It’s never a quick journey to reach northern Norway and this time our day started at 4:15am with a 2km walk to the bus stop – remarkably under a sky filled with dancing aurora which is very rare in the south of Norway. The bus took 3 hours to reach Oslo where we hopped on a train to the airport. We arrived 3 hours before a flight that would only take half that time. Once we landed in Bodø in northern Norway we were greeted by a vibrant rainbow. We then had another 2km walk to the boat jetty where we waited an hour for our journey to begin. We were heading to a region called Helgeland which we’ve never explored before. It’s a fabulous area filled with fjords, islands and dramatic peaks that rise straight out the sea.

The boat journey was rough with a big swell which caused our stomachs to almost rise up to our throats and then plummet back down. It felt horrible but luckily I didn’t feel too sick, unlike Craig who had to do a mad dash to the back of the boat to throw up the flapjacks he’d just eaten. It’s the first time he’s ever been sick on transport so I guess that shows you how rough the ride was, although in my opinion we’ve definitely had worse sailings.

I was getting very excited seeing the mountains out the window and they already had a dusting of snow on them. We eventually arrived at our stop which was a tiny village where our friend picked us up. He drove us to a family members holiday home where we’d be staying and it was absolutely perfect. It was a typical Norwegian house, two stories and made of slightly chipped and worn white wood. There was a cozy lounge with a log burning stove and the room joined onto a kitchen and dining room where there was an old vintage stove similar to an Aga. It was a traditional holiday home, just like the ones we used to prepare for guests when we worked in Norway so the upstairs was just 3 bedrooms with bunk beds and a bit of a creepy vibe. Our room was downstairs so we actually closed off the upstairs by putting a mattress across the stairs so the heat wouldn’t be wasted and to separate us from the ghostly spirits. We arrived at night so the sky was dark and we had no idea what our surroundings would look like. We’d had such a long travel day so we just had a quick pasta for dinner, popped outside to see a little bit of a mild aurora show and then got an early night.

The next morning we saw we had an incredible view of the fjord and a mountain range covered in snow, it was perfect. We’d stoked the fire the night before and put it on a slow burn so we also woke to a warm lounge which was lovely as the rest of the house was like a freezer. It’s a good job the accommodation was so nice because we’d be spending a lot of time indoors over the next month due to the absurd amount of rain. Locals say it’s the worst autumn they can remember which is pretty unfortunate for us.

We knew autumn would be a risk in the north, the winter season is wonderful because the snow sticks around and everything is white and magical but even still, in winter by the sea there are days when a warm wind blows through, the snow is replaced by rain and the landscape turns brown but there’s more guaranteed snow days from February. We’ve been trying to make the most of any dry spells though, dashing outside to photograph low lying clouds or a rare colourful sunrise.

Craig’s borrowed a fishing rod from our friend and when the weathers calm he heads down to the jetty. It’s surprisingly easy to catch fish from there, hooking quite a few cod but so far just small ones which he’s carefully put back in the sea as they need to be a certain length to keep. I tend to go down to the jetty too, to capture photos of the mountains and on one occasion we had 3 sea eagles flying around us.

When a blue sky day was predicted we made sure to go on a hike up a mountain. The day started with beautiful pink clouds which filled me with excitement – finally some colour!! The hike was a 10km round trip taking us up a 900m peak. We followed a muddy track upwards through the forest and within 30 minutes the trees began to thin out and we got our first views of the day. We could see the fjord to the north where islands were glowing in the morning light and another fjord to the south but things only got better the higher we went. We began walking through a valley towards a pass and in the distance we could see a whopping glacier cap.

We left the marked trail and veered up the mountain to our south. Now we could see even more of the glacier and zooming in with my camera revealed the aqua coloured cracks and ridges amongst the ice.

From the top of the mountain we had a fabulous view in all directions. There were mountains rising sharply out the sea and islands dotted across the blue water. But this wasn’t the mountain we were aiming for, we had to continue for another hour to reach our summit which was riddled with rocks, boulders and patches of icy snow. It was a challenge to get to the top and the weather was beginning to turn with lots of clouds and a frigid wind chill but the views were pretty damn epic from the summit.

We were standing on a complete cliff-edge, the ground dropping below us to reveal the fjord. Looking up we had endless pointy mountains and even more of the glacier was visible. There was a really cool lake too which was nestled in a valley with a steep cliff rising to one side and sitting atop it was the glacier cap. We managed to find a sheltered spot to have some lunch and hot coffee before the long journey back down.

As luck would have it the weather all cleared up again once we left the summit and we had clear blues and the warm sun hitting our faces. The hike ended up taking us 7 hours and once we reached the main road we tried to hitch a ride back. No one stopped for us but maybe it was a blessing as we got to soak in the views of the sun piercing through the mossy forest and mountains reflected in the glassy lake. We did eventually manage to get a ride from a sweet local, saving our legs a good 5 kilometres. We were back by 4pm which meant we could still admire the last bit of daylight from our house, watching the mountains glow as the sun went down.