When you've seen one beach, you haven't seen them all

Tuesday, September 19

Look at that sun, we can't wait to start our day!

The baby birds are up too, clamoring for food from their harried mothers.

We get into the car and drive past the last little town, Å, through a long tunnel to a parking lot, from which we can walk down to the tip of the island, with unbelievably beautiful views all around, and so quiet - just the sounds of nature.

The ground is a mixture of mossy grass and rocks. Turns out that the innocent looking swaying grass hides swampy wet spots, and soon our feet are soaked through to the socks.

 But who cares - this is so special and amazing - looking north west

as well as southeast

and then back across those swampy traps

After a quick visit back at the house, less than 10 minutes away, to change shoes and socks, we drive into the town of Å, the center of which is a cluster of pretty red Rorbuer lining a sheltered harbor

We walk out on the pier and try to get near a seabird just sitting enjoying the sun

but predictably it flies away as we approach. 

The town itself appears very post-season with most places closed, but a small store, up a steep set of stairs, invites with an open door. There we find a friendly Colombian/Swedish lady, who informs us - in Spanish - that the bakery, for which the town is famous (along with an elaborate museum dedicated to the drying of cod) - is closed, but that we can taste the pastry in a café just around the corner. We're digging into a delicious cinnamon bun with a latte, when I notice the young female server is staring intently at her laptop. She has the look of someone editing her photos and on a hunch I ask her about the northern lights. She shows me her screen explaining that last night the lights were exceptional, and she's only now checking her photos.

Joanna is Polish and  a professional photographer. She'd been in Utakleiv, on the Haukland beach, which faces north. "This time of year,"  Joanna says, "you can really only see the lights on the other side of the island." She has a website, www.flyphotography.pl, where I can see what I missed.

Next stop is Reine, another small town endowed with a particularly translucid light, which has inspired painters for many years. Oddly, we find we're a bit lost in the town, as if we can't crack the code of where to park, where to go. We're there on a weekday after the season and most stores and cafés are closed. Or maybe we're in the mood for seeing more nature. Joana had mentioned a beach, Ramsberg, a half hour away, so we head out again on the impressive E10 - the Norwegian infrastructure is so admirable with top-of-the-line tunnels, roads and bridges, wherever we go -

and after a while park in front of a wide sandy beach, easily a rival of both Copacabana and Lopes Mendes, with fine white sand.

The water looks so inviting, the sea completely calm. We see two young men walking towards us, wading in the water, and we ask how is the water. "It is very cold," says one and laughs. "I can't feel my feet," says the other. Clearly they too feel so privileged to be here in the sun with the wide water before us.

We consult our map and realize the beach Joanna mentioned, and which Tor had also urged us to see, lies another 30 minutes away, so off we go, skirting huge mountains on our right as we drive around the fjords on our left.

We make a little detour to see weird longhaired cattle, standing, as it turns out, in their own very strong smell, and the pretty Flakstad church at the bottom of the fjord.

The road to Haukland beach end at this rock

and on the other side lies the most splendid beach - even better than the one we just saw - completely wild

Although it's sunny there's a bit of wind building up, and this is when I notice that a group of young people, gathered on the beach for a while, have begun to disrobe. Some seem quite hesitant - a very white girl in a bikini tests the water wearing her sweater - but in the end they all go in with great whoops and screams

As we return to our car with a last look at the incomparable beauty behind us

We notice this couple

clearly as overwhelmed as we are. But we have an hour plus drive home, and should try for an early night, for tomorrow we're taking a 7am ferry back to Bodø on the mainland. It's another starry clear night, and I cannot resist going outside hoping for a last display of northern lights. It's quite cold and the sky is full of stars. Around 11.30 a light film seems to pull across the sky, dimming the stars. It comes from the north and I know that just now there's a splendid show to be seen on the beach we left a few hours ago.