Though small, with a population of around 55,000, Bodø will be a European Capital of Culture next year, focusing its activities on the nature and raw elements that surround it. The sense of community here is strong, from the bustling restaurants and bars to the serene atmosphere you feel when walking around Bodø. “Many people come back so their children can have the same experiences we did,” she tells me. I am joined by Julie Abelsen from the tourist office, who – along with Sjobu – grew up in Bodø, lived and studied elsewhere and then returned to settle down. A new, parallel hiking route to the top of the cliff has so far proved particularly popular. “Not many people make the climb,” instructor Svein Inge Sjobu tells me when we reach the second stop and clip our harness to the mountain and hang to admire the clear water of Vestfjord below. The Saltstraumen Maelstrom is one of Norway's more unusual natural occurrences, which is guaranteed to occur four times every 24 hours.Travel Europe's answer to New Zealand offers crowd-free wilderness without the costly flight Read More At the 3km-long, 150m-wide Saltstraumen Strait, the tides cause one fjord to drain into another, creating the equivalent of a maelstrom at sea.
The result is a churning, 20-knot watery chaos that shifts over 400 million cu metres of water one way, then the other, every six hours.
#Maelstrom norway series
This maelstrom, claimed to be the world's largest, is actually a kinetic series of smaller whirlpools that form, surge, coalesce, then disperse, and it's an ideal environment for plankton, which in turn attract an abundance of fish and therefore anglers.īeing there at the right time involves careful planning. Whirlpools of the maelstrom of Saltstraumen, Nordland, Norway. In spring, you can also see the squawking colonies of gulls that nest on the midstream island of Storholmen.Īt its best – which is most of the time – it's an exhilarating spectacle.
The maelstrom off Norway, as illustrated by Olaus Magnus on the Carta Marina, 1539. Photo about current, norway, fjord, environment, blue, flow, norwegian, northern, hole. One of the first scientific descriptions of Moskstraumen was presented by the Norwegian priest and national poet Petter Dass in his poem Nordlands Trompet which included a versified topographical description of northern Norway. Should you be unlucky enough to hit an off day, it may recall little more than the water swirling around your bath plug. They call it the Lofoten Wall, this island chain that seems to rise up sheer and black out of the Norwegian Sea, frosted with white in winter, emerald green. The experience is more immediate from the shoreline, but for the best views, stand on the arching Saltstraumbrua bridge, overlooking the strait, and watch as the waters swirl like nebulae.Īs a general rule, when the tide is coming in from the west, the best views are on the east side of the bridge. When the tide's going out, they're on the west side. Arrive early enough to visit the visitor centre and check which way things are going. Pick up a tide table in advance from the tourist office in Bodø or elsewhere, or your hotel none are on display at the site itself.
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