A Fine Day at Last at Stott

Yesterday, we had a much nicer day as we drove along fjords to Ornes where we caught a boat out to there island off Stott for our overnight stay. It wasn’t raining and occasionally the sun came out.

We began with a ferry from Kilboghamn to Jertkvik. This took about an hour and we sailed past stunning mountains with high peaks and tiny farms dotted wherever it was flatter. At first, we couldn’t make sense of the ferry man’s instructions as he said we should turn our car around and reverse off the ferry when we arrived in Jetkvick These ferries are double-ended, so you normally drive straight on and then off at the other end. It tuned out that Jetkviik was an intermediate stop and the ferry continued on to another island. Turning around meant that we could drive straight off when the ferry reversed into the dock.

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We crossed the Arctic Circle on this ferry but there was no dotted yellow lines on the fjord or across the mountains to signal this (as was shown on the map).. I just had to look at my phone and see when we had crossed it at 66.33 degrees.My phone didn’t refresh quickly enough so I was 47 seconds of latitude too late to get the exact position.

Our guide book said that we were entering Northland and this was where the mountain peaks became higher and the fjords deeper. It was quite correct. With some patches of sunshine, the scenery was becoming spectacular. We found a beautiful picnic spot by one fjord for a cup of thermos coffee.

We really only had about 130 kilometres to drive today, but with many photo stops it took us until well into the afternoon.

By lunch, and another ferry across the fjord, we were looking across the fjord to a glacier. We found a delightful picnic spot with a garden, flushing toilets and tables. The toilets even had a turf roof. There was a building that looked as though it might have been a kiosk or information centre but it was closed.

The Svartisvatnet Glacier is a tongue of ice flowing down from the Northern Norwegian ice Cap.  It is the second largest ice field in Norway, covering 400 square kilometres and is 600 metres deep.The tiny part on the ice-cap that we could see looked as if the ice was plastered on the rocks like icing on a cake. This glacier once extended right down to the fjord and it has retreated significantly from its maximum position.

The road also travelled through many tunnels in this mountainous region. The longest was nearly 8 kms long. (the scenery outside the tunnels was certainly more attractive than the view inside the tunnel).

We had called our host before leaving Tonnes to get instructions about how we should meet her to get over to the island of Stott. The main towns are marked at the map but some locations, like the one pointed out in our travel notes, are tool small to appear on the map. In the end, the easiest way was for us to catch the scheduled boat at 4.10 pm to Stott from Ornes. We parked our car in the car park at the wharf, just taking what we needed for an overnight stay. 

The Stott Brygge is a collection of buildings near the harbour of Stott. It was previously a fishing village and owned  by the the father of the current owner Eva, It still has a small fish processing factory near the general store. Our cabin is kind of rustic although comfortable. The restaurant is in the old trading store / post office and has lots of character.

Yesterday was our 46th Wedding Anniversary and we were looking forward to a nice meal together. They only had two choices on the menu here – whale or stockfish. Stockfish is reconstituted cod that has been air dried so that it keeps over time. Jill decided to have the stockfish,  which came with bacon and a creamy sauce. I put all my principles aside and had the whale. It has a texture like beef and a game flavour like buffalo (or, at least that’s how it was cooked here). We even shouted ourselves to a bottle of Chilean wine.