Sommaroy

Just when you thought it couldn't get any better... there was Senja. What an amazing island, especially the north west which has a series of spoke-like ridges between deep fjords and sandy bays. We traversed these like a roller coaster, sometimes with the help of tunnels, sometimes not. The hills were steep and the tunnels often long and cold, but all this was done under a faultless blue sky with the temperature cranked up to 20deg - and no wind. You could not ask for more perfect conditions.
The mountains, once again, were beyond belief; I have run out of superlatives. They culminated in the wall of rock reaching out to the mountains of Hesten and Segla- vertically falling into the fjord on one side. So spectacular that we readily accepted a boggy side tramp to a better view point of this amazing ridge. Where the mountains were slightly less steep there were snow fields - even one small glacier, and multiple waterfalls. Some of the best beaches I've seen so far on this trip lay at their bases. Truely a mountain wonderland.
We even saw reindeer today. The only fly in the ointment was concerns regarding the lack of food options along the way, but ewen spotted sengahopen which was a bit of a life saver ( or we would have been on the emergency brown cheese rations..). Crossing to Sammaroy was like arriving in a different world- beautiful sandy beaches almost crowded with the start of the Norwegian summer vacations . But this also signified the proximity of Tromso and the end of Ewen's journey tomorrow.Read more