Hellmofjorden, Norway
Today was sailing down Tysfjord, the second deepest fjord in Norway, and then visiting Hellmofjorden. The weather was nothing short of spectacular as we sailed deep into the interior of the country. We sailed past Stetind, a 1392-meter (4567ft) high mountain, which has been designated a “National Mountain” in Norway, quite an honor in a country with thousands of spectacular peaks. The name means “the anvil” and refers to its flat top. When we reached the end of Hellmofjord, we were only 10km from the Swedish border, so some of us struck off to try to hike there. Others undertook shorter hikes, but all led up onto a glaciated slope with lovely views down the fjord. Still others took Zodiac cruises around the fjord where we examined the beautiful folding of the gneisses which make up the walls of the valley. A young white-tailed sea eagle soared overhead and then landed on several of the birch trees so that we could have a nice look at him.
The hikes started at a small Saami village of Hellmoboyn at the head of the fjord, and while no one was living at the village when we visited, we could see the many aspects of village life, including several saunas, so essential to living comfortably in the Arctic. A rushing stream flowed right past the village into the fjord and salmon were jumping in the water directly offshore. Our ship’s baker and several other crew members went fishing in the fjord and caught about 200kg of very large cod, which we later enjoyed at a barbecue on deck during teatime.
Our passage back out the fjord was as beautiful as the one leading in. With mountains rising a thousand meters right out of the waters of the fjord, small settlements along the shore and an occasional local ferry serving these widely spread communities, it was an idyllic setting and a quite intimate view of life in this sparsely populated region of northern Norway.
