It’s time to make our way further north in Norway and while it’s only 250km as the crow flies the journey is actually almost 500km when you drive the route. But, we don’t have a car so that means relying on public transport, taking 2 ferries, 3 buses and a night in a hotel. Our day started before the sunrise, which is pretty normal at this time of year as it’s rises so late in the morning. We boarded the super fast ferry which took us north along a dramatic coastline of sheer mountains, glaciers and hundreds of islands. The ferry stops at communities along the way where little red rorbu cabins are built along the rocky shoreline and the houses are fairly clustered together due to the lack of flat ground available to built on.

As we travelled north we were treated to a beautiful sunrise with pink clouds filling the sky and the sun was gradually starting to hit the highest mountains. Seagulls flew above us and we travelled alongside fishing boats and a large cruise ship on a 12 day voyage to the most northern part of Norway.

We eventually arrived in Bodø and were very grateful it was a calm day unlike the previous time we took the same boat and Craig threw up. We now had about 6 hours to wait until our bus and luckily the library is a super place to do that. We’ve spent many hours in this library where big glass windows look out to the harbour. I’d prepared pasta salads for lunch to save us from buying an expensive meal and we had plenty of snacks to keep us going.

Soon enough the sun began going down, leaving a pink tinge to the horizon and a full moon perfectly hovered above the snowy peaks. We eventually headed to the bus stop and got comfortable for our 6 hour journey where the final chunk was spent on another ferry.

I’d booked a room in a new little guesthouse which was walking distance from the bus stop and we were surprised to find hardly any snow on the floor – which was odd because the ground had been glittery with a fresh dump at our previous destination further south.

After a rather restless night sleep we woke to purple lines forming through the clouds. It was still a few hours until the sun was due to rise so great news that we already had some colours starting. We had time to have some breakfast and a coffee before things got really good and luckily we were based just stumbling distance from a beach so it took no time at all to be standing on the sandy shoreline as the fuchsia pink sky reflected on the wet sand.

It was an incredible sunrise, with the most intense shades of pink and red filling the sky behind the mountains. It was so intense that the colour reflected in all of the windows of the waterfront houses, making it look they were all on fire.

We continued our walk from the beach across to a little headland where a lighthouse sat atop a small hill. From there we enjoyed the rest of the show and watched as lots of eagles swooped through the sky.

Away from the intense sunrise a pink hue filled the horizon and flocks of herons flew through the sky. We ended up spending two hours outside watching Mother Nature put on an incredible show.

We had two more buses to take to complete our mammoth journey. On the way we passed a herd of reindeer and ended up having an incredible sunset. I didn’t capture any photos of this one as it was tricky through the bus windows but it was a bloomin’ good show for the second time today.