After a really fun New Years Eve celebration (see blog from yesterday), a slightly later breakfast at 8:30am was consumed and a plan for the day ahead emerged. We were not due to dock in Haugesund until 3pm but much of the morning was spent slowly travelling down a very famous fjord. We spent some minutes stopped alongside a waterfall supplied by glacial melt from Norway's southernmost glacier. It was quite surreal that the ships lighting showed there was plenty of light for us to be able to see in colour, as was it evident as the ship crew zoomed around the ship during a routine emergency drill procedure in the bright yellow inflatable. However, when looking at the nearby waterfall, trees and exposed rock, the colour palette made it look exclusively like it was in black and white. The photos will do it justice, maybe.

The rest of the morning was spent updating the blog and intermittently racing out onto the top deck of deck 6 to get some photos and a glimpse of sun soaked mountain tops.

Around 1pm, we were delighted to see that there was actual sun on the ship...first time in a week or so and quite amazing how different everything both inside and outside looked!

On docking slightly early in Haugesund, we went onto the dock to meet our guide Vigar who was to take us to the shed to get ready for the rigid inflatable boat (RIB) tour to the Viking settlement on a nearby island. It was quite a mission to don the gear of giant waterproof overcoats, gloves, goggles and life vests, and as ever, the genuine pang of potential future regret in signing the insurance waiver for potential injury/loss of life during the activity was felt as I signed the dotted line.

We made our way down to see the boats. Very large engines X2. Space for 12 passengers to sit on seats more like horse saddles with padded backrests and an upside down U-shaped handle to hang onto. Our skipper told us that these go VERY fast and that they can fly above the waves. When this happens it is necessary to use the quads to stand up and ride over the bumps so as not to damage your back. With some genuine soreness from slipping around on the ice over the last week or so, plus the tail end of a virus that I'm having a tad of difficulty shaking, the nerves commenced again. Oh well, live once...

On off we went. The first section was chilly and the usual fiddling with fogging up goggles, trying to eliminate air gaps in clothing and generally feeling tense as we slowly made our way through a canal like section of the dock area. Apparently in the region, this is the main site for the industry of "finishing" off shore oil rig components and the newest initiative of off shore wind turbines in the area. On reaching open water, the boat rapidly accelerated. Holy shart it was fast...our boat captain zig zagged us jumping across waves and wake from the other RIB. The sensation of stupidly cold air, whipping through us (we were seated in the front row, creating what I'm sure was an excellent sized wind break for the other passengers on our boat) is one I won't forget in a hurry. Thankfully, noone fell out as our boat captain pulled the equivalent of water donuts as we approached the dock on the Viking Island. And we had arrived...

Down the walkway came a man (Tim) and a woman (can't remember her name) dressed in traditional Viking clothing, bearing flaming sticks to welcome us. We made our way up a short path, past the wicker fences and typical dome shaped houses and into the village, past a standing stone with viking rune carvings. Strange feeling/energy in the air...a little agitated feeling but I was keen to hear more.

We entered the long house and were seated a tables facing the fire in the centre of the long house where Tim explained in great detail about the Viking sagas. He spoke about the period, and the roles of men and women (most important for the political, family and social aspects. They could divorce a man if they wanted to at any time but men could only do so if she started wearing men's trousers). He said that up to 25 people could be living in a long house at one time, all sleeping, eating and everything together in the one place. There was a separate womens space where men were not allowed and women were revered for having the ability to bear children...and they had many. The Vikings were not so much one area, but a range of germanic people who lived all across scandinavia, russia, germany, france, spain since about 3500 years ago. They were dominated by trade and travel, but it is generally accepted that the Haugesund area was where Norway the country originated. It is also the site of burial of Harald Finehair, the first King of unified Norway. Officially, the Viking Era ended when they were defeated in 1066 in Stamford Bridge but Christianity was not 100% entrenched until 1200s. We were able to see one of the four churches erected at the direction of a Pope in the 1200s that is the only one still standing (assume fire or satanists took care of the others, going on what we've heard). He was the first pope to suggest that the people in an area ought to be able to select/elect their own priests. He was not popular for this in Rome, but was so in the regions and it is considered this was important in the long term success of Christianity in areas previously dominated by belief in pagan gods such as Thor and the desire to live beyond death in one of the kingdoms such as Valhalla.

So, back to the boats we went. As we were awaiting departure, we thought we saw the aurora so Bronnie whipped out her camera. Murphy's law would have it that this was the moment that she really needed to have her gloves on, goggles on and air gaps gone. She managed to sort of get her gloves on but not the goggles. It was a wild ride back to dock across the dark and freezing waters for her, clinging on and genuinely starting to worry that her hands, head and face were suffering genuine cold damage :( Eventually though, we returned to dock and gradually thawed out as we changed back into our own clothes.

As we arrived at the ship on foot again, we looked across to the hills nearby, to see an aurora!!!!! We gleefully started snapping photos! I headed onto the ship to level 9 to get a better view and kept snapping. They slowed and we headed inside, marvelling at the surprise appearance (aurora likelihood maps suggested a 1% chance of seeing one at the time). About 5 minutes later, an announcement came over the speakers that the aurora was visible again, so up onto deck 9 we went. Wow, what a spectacle. The photos show just what an incredible show it was. Starting low on the horizon, the tantalising shimmering stripes gave way to a broad stripe/band that ran up across the night sky, then looking to sort of open up into mesmerising shapes with purple, red and green. It was quite a spiritual experience as it radiated right across the sky above the ship. The photos show it really quite well, but what a buzz. Having been slightly indifferent about the prospects, I am now eternally grateful to have seen them like this on New Years Day 2025.

As we perused photos from the day, some quite striking things have appeared in our photos. In the Viking village where I mentioned earlier there was a weird, charged energy, some of Bronnie's photos appear to show some striking colours, not easily explained by lighting, heat or anything (they don't appear in all her photos). In two of them, there appears to be a small figure with a bit of an evil looking expression, a second shows what looks like a troll face looking down and the last shows two figures. One a man's face with what looks to me like a mitre hat with a small female figure in flowing dress (angelic) looking towards him (on his left). Not really sure what to make of it but it certainly has me thinking again about the nature of spirits, energy and their interaction with the cosmos and things that we just can't always perceive in our world dominated by rationalism, sunlight and scientific endeavour. Time on the trip to think further on this...anyway, nonetheless, the ship was buzzing over the northern lights last night and we went to bed, thrilled with the events of the day. Enjoy the photos!!!!