Trollfjord - Svolvær - Kabelvåg - August 28th

The sun wakes us up with a smile on our faces. We have breakfast, pack everything together in peace and quiet, and set off for Svolvær around 11:30 am. With the good weather, we don't want to miss the Trollfjord. Tickets can be bought right at the harbor, there are several providers, we decide on an old small boat. We decline the two-hour Zodiac speedboat ride. Sitting like a monkey on a grindstone in full-body suits and flying through the landscape... no, the retirement version is better, you can look at a lot and take good photos. In the off-season, most providers only operate twice a day. We really lucked out this time... there are only seven other passengers on board with us + two crew members, perfect!

A breathtaking panorama opens up after a short time, simply indescribable... and with this weather... we did everything right! I use every little spot on the boat undisturbed to capture the gigantic panorama photographically, no one is in the way, amazing! The captain and his companion are very nice and explain some things to us. After about an hour, we make a stop to catch some fresh fish. The two fishing lines are not in the water for 2 minutes when the first fish is already hooked... unbelievable...! This would have been a great place for Jörni's fishing... but he's not here... damn! After just under 10 minutes, there are five fish in the bucket, they will be needed later!

I can't get enough of the landscape and feel the need to press the camera shutter every few seconds to capture it all. That would have been a lot of 36-exposure films...

We reach the Trollfjord, which is about 2 km long and only 80 m wide at its deepest point. It already looks pretty good, this thing. Except for our boat, no one is in sight and we can enjoy the natural spectacle with an unobstructed view. Then the freshly caught fish come into play, we try to attract sea eagles. First, the skipper throws bread to attract seagulls, they know the game. There are more and more of them, and it strongly reminds me of Hitchcock's "The Birds," I've never seen anything like it. The seagulls sit on the skipper's arm from time to time, and the other passengers also try to coax them as close as possible with bread. Jörni tries too, but he doesn't notice the seagull flying from behind and gets a good wing slap around his head and zap, the bread is gone...! When enough seagulls circle around the boat, the sea eagle thinks: Great, there's fish! And doesn't need to be asked twice... it comes rushing in, flies over the boat with its wide wingspan, and grabs the fish thrown into the water by the skipper with its fat claws, wow! To prevent the seagulls from snatching the fish, it is inflated with air so that they can't swallow it. Clever!

In total, we manage to attract three sea eagles. They are kind enough to position themselves well for the camera, great! The fourth one, however, literally tells us to take a hike and doesn't move an inch from its rock, and why? Because it can!

We slowly sail back towards the harbor and the seagulls stay with us for quite a while. By the way, seagulls make blue droppings (excreta) when they eat too many blueberries... oh, I see...! We now only call the dog poop bags excreta bags!!!

The sun is low on the horizon when we return to the harbor! Jörn and I are totally blown away, that was really amazing. We walk as if in a trance to the car, do a little shopping, and settle down in Kabelvåg in a nice spot. We take a walk with the dog into the countryside, find a nice spot by a small lake, have a drink... no, of course, a beer, and observe the surrounding mountains reflecting in the crystal clear water. Jörni always says, it's so beautiful, you can't paint it, he's right!

In the evening, we have a proper fish burger and then we hit the sack.

The next morning is gray and unfortunately, it's raining again. We think about what to do, continue driving or stay here for another day and use the fast internet. We decide to stay... we have time. Jörn reads a bit... yes, you heard right, Jörni also occasionally reads a book. Currently, it's Keith Richards' biography, it's supposed to be very good, but it will probably be the only book on the trip... it has about 700 pages! I sort photos and start filling the blog with more stories.

Midday... more rain... we treat ourselves to a Capri Sun in the bus! In the afternoon, the weather gets better, and we take a walk to Kabelvåg, a cute little village. The Lofoten Museum was actually on the plan, but it closed at 3 pm... us and the Nordic museums, that's something too!

Now we're sitting in front of the bus, I'm writing the final lines for this post, and then it's online.

Maybe I'll even drink Boris' last sun!