We arrived at 07:40 having passed beneath Finnsnes Bridge before docking at the small terminal at Fissnes. It was 6.5ºC with a wind chill that made it feel much colder. The bridge links the town with Senja, Norway’s second largest island. It is said that its beauty rivals that of the Lofoten Islands but without the crowds. On its eastern side, in particular, is an agricultural plain but forests and moorland dominate beneath the mountains. An arête-lined ridge known as Yttersida is towards the northwest coast and rises steeply from the ocean. We identified ’spindrift’, fine snow blown by winds up the mountains and off the summits that look like mini tornadoes and what in desert regions are called ‘dust devils’. It was along this section of the island that we drove the National Tourist Route. We drove past Husoy which was the location of a Troll Theme Park. Here was Senjatrollet, an 18m high and 125,000k allegedly the World’s largest troll, but was not there today as according to local media it was destroyed by a fire during repairs. En route to lunch we passed through a fjord famous for its ‘golden walled toilet’.
Lunch was at Hamn i Senja, the site of a former fishing hamlet. The black and white photographs on the wall showed that they may have even used sea eagles to catch fish but there was no other evidence. The hotel has rooms available in separate buildings and in its own little cove it is self-contained. Nearby, though difficult to see, is a small dam that held back the waters for making hydro-electricity in what could have been the World’s first HEP plant in 1882. We departed Fissnes at 15:00 heading south but at the time of writing we are unsure of where we are going.
