Going to the Edge of the World

The Outer Hebrides are the islands that protect western Scotland from the North Atlantic.  Barra, the Uists, Benbecula, Harris and Lewis form an almost continuous line of islands separated by the Minch from mainland Scotland. If you look even further out into the North Atlantic (another 40 miles or so beyond the Outer Hebrides), you will see another isolated little group of islands. This is St Kilda.

These islands were occupied by generations of subsistence crofters until 1930, when the falling population finally left the crofters with no option other than to petition to be relocated to the Scottish mainland.

Kilda Cruises, Hirta

The islands are now owned by the National Trust for Scotland.  A number of companies run boat trips to the islands, at least when the weather co-operates. I choose to travel to St Kilda with Kilda Cruises who aim to run boats from Harris three times a week.  My previous attempt to get to St Kilda several years ago got weathered off, so this time I based myself on Harris for several days to try and ensure that I had as good as chance as possible to get to the islands.

As I might have predicted, the first attempt to get to St Kilda (on this visit) got weathered off, with instructions to be at the pier at Leverburgh at 07:45 the following morning, when the weather was expected to be a bit better.

I’ll gloss over the details of the boat trip out – suffice to say that the trip felt much longer than three hours (and I always used to say I was a good sailor).  Once ashore I and my fellow day trippers got to spend about 5 hours wandering pretty much anywhere we wanted on the island of Hirta, the main island in the group.  The most recognisable images of St Kilda are either of Village Bay (on south-east side of Hirta) or of The Street, a string of 19th Century cottages. Many of the cottages have fallen victim to years of weather but six have been restored by the NTS to provide accommodation for researchers and volunteers visiting the islands and to house a museum telling the story of St Kilda.  The other feature of 21st Century St Kilda is the little military base at the northern end of Village Bay. This provides a home for staff supporting the various radar installations on the island.  On my first day on Hirta I opted to spend time around the Street (trying to take pictures without Goretex-clad visitors) and then climbed up to The Gap on the eastern edge of the island to see Boreray and its sea stacks about four miles away.

Village Bay and The Street, Hirta

Village Bay, Hirta

Once we’d been summoned back to the boat, we went out for a closer look at the sea stacks, and the vast gannet colonies on them before heading back towards Harris.

In an ideal world I’d have had a chance to work through the first batch of photographs before a return trip to take more, but North Atlantic weather doesn't often offer ‘ideal’ conditions. So, at 07:45 the next morning I presented myself at the pier again for another St Kilda fix. "I can't remember anyone going twice in a week" was my welcome.

The seas were a bit different for the second day, and I travelled on Kilda Cruises single-hull boat rather than the catamaran I’d used for the first trip.  The second trip was a little bit quicker, felt much like a high-adrenalin fairground ride that the first one had and I was a much happier sailor.  My main target on day two was to climb to the various radar installations on the island and to have a look at the islands of Soay and Dun.

The Street, Hirta, St Kilda

The Street, Hirta, St Kilda

The St Kilda story grabbed my imagination many years ago, and I'm really pleased to have finally been able to see the island myself.  As I was bumping back cross the water at the end of the second day, I was reflecting on the difference that decent communications might have made to the islanders.

In the 1920s postal services were unreliable at best, supply boats regularly didn't get through and any medical services were a complete lottery.  After 25 years of being abandoned, the UK’s need for a missile testing range during the Cold War lead to St Kilda being re-established as a military base in the mid-1950s, from that point on supply boats have been regular enough to support 10-12 service people during the winter, and upwards of 30 during the summer months, and there is even a regular helicopter service between St Kilda and Benbecula. It's not easy to see how the St Kildans would have been supported through the Second World War, but it does seem sad that the long term heritage of the island has been lost. It was particularly touching to walk round the little graveyard on the island and to see from the recent headstones that at least some of the evacuated St Kildans do eventually get to make it back to the island.

The Edge of the World label is from the 1937 Michael Powell film that tells the story of the evacuation of St Kilda - it's worth tracking down.

North by Northwest and 500 Miles.

North by Northwest doesn’t make sense on a compass (and in truth it didn't really make much sense in the film plot either), and it’s just over 500 miles (I'm only planning on walking very limited parts of it) but my next trip is to a remote UK location about 500 miles northwest of Oxford.

I regularly head due north from Oxford for about 500 miles to get to get Shetland, this time I'm going the same distance but heading rather further west to the island of Hirta, more commonly just known as St Kilda.

Maps

There are half-a-dozen islands in the St Kilda group, but the only one that was ever regularly inhabited was Hirta.

Hirta was probably continuously occupied for about 5000 years until the summer of 1930 when the remaining residents finally conceded that they weren't going to be able to stay and petitioned to be evacuated. Since then the island has come into the ownership of the National Trust for Scotland, and since 1957 there has also been a military presence on the island. There is a certain irony in the fact that the island was evacuated in 1930 because it wasn't considered practical to establish regular communications to the island, but only a few years later a well-supported base was created on the island (presumably from a different budget!)

St Kilda has been on my visit list for a long time. My last (somewhat) half-hearted attempt to get there was in summer 2006.  I was spending a bit of time in the Outer Hebrides, but on the days I was able to go all the tourist boats to St Kilda were either fully booked or weathered off.  This time St Kilda is the focus of the trip, and I've got several days booked to try and get there.  I've opted to go with Kilda Cruises from Leverburgh at the southern end of Harris in the Outer Hebrides and I’ll be getting there via Skye (and CalMac Ferries).  It’s a long time since I visited Skye, so long ago that I needed to get a ferry there rather than being able to use the bridge!

So what's the attraction. The island is unique in the UK in having UNESCO dual heritage status - for both natural and culture significance. It's also remote and at least a bit difficult to get too - both factor getting points on my list. And I don't know very many people who've been there. 

Hopefully Hurricane Bertha won’t be doing an encore in the UK next week, but I do know from spending lots of time on Shetland that Scottish island weather is an unpredictable at any time of year - particularly on isolated little islands surrounded by ocean - so I won't be crossing St Kilda off the list until I've actually set boot on ground.

Pictures and Stories: 18th October 2014

A date for your diary.

Saturday 18th October 2014, 15:00, The Coach House, Quarry Road, Headington, Oxford OX3 8NU.

I'm going to be talking about, and showing, pictures from the far North and the far South.  If you want to hear about snow, ice and the northern lights, or puffins, penguins and polar bears do come and join me.

Chasing Icebergs in Greenland

Talking with Puffins on Shetland

Making Friends with Penguins in the Falkland Islands

Dining out in Svalbard

And there will be an opportunity to buy prints, cards and calendars.

For more information about 'Pictures and Stories' contact me on ross@northsouthimages.co.uk or follow me on twitter @northsouthimage

Tents and Cars

The acquisition of a new tent provoked me into digging out images of old tents - and it also turned out be an automative history lesson too.

First Tent. Summer 1966.

I'm claiming this as first tent - and I did spend a few nights sleeping in it mostly in the back garden or alongside my parents caravan.

Wouldn't claim it was very weather-proof - single layer of thin canvas, no ground sheet and wooden poles.  Was more often pressed into service for summer picnics - this particular picnic was somewhere in the Sperrin Mountains in Northern Ireland.

Lovely looking Hillman in the background - my parents first new car.

In case you're wondering, I'm the little chap in the Aran sweater with back to camera.





First Real Tent, Summer 1983

Spending too much time in the mountains as a student meant needing to find a little back-pack-ready tent.  I had (I think) a Pheonix Phantom - it's the brown tent on the right of the image. Storm proof synthetic fabric, proper inner tent, aluminium tube A-frame.

And in the background - somewhere in North Wales, I believe - an array of Ford Fiesta, Ford Capri, Morris Traveller and a Mini. I think I'd arrived in the Fiesta.

[UPDATE] And in breaking news - my brother has just confessed to still having the Phantom - hidden in the cupboard under his stairs.

Latest Tent, Summer 2014

Another generation of tent technology - and I've probably missed a few innovation cycles over the years too. The wee brown one was pretty weather proof, lets see how the new one (a Vango Tempest 300) does. Properly separated inner, curved tensioned poles, wind-proof inner tensioning.   It gets it's first outing in a couple of weeks.

Restocking

It's the time of year when I replenish the cards and calendars I have in the North South Images online shop.

I've just added a batch of new images from the Lofoten Islands and Shetland to the galleries, and also added new choices to the greetings cards section, and (in response to requests at Artweeks earlier in the year) I've also added a new selection of post cards too.

Do drop by and have a look.  northsouthimages.co.uk/catalog_cards.htm 

Oxford: Take Two

You might recall that back in January this year it was a little bit damp in much of south and central England.

At the time I took the opportunity to dodge the showers and take a few pictures of the flood waters around Oxford - some of these appeared in a blog entry at the time.

I thought it would be a good idea to revisit the viewpoints I'd found to see what they looked like when the water had receded.

It's taken me a while to get the chance to do this.

The January images are on the left, the July ones on the right in each pair below.

Oxford University Botanical Gardens

River Thames just below The Head of the River

Abingdon Road, Oxford

River Thames below Sandford Lock

Outside Annie's Tea Room at Thrupp

Bus Stop on the Botley Road, Oxford

Botley Road Allotments

Port Meadow

Port Meadow

North South Images Newsletter July 2014

The latest issue of the North South Images newsletter is now available.

This edition has images from visits to Shetland in March and June, and from a return visit to the Lofoten Islands in May.

I've been on Shetland in the spring numerous times and I know how changeable the weather there can be, ranging from thick mists to bright sunshine and from dead calm to storm-force winds. I was particularly pleased the puffins at Sumburgh Head were quite so cooperative, I hope their cooperation is rewarded by a fantastic breeding season.

Lofoten was a disappointment.  I had gone hoping for at least a glimpse of bleak Arctic weather, and a glimpse of bleak Arctic weather was all I got.

For almost all the time, the sun shone and winds were light.  It's not easy telling a story about the bleak north, when the pictures look more like the Caribbean (albeit without palm trees) than the Arctic.

The newsletter is available either on Slideshare or as a PDF file.

The previous newsletter (Feburary 2014) is also still available on Slideshare or as PDF

If you are interested in hearing more about people, places and wildlife in the far North or the far South, do get in touch.  I'm always happy to talk (and enthuse) about cold places in front of an audience.  ross@northsouthimages.co.uk

Transport Futures: Stornoway, Gateway to the North (and the Universe!)

Traditional Hebridean Air Transport - on the beach on Barra

I'm always intrigued at suggestions about how transport might evolve – particularly when it involves either the Western Isles or Shetland.

Scottish islands, at the moment, have pretty limited transport links. There are ferries bck to Scottish mainland and flights to one or two other destinations in addition to the mainland.  In Shetland’s case the ferries did offer more options until recently but there doesn't seem to be any changes on the cards at the moment, I've talked about this before on this blog,

This time I'm going to talk about how things might be in the future – particularly for Stornoway.

The climate changes in the Arctic are starting to make commercial shipping possible through the Northwest Passage (across Arctic Canada) and, particularly, the Northeast Passage (across Arctic Russia).  If shipping to and from the Far East is going to start making fuller use of the Arctic routes there will, it has been argued, be a need for a shipping gateway providing refuelling and maintenance services close to the route and also port facilities for consolidating and distributing cargo loads.  If there is a need for a gateway port in the North Atlantic, Stornoway might be very well placed to step into the role.

Stornoway Harbour - might be getting busier

I'm not yet convinced that mass shipping via the Arctic is going to happen in the near future. Even with the ice gone, the Arctic is still going to be challenging environment for regular shipping particularly for the bulk shipping companies where reliable delivery times are more important than the time that the shipping takes.

However, the other opportunity that might be around could see Stornoway become the gateway to an even more ambitious destination.

Stornoway is, apparently, on the short-list to be Britain’s first commercial spaceport.  The idea that Britain would have a spaceport would have been pretty fanciful a few years ago but if we are going to have one it might well make sense for this to be somewhere relatively remote from major population centres.

Sumburgh Airport, Shetland - when the runway was
extended it needed to cross the main road.

I'm not sure what criteria are going to be used to decide where the spaceport is going to be, but at least Stornoway does have a decent length runway to start with although they might need to adopt the Shetland model of putting in a runway-crossing if they want to make the runway much longer.

Shetland might be able to make claim to host a shipping gateway, but I'm pretty sure that the runways at Sumburgh would be a challenge for incoming space shuttles.

Shetland June 2014

Late June is a fabulous time to visit Shetland.

Late evening light on Quendale Bay

It generally doesn't bother getting dark. The islands aren't quite far enough north to see the midnight sun, but since the sun only just dips below the horizon somewhere north-of-northwest, and soon afterwards reappears somewhere north-of-northeast it really doesn't get properly dark. This is tough if you were hoping to see the Northern Lights (best come back in winter, when it does get really dark), but fabulous otherwise. The locals refer to the light that persists at this time of year as the Simmer Dim, and on the 21st June (which is also Shetland's flag day) it has been known to have a party or two.

Looking to sea on St Ninian's Isle

In late June, the verges and hillsides are covered with wild flowers and the sea cliffs and headlands are overcrowded with sea birds.  The puffins always put in an appearance, but they aren't the only attraction. The cliffs are also busy with guillemots, razorbills, fulmar and kittiwakes, and in a few places you'll find black guillemots too. Elsewhere there are also oystercatchers doing their best to ensure that you notice them (by flying past peeping enthusiastically).  The terns and the great skuas (the tirricks and the bonxies, locally) will do more than peep if you get too close to where they think you shouldn't be - and will draw blood on occasion. Yours not theirs.

One of many puffins (amongst the sea pinks) at Sumburgh Head

Arctic tern in the evening light

Black guillemot

In fact, I guess (tirricks and bonxies aside) the only real problem with being of Shetland at this time of year are the crowds.

Crowds on the beach, St Ninian's Isle

Sometimes you even have to share the beach with someone else.

If you want a few more puffin pictures from the most recent visit to Shetland - there is a selection on Flickr.

And if you really want more puffin pictures, and other pictures too, there is now a selection available for sale on my new online shop on Etsy, as were as on my North South Images website.

Anger at Sea

I got angry on the Northlink Ferry last week.

No, I'm not one of returning oil workers that made the media around Shetland.

All I’d had to drink was a bottle of sparkling water.

We had passed south down Bressay Sound, on down the Shetland coast, and had just reached the point where the ship starts to slide out of the shelter of Sumburgh Head at the south tip of Shetland. At this point the waters of the North Sea and the North Atlantic mix in what the locals call Da Noost. The white caps appear and as I stared out of the windows at the stern of the MV Hjaltland all I could think of were the whales that should be in the waters around Shetland.

Shetland Minke Whale - one of the survivors?

Many years ago huge pods of whales frequented these coasts – from pilot (or Caain’ ) whales which were driven into the bays for 'harvesting' through to the bigger Right whales which were hunted from small boats when they ventured too close to land. Later, industrial whaling was introduced from Norway and new hunting technologies and specialised whale catcher boats were used to bring ashore thousands of (mostly) Fin whales at rendering stations in Ronas Voe, Collafirth and Olna Voe.  This hunting continued until there were no more whales to catch.

Having cleaned out the Shetland waters the operations moved elsewhere first to other sites in the North Atlantic, then later to the South Atlantic in every case operating until there weren't any whales left to catch.   This frantic, obsessive behaviour was driven by industries that had developed around whale products. There was never any consideration given to what happens next.

So what did happen next?

Once there was no more whale oil did the world end? No of course it didn't. The obsession just changed to black oil. And the same thing is happening again.

Arctic Oil?

We killed all the whales we could find to just stretch the era of whale oil out for a few more months, and did our very best to ensure that the whales were pushed to extinction. We’re now scrabbling around to stretch the last few years of the black oil era. We’re drilling in high risk areas like the Arctic, planning to frack in places where we just shouldn't.

Just as we were able to move on from whale oil, we’re well capable to moving on from black oil. We can choose not to, but all we’re doing is stretching out the point when we have no choice. And the consequence of delaying the decision?  We’re almost certainly going to trash the Arctic at some point and we’re almost certainly going to cause massive pollution or worse by fracking.

I think I'm entitled to feel angry.

59 53½

It was almost 1500 days ago.

We’d been house-hunting around Shetland but hadn’t found the right place, and our time had run out.  The first of our tour party were due to arrive, so we drove south down the A970 from Lerwick to the airport. Then we discovered that someone can’t read flight timetables. We never really got to the bottom of who can’t read timetables.

In any case, we’d arrived at the airport at 17:20 to meet a flight that arrived at 7:20pm. There isn’t much to do at Sumburgh Airport on a Friday evening so we started browsing (on a very dodgy mobile phone connection) houses around the south end of Shetland.

“There’s one just a few minutes away. Can we be bothered to look at another one? Doesn’t look very interesting?”

“Why not? What else are we going to do for the next couple of hours?”

We found the place easily enough. It was built to be convenient for the airport. Built by the Civil Aviation Authority when they expanded the airport, and needed houses for airport staff that weren’t 25 miles away.

We peered in through the windows. “Might be a bit dark.”

We went round the back. “Has a pretty good view.”

We peered in through more windows. “Looks like it’s just been redecorated.”

We peered in through even more windows. “Do you like it?”

Hesitantly. “Yes. It’s worth having a look inside”.

That was our first look at our Shetland house. At 59 53½ North. We moved in just over 1400 days ago.

Lofoten Islands, May 2014

My first visit to the Lofoten Islands was in February 2012. That visit was dominated by snow.

Svolvær , February 2012

There had been some snow before I got there, but as I arrived the snow started falling seriously.  The upshot was that I didn’t get to see too much of Lofoten. The tops of the mountains were mostly covered in cloud, and the roads were entertaining to drive on. I did, however, see just enough of the mountain tops, and just enough of the villages near Svolvær to ensure that the Lofoten Islands stayed firmly on my must-visit list.

This time I arrived in Lofoten, after crossing the Vestfjord from Bodø, in bright sunshine.   My plan (assuming typical island weather) had been to hire a car to provide both transport and shelter.  The weather that appeared meant that the only shelter I really needed was a sun-hat, so I reverted to a boot-and-bus travel plan.

Rorbu on Svinoya

My first base in Lofoten was Svolvær, the biggest town in the islands. This doesn't make it a metropolis but does mean a choice of places to stay, and a choice of places to eat.  Svolvær doesn't have the charms of some of the villages further down the coast, but it does have the administration, communication and industrial facilities that are needed to make life in a remote group of islands in the Arctic possible. It also has a fantastic setting that will set the heart-beat of any would-be mountaineer soaring.  For other tourists there is the draw of fjord safaris, looking for whales and white-tailed eagles, and the island of Svinoya linked by bridge on the other side of the harbour.

Fish drying racks (hjell) on Svinoya

Svinoya is covered with red-painted rorbu, and huge numbers of triangular hjell (mirroring the shape of the mountains) used for drying cod each winter to transform it into stockfish.

In the evening, there is also a museum in Svolvær, telling the story of the Second World War in the Lofoten Islands. It's a very busy, and fascinating, little museum. And why in the evening? Lots of towns along the Norwegian coast base their activities around the Hurtigruten ship timetable, Svolvær is no exception. Both the north-bound and south-bound ships call in the evening and for 3 or 4 hours the town is filled with Goretex-clad visitors eager to visit anything that's open.

Lofoten Cathedral, Kabelvåg 

Just south of Svolvær are the villages of Kabelvåg and Henningsvær.  Kabelvåg known for its unique island cathedral and for a pair of museums, the Lofoten Museum telling the story of the islands themselves, and the Lofoten Aquarium telling the story of the waters around the islands.

Harbour, Henningsvær 

Henningsvær sits a little further along the coast, on a little group of islands linked to the 'mainland' by high arching bridges. Henningsvær fits a lot of the Lofoten stereotypes.  A collection of mostly red-painted wooden houses around a harbour filled with boats, with snow capped mountains behind, and racks of drying fish on almost every available piece of ground.

Henningsvær 

The one piece of ground exempted from fish drying around Henningsvær, is the football field, and it’s surrounded by fish racks rather than terraces for the supporters.

Tunnelsyn, Skrova

A few miles across the Vestfjord from Svolvær is the island of Skrova. This little islands claim to fame is as home to one of few remaining whaling boats still active along this bit of coast. The island is, like many around Lofoten, reliant on catching and processing fish. I did see the whale boat when I was visiting, and was relieved not to see it at work.  The history of Skrova is told through the eyes, or more correctly the lenses, of local photographers in a wonderful exhibition called Tunnelsyn - Tunnel Vision - which really is in a (mostly unused) tunnel. It's a long time since I was encouraged to wear a hard hat to look at photographs.

Å i Lofoten

My southern base in the Lofoten islands was the little village of Å (or Å i Lofoten, if you want be sure not to mix it up with other places called Å).  This really is a small place. Especially out of season. There is somewhere to stay, the youth hostel. And if you’re prepared to walk the 3 km to the next village, Sørvågen, there is somewhere to eat. So why would you come to Å? You might come to visit the world’s only Stockfish Museum. You might come to visit the Fishing Museum. But for most people they come simply because it’s the end of the road.

The E10 starts at on Baltic Coast in Sweden in the town of Luleå, winds across northern Sweden and then into Norway where it comes King Olav V’s Road (as well as the E10).  From the Norwegian border the road heads to Narvik before crossing the Tjeldsund Bridge and onto the Lofoten Islands. A network of tunnels and bridges carry the road through the islands to a final tunnel just outside Å, which provides a dramatically situated car park and turning circle.  South of that are a few faint footpaths (not all suitable for the faint-hearted) up into the mountains but otherwise no way further south other than by boat.

Beyond the Road, Å i Lofoten 

Back up the road are a series of implausibly picturesque villages – at least they are when they are bathed in sunshine under blue skies and backed by snow-capped mountains.

Sørvågen boasts supermarkets, an excellent little restaurant and a telecommunications museum (at some times of the year).  This unlikely museum is a nod to Norway, Lofoten and particularly Sørvågen’s place in telegraphic history. In 1903, just four years after Marconi demonstrated wireless communciations, there were large scale experiments going on Sørvågen providing communications to the outlying Lofoten Islands.

Reinefjord

Both Moskenes and Reine have been built around natural harbours. Moskenes has a seasonal tourist office, a single restaurant and ferry connections to the Norwegian mainland, and Reine on its own little peninsula at the mouth of the Reinefjord.  There are several isolated hamlets around Reinefjord, and the best (maybe only) way to see these and to explore the fjord is to hop on the little ferry that goes around the fjord two or three times each day delivering hikers, shopping and post as it goes. If you’re lucky you’ll also get a good look at the resident pod of orca that live in and around the fjord.

My second visit to Lofoten really did confirm my initial impression that this is a special place. The dramatic mix of mountains and fjords, of villages and harbours, combined with the clear, crisp air that gives the light a special quality makes Lofoten a wonderful place for photography.  I'm certainly going to be back again.  I've explored a few of the towns and villages but there are many more to explore.

I do think I'm going to need to do a little bit of personal expectations management about the weather ahead of my next trip.  The odds on getting another couple of weeks to match the two I've just had must be pretty long.

My photo diary for the trip (on Blipfoto) starts on 3rd May when I arrived in Svolvær, and there is a selection of images from trip on Flickr too.

If you want to revisit my earlier trip which had more snow and more aurora but much less sunshine is elsewhere on Flickr.

Thank You

This was the first year I've taken part in Oxford Artweeks.

In past years I've visited (and shopped) at various Artweeks exhibitions, but this was the first time I've hung my own pictures up in Headington and invited folks in to see what I've been doing.

I've thoroughly enjoyed the experience, I've had lots of people dropping in to look at the pictures and to talk about both travel and photography.  I've enjoyed hearing about other folks travel experiences to remote places (and some not so remote ones), and talking with them about where I've been. So, thank you to everyone who came along to look and particularly those who spread the word and encouraged others to visit.

I think the Outdoor Gallery was successful.  It gave me somewhere to hang bigger pictures than I'd have been able to show inside, and it certainly did lure in people, who might not have otherwise come in, to have a closer look.  It also provided a great place for push-chair visitors.

I'll be taking part in the pre-Christmas version of Artweeks on the weekend of 22nd & 23rd November, and I'll have more cards, calendars and other Christmas gifts on sale.

I'm still trying to decide if an outside gallery is a good idea in late November - I might need to sort out a suitable patio heater to lure folks in at that time of year.

Norway. There's an App for That.

My Norway App collection

In the distant past the 'must-have' list for a trip would be just credit cards and passport. On the basis that, in most places, the passport got you in and the credit card enabled you to acquire the other stuff you'd forgotten. In reality the list was always longer and did include at least include a camera or two.

Recently it's become more essential to add my phone to the 'must-have' list. This was particularly true on my recent trip to northern Norway - which was pretty much entirely managed via a collection of apps on my phone.

Pre-trip planning would certainly have been simplified using the Norway app from Visit Norway, if you want suggestions about where to go and when, and where to stay and what to do when you get there it's all in the app.

On this particular trip my flights with Norwegian between the UK and Norway were booked on their website, but after that all the check-in, boarding etc was done without a bit of paper being needed at any point. Actually that's not completely true. The automated bag drop does leave you with a small bit of sticky paper as a receipt. In the days of paper tickets and a person to sort out the baggage, this little of paper was stuck to the back of the boarding pass. I'm not sure where they think you might stick the bit of paper these days.

NSB to Bodo

Once I was in Norway my long distance travel was via NSB, the Norwegian rail operator. And again, although I'd booked the tickets via their website, I never actually needed a paper ticket.  The 'ticket' just got picked up in the NSB app, and the conductor was able to check that the ticket was valid by just ensuring that the right image appeared on the phone screen.

The Norwegian app and the NSB app got me from the UK to northern Norway (in my case to Bodo, where the main NSB service comes to an end) without needing any paper.

At this point, since I was doing the trip around the Lofoten Islands entirely on public transport I switched to the wonderful 177Nordland app. I've no idea why the number 177 is involved, but the app knows where you are and if you tell it where (in Nordland) you want to go, it'll figure out the walking, bus and ferry stages involved and help you to ensure that you get to the right place at the right time.  Once you're on the bus or ferry you do need to look up from the app to get your ticket.  You can pay by cash but in most circumstances it's easy (and expected) to pay by credit card.

Nordland to A

While I was in Norway, almost all of my hotel accommodation for this trip was booked through Booking.com. And their app provided all the information I needed to find, or communicate with, my hotel before I got there.

I did use two other apps regularly on the trip, one from Hurtigruten so I could figure out which of their many boats I could see passing as they shuttle up and down the Norwegian coast, and the xe.com app to keep track of the money I was spending (although with an exchange rate so close to 10 Krone to the pound, conversion is hardly a major mathematical challenge).

The final app in my 'Norway' set is the NorwayLights app, also from Visit Norway.  In the dark months this gives you an aurora forecast for where you are. In early May, northern norway is already getting at least 20 hours of daylight and no real darkness so the aurora isn't going to be visible. But I'm keeping the app ready for my next dark months trip to Norway.

My must-have list is now three items, phone, credit card and passport.  I suspect the credit card will eventually be absorbed into the phone, and maybe one day there will even be a Passport app too, and then I can do everything on the phone. 

I guess at that point the must-have list becomes just two items. The phone and the charger.