Lofoten Islands

We are still within the Arctic Circle, but today with temperatures of about 13 degrees C and blue skies you could be misled. The scenery is different! There are still some jagged spectacular peaks to be seen, but there is much more flatter land with sheep, goats and a few cattle grazing.

 
We anchored off Gravdal and were tendered ashore, a pleasure on top in the sunshine. An organised trip to the Lofotr Viking Museum at Borg, where artefacts were found by a farmer ploughing in the 1980’s revealed the site of a Viking farm. It has been reconstructed to show living conditions 1500 years ago.
 
We then travelled through the undersea tunnel, along Flakstad Bay to Nusfjord to see a preserved fishing village. The red painted huts on stilts (rather precarious looking) were built for the fishermen to sleep in. They were rather overcrowded, but a better option to the previous sleeping arrangements of their upturned boats hauled up on the rocks / beach.
 
Fishing is the major industry still, but a smaller number of fishermen involved with bigger boats and technological developments.
 
The extra picture (if it loads) is of a fish head. They are dried and used for animal feed, ground up for feeding farmed fish, or exported as they are to Africa. We saw racks of them located a distance from the villages, as they can be a bit smelly. The gulls don’t bother with them as they are so hard and the abundant fresh fish from the sea is more preferable!!
 
Another excellent guide. A young nursing student home from University for the summer and enjoying her extra job.
 
We had coffee out again today. The cups in the Botanical Gardens yesterday and at the Viking Museum were the stuff to rearrange your brain cells!!! I could do with one of these each morning at home to start my day :0)