Friday 12 October 2007

Walking and hiking at night... but without torch

A Spanish group of people wakes up early. Then, they walk through Narvik, untill the dock (with autopilot mode ON, of course, because their eyes want to sleep more!). There, they would get on a boat...
I was in that group, I was part of them. And I know what we did that summer :)

We arrived by boat to a small Norwegian village located at the Lofoten Islands (an archipielago at the Arctic Circle.) The trip was fun. There were some clouds, the wind blowed, but the sun shined. So we stayed on the deck of the boat enjoying the beautiful landscapes around us. Mountains arised from the deep of the sea, which was totally calm. The contrast between blues and greens hypnotized us.

After the arrival, we asked at the tourism information office where we could stay. They recommended us a camping that had wooden houses. It was about three kilometres long from there, but it seemed to be ok and cheap. So we picked up our stuff and went to that place.

Next, we walked less than one hour, we arrived and talked with the boy in the camping to arrange our accommodation. He gave us the key of the "hut". When we finally realised that the hut was an enormous house, with balcony, two floors, and surrounded by nature, we really felt in heaven. The conclusion was unanimous: That was the best place where we had stayed in all the trip. But the best was yet to come.

We were very happy about having arrived there and finding such a great place. The previous day, we weren´t sure about if it was worthy to pick the boat to go there. But yes, it was a paradise. I have known different kinds of islands, and Lofoten´s have some kind of celtic magic.

Someone prososed to go for a walk. And the rest answered: why not? We had been told that during the night there was light enough to see. But I have to confess, that until I didn´t see it with my own eyes, I couldn´t believe it. We hadn´t have dinner, only rested for a while. So we made some sandwiches to eat them during the walk.

The group started to move and walked behind the camping, towards a small near mountain. We found an easy path and followed it. The vegetation was abundant: Trees and bushes, all of them made of glowing green. After a while, we found a small artificial "lake", made to provide water to Svolvær, I supposed. From there, we took a lot of photos, like this one.

Please do Take a moment to have a look at the photo. It was taken a bit later than midnight, in August. And I want to emphasize it: It was at night, but it didn´t seem to be that hour. When I remember it, It still amazes me. If I have to explain to someone the situation, I use to define it as a dawn that didn´t want to finish with night. In fact, the less light that we could see was similar to what I would call a nightfall.

After that, we went on walking uphill. The path was now "on the mountain", more difficult than previously. We continued moving untill somenone suggested to have dinner. In fact, it was one in the morning and we were hungry. So we found a place to rest and sit down. And there, we ate our sandwiches. All was quiet, we only heard our own voices. I felt part of Nature.

We finally came back to the camping. The return was easier and faster, because we wanted to rest. I found myself tired, but very pleased. That night we had to put towels at the windows to avoid the light entering into the house, but in spite of that, I slept very well.

Thank you for coming with me. It was a pleasure. We argued, we passed through difficult situations, but the memories are equally great!

Trip´s journal, chapter I, Norway