Shamballa Cruising Yacht Club: Hurtigruten Cruise

Back in May we had met another CA couple in the lovely little bay of Lakka on the island of Paxoi. (https://shamballacyc.blogspot.com/2018/05/pottering-around-ionian.html) It proved to be one of those serendipitous meetings that seem to happen frequently with this cruising life. Over dinner they told us about the Hurtigruten Cruise they took during the winter to the far North of Norway, above the Arctic Circle, to see the northern lights. We were quite intrigued by their stories so we did some research on this Hurtigruten caper. As we were planning to go to Scandinavia during our summer land travels, we thought this sounded like a perfect addition to our plans and booked the 12 day trip from Bergen to Kirkenes, return. What a great decision it proved to be!

On our way - leaving Bergen at 8pm

Hurtigruten (meaning ‘fast route’) was started 125 years ago in 1893, the same year Nansen started his voyage to the North Pole in the Fram. The company provided mail, cargo and passenger service along the rugged west coast of Norway. The service changed mail delivery times from 3 weeks in the summer and 5 months in the winter to just 7 days. With the construction of local airports in the 1980’s the role of Hurtigruten changed to have more of an emphasis on tourism, although it still delivers cargo to 34 ports north and south bound along the West Coast of Norway.

Our route

We are not particularly interested in big luxury cruises (nor can our budget afford them) so we chose the ‘classic’ cruise on the old ‘grand lady’, MS Lofoten. This ship was built in 1964 and the facilities are basic – small cabins and just a few lounges. But Mother Nature and the fabulous chefs and staff on board made the cruise a pure luxury.

MS Lofoten and her bigger sister

The hardest part about writing this blog entry is trying to choose the best photos from the nearly 900 that I took over the 12 days. Every day brought new amazing vistas of gorges, waterfalls, steep cliffs, craggy islands and quaint colourful villages. We saw dolphins, puffins and sea eagles. We stopped at small villages and large towns and cities and spent 6 days above the Arctic Circle. We met lovely fellow passengers from all over the world, many of whom had travelled to other amazing Arctic destinations. It was, in sort, simply fabulous.

On our first full day onboard we sailed into the Geirangerfjord. The scenery was stunning. We passed magnificent waterfalls tumbling over near vertical mountainsides.

The entrance to the Fjord

The next day we had a few hours in the city of Trondheim where we walked around the town checking out the sights. The town was abuzz in preparation for what we could gather was a combination of festivals, the Bryggeri food festival and a musical festival for St Olaf.