Cruise the North Atlantic Coastlines

8 days and 7 nights aboard the sailing ship Nooderlicht

The North Atlantic islands and coastlines offer some of the finest scenery and wildlife experiences in the world. From the Scottish Isles to the High Arctic, visitors to the region can witness enormous colonies of seabirds thronging the cliffs and shores, and enjoy the thrilling antics of whales and dolphins and seals at sea.

Though remote and sparsely populated today, many of the places we explore have been inhabited in the last 5000 years, and thousands of unique prehistoric and historic sites are a testimony to the thriving cultures of the past.

We embark the ship in the harbour of Lodingen in the evening, after a drive of an hour by scheduled bus (at own expense) from the airport of Evenes.

We will spend two full days in the Tysfjord area to look for groups of Orcas which hunt in these fjords for herring. During these days we will have an excursion to the petroglyphs from Stone Age, depicting Orcas at Leiknes. At Skarvberget we will climb a hill, which is a look-out post for tens of Sea Eagles, which also catch herring in the fjord. One evening we will visit the Orca information centre, where we will get additional information about the whales.

Today we sail into Vestfjord, also a good area to observe Orcas and other whales, and arrive at Henningsvaer, the Norwegian Venice, where we will lay overnight.

We vist Kabelvaag, a cosy historical town, where we may visit the Lofoten aquarium and Museum. Later we sail into Trollfjord Raftsund, said to be one of the most spectacular fjords of Norway, and spend the night somewhere in the area.

We work our way back to through Vestfjorden looking for Orca's, and could visit for instance Hamaroy with the Knut Hamsun Museum, or Ofotfjord, where we may spot Orca's.

Today we will sail into the harbour of Lodingen. Near Ldingen at Hustadgaard in Vestbygd we will have the opportunity to be fascinated by "oye I stein", a sculpture of 37 tonnes made by the Indian artist Anish Kapoor. In the same area at Nes in Kanstadfjord we can admire the oldest rock paintings (9000 years old) near the remains of stone age dwellings.

We disembark the ship in Lødingen in the morning for our transfer by scheduled local bus (at own expense) to the airport of Evenes.

Notes