Camping Under the Midnight Sun

My last weekend at the FabLab, I went on a overnight excursion to the N end of the Lyngen Peninsula with Sophie, Beau, Simen, Tonje, and their Husky puppy named Gaisa (might not have the spelling right on that one).

The trip started out pretty lucky, as we encountered a whole herd of reindeer on the road. This guy is pretty big for a reindeer.

I hopped out to snap a photo, and they lit out across the fields. We could get MUCH closer to them in the car than on foot. Strange.

Apparently, all the reindeer belong to Sami herders. The herds commingle, and to separate them out the Sami get together, herd all the reindeer into a big corral and run the deer in a circle. The baby calves stick close to their mothers when they get scared, so the herders can tell to whom the new calves belong.

Close to the N tip of the peninsula, there are the remains of a HUGE German gun battery from WWII. The battery guarded the passage to Tromso, where the fleet was based, from the White Sea and the northern coast of Russia.

There are many stone and concrete foundations, with magazines and tunnels dug into the hillsides.

The weather was cool and grey on the short walk out, but we were promised clear skies in the evening. We brought poles for fishing our supper, and plenty of extra food in case we didn't catch anything (which turned out not to be a problem).
At the very northern tip was a beach strewn with pieces of many shipwrecks.

Our destination was this lighthouse, about 20m above the water.

This nice aluminum medallion driven into the rock indicates that the area is under the protection of the crown.

It doesn't get used anymore (Norwegians are mad for helicopters), but this windlass is how they used to haul supplies up the the lighthouse from the shore.

The old keeper's cabin is now a hut used by campers and day hikers alike. It's not really intended for long term habitation, but is kept open for emergency shelter and a little respite on cold and rainy days.

The hut book is full of stories and poems from years of visitors.

The shelves are fairly well stocked-with food left by former users, and the kitchen equipment and wood stove are ready for action. It's quite a cozy little spot, with a sleeping loft above.

After some drizzle in the early afternoon, the skies cleared and I pitched my tarp on a nice little flat spot on the rocks.

The fish were plentiful; we cut many pollock, and I landed 2 cod. This one was the bigger one. I was very proud.

We cooked up an enormous batch of super-tasty fish soup for dinner (after a round of quesadillas), and settled in with coffee to enjoy the views. The Hurtigruten, or Coastal Express, operates a 7-day trip from Bergen all the way to Kirkenes on the Russian border. The northbound and southbound ships crossed right off the point. Would be a nice trip someday.

The sun never went below the horizon, but it dipped into a very distant cloud bank around 12:15am. We're at 70 degrees north, and the only thing between us and the North Pole are a few islands.

Around 1am, the sun popped back out of the cloud bank. Good morning!

After a little sleep, we awoke to a truly gorgeous day.

After returning the frying pan that we borrowed, and writing our names in the hut book, we set off for civilization (or as close to civilization as Lyngseidet gets).

On the way back, there was another beach with halves of two different, recently wrecked ships. Haakon said the most recent was about 15 years old. Beau, of course, climbed on top of the larger wreck. I'm too safety-conscious for that sort of behavior.

The more recent wreck still has a lot of its paint and interior woodwork, as well as its nets and floats still stuffed into the holds.

It was a fitting last weekend in Lyngen, and I'm so glad that my new friends were generous enough to share it with me. Maybe someday I can return the favor if they ever decide to make a trip to the Pacific NW.