Tysfjord and Trollfjord, Norway
Early this morning, we entered a beautiful, long, twisted fjord system known as Tysfjorden. This is one of the larger fjord systems in northern Norway, and the first thing we saw upon entering was Mount Stetind, voted Norway's most beautiful mountain a couple of years ago. It rises as a sheer smooth rock wall to 1,391 meters (4,590 feet) in height, with a prominent flat-topped "thumb". Although conditions were drizzly and windy, cruising into the fjord gave us great scenery to enjoy from inside the vessel as we spent the morning preparing for the expedition. First off, there was an introduction to the staff members, followed by a Zodiac briefing…both of which hardly seemed necessary since there are so many experienced Lindbladders on board now. By late morning, we had reached the very end of Tysfjord and anchored the ship near a low, flower-filled meadow region called Hellmebotyn, where we could see a small cluster of homes belonging to some local Sami people. It is only inhabited during the summer, when they come here to fish, collect berries, and cut firewood.
The meadow area is actually a huge glacial moraine left over from the retreat of massive glaciers many thousands of years ago. The place was in full bloom with bluebells, buttercups, yarrow, dandelions, chickweed, valerian, fireweed, and a few other species. We weren’t the only ones enjoying the flowers, however, as many bumble bees were busily visiting the blooms (see Figure A). Keeping in mind that we are now above the Arctic Circle, bumble bees must have some amazing adaptations that allow them to thrive here at this high latitude…if only for a brief summer. These insects have the ability to shiver their flight muscles, which produces internal heat, and they are covered with dense fur, which gives them insulation from the cold.
There are a couple of trails that lead inland from the meadow into the surrounding boreal forest. Overlooking the meadow is a plateau area where a severe blizzard knocked down nearly all the Scotch pines and Norway spruces that once covered the flat surface. Most of us made it up to this place and it was easy to understand how such devastation took place. The trees had been growing in very thin soil atop the glacially-smoothed bedrock, so the root systems were not deeply imbedded in to the ground. We could see the root bases of many trees that had simply been pulled loose from the thin layer of soil and flopped over. This is a major problem and hindrance to vegetation growing in this part of the world where so much of the bedrock had only recently been uncovered from glacial ice, geologically-speaking, that is.
A few people walked on a steep trail all the way to a waterfall, which feeds a roaring river that empties near the head of the fjord close to where the ship was anchored. If they had continued, the trail would have led them on through the mountains all the way to Sweden, but there was not enough time for a single afternoon to accomplish this. They did, however, get above treeline and enjoy spectacular views back down the fjord. And, several of us managed Zodiac cruises around the head of the fjord, enjoying the great overhead geology and shoreline stuff before everyone returned to the ship in time to sail back out the fjord in time for the Captain’s welcome dinner. Figure B shows a rock face with impressive glacial scars formed by ancient glaciers that dragged boulders along the bedrock, made all the more obvious by cascading water.
That was not all. After dinner, we entered a rather short, but picturesque fjord known for its troll, i.e. Trollfjord, where we sailed up to the head of the bay and Captain Skog kind of showed off by driving the ship bow first right up to the steep rock face so a fair virg..., well, staff member Stephanie Martin, could reach out over the bow and pick a bough from a rowan (mountain ash) tree. This is a tradition dating back to…well, who knows?
