Norway trip May 26-June 17, 2022 / June 8

This morning we take a trip to Lovund Island. The ferry ride takes about two hours. We recommend everyone traveling the Helgeland Coast to plan some time to visit this island, just the ride itself is very impressive. A triangular rock towering high amidst the beautiful archipelago of the Helgeland Coast greets arriving ship passengers from afar. Two mountains, red and white wooden houses scattered on the shore, green meadows under an endlessly wide sky of the North Atlantic. In early summer, the airspace over paradise belongs to the puffins. 200,000 birds, about one-fifth of Norway's total population, have their breeding territories here. The pigeon-sized black and white birds that appear to be clumsy on land follow their internal clock and come to lay their eggs every year on April 14th, the 'Lundkommardagen.' Suddenly, on time like the Hurtigruten ships, they appear as a black, buzzing cloud in the sky, accompanied by the loud hum of thousands of wing beats. In a giant boulder field, they raise their offspring. During the day, they swarm out to sea to fish and only return to land in the evening. The spectacle can be well observed with binoculars from a viewpoint at the foot of the bird colony, which can be reached in 30 minutes via a steep path from the village. Sivert Olaisen, the owner of the island's only hotel, is now working on a sustainable gentle tourism concept for his home island. With the purchase of a simple hiker's hostel in 1988, his 70-year-old father laid the foundation for the island's only hotel. The island owes this growth mainly to the salmon, or rather, the salmon farm, Nova Sea. Up to 150,000 of the silvery-shining, five-kilogram fish at slaughter readiness, at 2.5 years old, frolic in each of the approximately 360 aquacultures in cages at 34 locations in front of the Helgeland Coast. The company, Nova Sea, employs 150 people and is the largest employer. 50,000 tons of salmon from Lovund are shipped worldwide every year.