At 10 o’clock this morning we took a shuttle boat across Holandsfjord to visit Engabreen, an arm of Norway’s second-largest glacier, Svartisen. We could see it from the shore as we waited for the boat, reaching down towards the Helgeland coast, turquoise-blue in the sunshine.
The boat only took about 15 minutes, then we walked along a gravel road for 3 to 4 kilometres, past a cafe and an emerald-green lake surrounded by trees and picnic benches.
As we got nearer to the glacier, there were lots of rivers running down the mountainside, and some pretty waterfalls. Then we began to climb up glacier-scoured rocks towards the glacier itself.
The rocks were striped in various colours… some mainly grey and others mainly orange. I hadn’t expected this and thought they were beautiful, especially where there were potholes and swirls where water had obviously flowed.
The rock wasn’t as grippy as on our previous hike, but wasn’t slippery either. With aching legs, we made slow but steady progress, climbing up and down over ridges worn by the movement of ice and water.
Water ran through grooves in the rock and waterfalls plunged over ledges, thundering at times. The views backwards to the lake and forwards to the glacier were stunning. It was amazing how many plants and flowers had managed to grow in this harsh environment.
Having stopped for a snack and to take some photos, we made the final ascent. The blue marks on the rock that we’d been following stopped at a warning sign advising walkers not to get too close to the glacier because pieces can break off. In any case, we didn’t have time to go any further because we wanted to get back for the 14.45 shuttle boat as the following one wasn’t until much later at 17.45.
We had the place to ourselves, although we could see quite a lot of people (who’d probably taken the next shuttle) far below us. John took some drone shots and I took some photos as we enjoyed the wonderful scenery. Then we began to retrace our steps.
As we had enough time, John suggested taking a detour to get closer to some of the bigger waterfalls we’d heard. We felt much colder here in the air from the glacier, listening to the noise of the waterfalls and watching the spray where the biggest waterfall vanished into a plunge pool.
It’s very sad that glaciers such as this are receding so quickly. As recently as the 1900s, Engabreen reached as far as the lake, whereas we’d had to climb 300m over a couple of kilometres to the viewpoint.
I was starving and grumpy by now. We didn’t take sandwiches with us because we’d planned to eat in the cafe. However, we ran out of time and settled for ice creams to keep us going until we got back to Molly Moho. Thankfully the shuttle boat was on time and we were soon back for toast and tea.
Now we’ve driven for about an hour and are parked at the Ureddplassen rest area with a view over the sea. Here, there’s a sculpture of a swordfish as a monument commemorating the crew of a submarine sunk by a German mine in World War II near to here.
There are also beautiful picnic benches, and a public toilet that was named ‘the world’s finest outdoor toilet’ by British press. If only it was open! Apparently this is a good place to see the Northern Lights… but not tonight… we’re now in the land of the midnight sun and won’t see the sun rise or set for a few weeks!
Ramblings 
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