dammit!
Lunch was completely missed to Glyn’s horror and he had to make do with afternoon tea at the buffet where the scary maitre d lurked. I hid my shorts under a long poncho but it was a close thing.
Afterwards it was time to hang out at the sticky out bit. This being one of two slivers of deck at the back of the boat that stick out. There are a few chairs and tables, but it’s unprotected, so good for wildlife and scenery spotting. It was still very sunny, so sun hats and sunglasses were required. It’s still in sight of the staff who brought me beers and G&Ts for others. I’m not bothering with G&T as the word is they’re lots of T and little G. Acceptable if you paid for the unlimited drinks package, but not for me, who didn’t.
Again we made more friends, particularly Glyn with his new pal Richard, who’s into similar music and now has arthritis in his ears. An announcement was made by the Captain as we crossed into the Arctic Circle and a few gullible looked for the yellow dotted line in the water (it’s blue
if you’re flying). There’s a small globe like monument on an island to mark the spot. We all were in disbelief that we are in the Arctic Circle and it’s so hot that we’re in T-shirts and shorts! Richard only packed one T-shirt, his wife (I think Sonja) kept repeating in disbelief, ‘I’m in the Arctic Circle! Soon they left as Richard grudgingly downed his last G&T to get dressed for dinner. We decided to forgo dinner as Glyn fancied supper club later instead.
We were then joined by Sprightly and her hubby - now known as Veronica and Trev. I’m struggling to write my blogs due to all these new friends and having conversations! It was all very nice as the Norwegian landscape slowly floated by. We could see snow on the mountaintops and in the distance, a glacier. At around 10pm I decided it was time for long trousers and got changed.
Sunset was promised at around 11.15, but it took much longer than that. We were hanging out atop the front of Deck 10 (fave spot) and were chatting with our tribe. Yes, our ‘Tribe’. A lady up there educated us about the social behaviour
of cruise passengers and how after a few days, you find your tribe. Ours is the sit outside in all weathers waiting for wildlife to photograph, only to get a blurry blob that you tell everyone is a whale - that’s not quite how she described us, but that’s my sub-tribe down to a tee. The main tribe appear to know what they’re looking at. We also photograph scenery and have unsociable hours due to sunrises, sunsets and noteworthy mountains.
Other tribes include the very strange like-to-get-dressed-up-for-dinner gang. There’s not much of an overlap of these two tribes. My tribe likes to hang out in the observatory (when needing a break from the wind) as it’s the best place to observe, believe it or not. But one of the dressing-up gang was overheard telling staff that passengers should not be allowed in the observatory in the evening if not properly attired. Oh the uproar! Fortunately for us, he was ignored.
We also have yet to find anyone else who has never been on a cruise before, I’m sure there must be someone. Another thing I learned is you don’t say ‘binoculars’, it’s ‘bins’ or ‘binnies’.
I’m not sure which tribe goes to the evening entertainment, but generally it’s not ours. I’ve not been enticed by any of it, preferring to see Norway. Richard said the conjurer last night was worth missing.
So at the front we saw harbour porpoises and tribe-info woman is pretty sure there was a baby amongst them. Then a guy called Pat spotted a Minke whale and Glyn managed to get a photo of a fin that impressed many. Later on, we spotted another whale and Pat was overjoyed to catch a photo of its spurt. Due to the size, he’s convinced it was a Sperm Whale as they are common in the area, so we’re going with that.
Waiting for the sunset was painfully slow and Glyn left to go to supper club as it’s Goan tonight. I decided to wait it out, determined to get a timelapse of it all and gradually the sun popped out of view behind mountain islands, then reappeared in the valleys. We thought it would never leave. Pat dragged around two sun loungers as we’d been on our feet a long time. He kept an eye on my timelapsing Osmo Pocket as I shot off to get a coat. Both Glyn and I made it back in time for midnight when sun still just hovered over the edge of the earth. Everyone bar Pat gave up by 12.30am.
And there the sun remained. Sunrise was promised at 1.15am, but by 2am we were tired and cold. We’d had a laugh and apparently seen many puffins, but were flagging. We headed down as another couple were on their way up. Good luck to them - I looked out of my porthole before my head hit the pillow and still no sun!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.143s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 14; qc: 34; dbt: 0.0919s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
Like you we've been on few cruises...
those where one can't get to by air or land...Alaska Inside Passage and a repositioning cruise from Honolulu to Lahaina to American Samoa, to Samoa, to Fiji, to Vanuatu, to New Caledonia, to Sydney. The first had crowds of Chinese and the second crowds of Aussies. The Aussies were great fun, even nicer than the few Kiwis. We met many cruisers who had sailed dozens of times...not for us although this is the easiest way to see many Caribbean islands, so maybe I have one left in me!