At Sea - Sailing the Norwegian Inside Passage - Day 7 - July 8, 2023


Today we spent at sea.  We must have been exhausted as we didn't get up until 8:45 AM...unheard of for us!  

After breakfast, we spent the morning enjoying the scenery and the picturesque farms we passed.

The ship has an ornithologist onboard who spends the morning looking for birds and other wildlife. Late morning, we had group of White Tailed Eagles flying over the ship.

Torghatten

Just after lunch we passed by Torghatten...a granite dome with a granite tunnel through its center.  

"According to legend, the hole was made by the troll Hestmannen while he was chasing the beautiful girl Lekamøya. As the troll realized he would not get the girl, he released an arrow to kill her, but the troll-king of Sømna threw his hat into the arrow's path to save her. The hat turned into the mountain with a hole in the middle." (Wikipedia)

Below you can see a close up of the "hole" and the hiking path leading up to it. The tunnel it forms is 520 ft long, 66 ft wide and 115 ft high.


We passed a number of salmon farms.  Salmon farming is very controversial here in Norway.  Escaped farmed salmon interbreeding with wild stock, sea lice epidemics and pollution all threaten the wild salmon population.

Fish farms


Late afternoon we crossed. the Arctic Circle - marked by a globe..

We are in the land of the Midnight Sun.  Sunrise and sunset are both at 2:00 AM...a 24 hour day thus no chance to see the Northern Lights.  

More scenery below.  Tomorrow with will be at Narvik and our close encounter with Arctic Wolves.














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