Holiday Island

A couple of days ago I had noticed a little bridge going across to the island Håkøya. It looked relatively flat and relatively thawed around the coast.

When we arrived we saw lots of people walking, cycling, picnicking and kayaking. So far we've barely seen another soul on our walks so this was a little surprising.

We drove to the end of the road and started walking around the coastline. At first this overlooked Tromsø, the sun shining down making the painted wooden houses look beautiful across the glistening fjord water.

A little further round was the bridge that connects Tromsø with Kvsløya, the island we're staying on. It's a little unnerving to drive across at first as it's quite narrow, has no road markings, it's windy and has a speed limit of 70 km/hr which most the local traffic ignores, particularly buses!

Further round we got to see some stunning views of the fjord, made better with the blue sky and bright sunshine. Even though the temperature was reported to be just 6 C today, both Stu and I got so hot we didn't even need our fleeces or coats!

Next we came across a section blocked by ice, with water running rapidly off the overhang. Not willing to rush slipping on our falling through the ice we took a short detour inland where we met some beautiful dogs that looked like they were a cross between a husky and a collie. They unfortunately didn't like us, or were very protective as their owner had to keep them on a very short lead as we passed, the dogs growling at us the whole time.

It seems that Håkøya had a few houses but mostly consists of holiday homes and boat sheds, which explains why we saw so many people there today (a Sunday).

Eventually we got to a point on the island where we would have been waking in private property so we walked up the road then over to other side of the island where we had lunch overlooking Tromsø.

As we wandered around the island back towards the car we came across a load of rusting car axles, radiators and wheels. A strange site in such mad majestic surroundings.

Having made it back to the car we were keen to do some more walking so drove to Tisnes, a small piece of land jutting out into the sea.

Tisnes had even more beautiful beaches, with a ship wreck, lots of wading birds and beaches made of tiny shells and coral. However perhaps the biggest treat was all the wild reindeer roaming free with "fuzzy" horns which Stu couldn't resist stroking.

With all our planned walks for the day exhausted, and the bright Sun deceiving us on what the time actually was (sky wasn't properly dark until gone 11pm tonight!) We headed back to our cabin to cook dinner.

The good news is the cloud cover should be patchy tonight, reducing around midnight and the kp index is forecast to be moderate so finger's crossed! The only possible problem is the extremely bright, almost full moon.