Mefjord FAM Trip

A winter FAM trip to Mefjord/Senja :-)

One of our suppliers (a pretty new one), Mefjord Brygge, invited us up to Mefjordvær on the island of Senja in the North of Norway. Senja is Norway's second biggest island, located approx. 350 km north of the Polar Circle and a 2,5 hours drive south-west of the city of Tromsø.
Mefjord Brygge invited six from our office to try out their accommodation facilities and to get an idea of what they can offer to tourists in that area - both in winter and summer. Hiking trips, whale safaris, Northern Lights, fishing tours, skiing and more...
Unfortunately, two colleagues couldn't join the trip at last minute and had to cancel their participation. What a pity for them! They really missed out on something!
So eventually we left in four/five: my direct colleague Caroline, as well as Luca and Victoria from our sister company Authentic Scandinavia and for just a couple of days also my friend and colleague Jana.

Saturday 16th of January:
Caro and I took an early flight to Tromsø where we spent some hours in the afternoon at Jana's place who had invited us over for a yummy lunch at their cosy apartment. So good to see my friend again and see where she lives now for already two years :-)

The view from Jana's apartment - straight at the Polaria Museum

Later on in the afternoon we met up with Luca and Victoria who had flown up to Tromsø already a couple of days earlier to check out some suppliers in that region.

All together we went on board the express boat southwards to Finnsnes. From there a bridge connects the island of Senja to the mainland. Here we got picked up by the manager of Mefjord Brygge. On our way towards Mefjordvær, a 1 hour drive, we stopped at a farm for dinner.
After checking in at our (huge!) apartment at around 10:30 p.m., Caro, Luca and I went to check out the local village pub. This was really a "meet the locals" experience :-)

Sunday 17th of January:
We started the day with Finn & Wilma. Finn is an approx. 50 year old local who had grown up and lives in Mefjord. Wilma is his little rescue dog. Together they sometimes take tourists along during their walks in the beautiful and steep Senja mountains. It's incredible how Finn is able to transmit his immense passion for the area to you. A three hours walk became fascinatingly interesting through him, his stories and his love for the beautiful surroundings and the opportunities they offer. He really made you want to come back in summer to discover more and hike up the mountain peaks - with him as guide of course!

 

 The public toilet - in case of need :-)

 A cup of hot ginger tea to warm up in this sheltered cave.

A little break around the bonfire Finn lit while serving sandwiches he had prepared and brought along for us.

View on Mefjordvær. Yes, it's really just a very very small village of the few houses you see on the shore.

Since it already started becoming dark around 2/2:30 p.m. we had the afternoon after lunch free. Time to relax in the apartment.
Later on, after dinner, Caro, Luca and I tried out the sauna of the place. The idea was to jump into the icy cold water after heating up in the sauna. But unfortunately (or fortunately?) the pier with the stairs into the water was too far away from the sauna building. In the time running from the sauna to the pier we would have cooled down already too much. So instead we jumped straight into the fresh snow outside the building. Lovely - but COOOOOOOOOOLD!!! What's the temperature of snow, 2°C? *brrrrrrrrr*
No pictures of this, though, here on my blog. Don't think my colleagues would appreciate this ;-)

Monday 18th of January:
What a day!!!
Three hours whale safari on a small boat in the fjord of Mefjord and we saw so many killer whales (orcas) and humpback whales! Incredible!
Sorry for having posted so many pictures of them, but this was just amazing and they were so many!

 Killer whales (orcas) so close by the boat!

"Free Willy" approaching :-)

 The backs of some humpback whales.

 An orca.

 The tail fins of a humpback whale diving.

 Orcas

 A humpback fin.

 Orcas.

 A humpback on its way diving down.

Some more killer whales.

 The big dive - step by step photographed :-)

 Orca.

Humpback fins.

 Orca.

And as if we weren't already lucky enough with all the whales we saw in the morning, the evening revealed a spectacular sky show for us, with green auroras dancing in the sky for a couple of hours. After dinner we had been driving around in a minibus trying to find the aurora borealis somewhere in the area. But the activity forecast was pretty bad and in deed after 1,5 hours of unsuccessful driving around we returned to our apartment. A bit disappointed, but that's simply the way it is with unpredictable natural phenomena.
We were already on our way to bed when Caro went out for just one last cigarette and then raised the alarm. I just changed back from my pyjamas to a pair of jeans, grabbed a jacket, the camera and the tripod and rushed out.
What we were presented was just beautiful! And so amazing! Hadn't seen such strong Northern Lights before.
So please excuse me for having posted so many many pictures of this phenomenon. But it's my first own pictures of Northern Lights. This time I had brought along Marco's reflex camera. With the right settings the pictures would certainly have turned out to be even more spectacular and of much better quality. But I think for not having a clue of photography and of using such a camera for the first time the pictures aren't too bad :-)

And one last aurora popped up behind our apartment right before I went back in and went to bed. I photographed the development of this aurora phase by phase (taking one picture every 30-60 seconds).

Just wow!

By now it was nearly 2 a.m., so really time to head to bed!

Tuesday 19th of January:
Good morning from our apartment in Mefjord Brygge. These pictures show the light at 9:30 in the morning from "own terrace", when we got picked up for our transfer back to Finnsnes.

En route on Senja island, somewhere between Mefjordvær and Finnsnes. 

11:30 a.m.: arrival of the Hurtigruten ship M/S Trollfjord at Finnsnes harbour.

We went on board for a three hours cruise back to Tromsø. Beautiful winter landscape and light along the way! Worth a "few" pictures :-)
Have a look at the "smoke" (clouds) hovering over the water.

2:30 p.m.: back in Tromsø. I had arranged a meeting with my cousin Florian, who also lives in Tromsø, to have lunch together. Always nice to see him again :-) War schön, Flo! Danke für das kurze Treffen und Mittagessen zusammen!

After lunch, Florian even drove us all to the airport to catch our flight back to Oslo. Takk, Flo!

What a short, but unexpectedly wonderful trip! I had no idea what to expect from this little, remote place called Mefjord. But I was really positively surprised. Certainly thanks to the whales, the Northern Lights and Finn!

And thanks, Caro and Luca, for letting me borrow some of your pictures for this blog post :-)