The Svartisen Glacier

Before getting to Svartisen, another experience - minutes after leaving the Hurtigruten ship, bound for The Svartisen Glacier, the boat came close to an island just East of Grønøy where a sea eagle was spotted in a tree some 20 meters away. Norway has a large population of sea eagles, especially in the Bodø region, but here just North of the Arctic Circle was one too.

The Svartisen Glacier is Norway's second largest glacier - the largest one being The Jostedals Glacier. Svartisen is just North of the Arctic Circle at 66 degrees 42 minutes North.

There is some controversy as to why Svartisen is called just that - the black ice. It's not particularly black, rather a shade of blue. The more snow is compressed, the darker it gets - first a light blue, and then darker and darker shades of blue. In Greenland in comparison, black ice is a description used for ice without any air bubbles in it at all, like the ice you use as icecubes. When that gets into water and you sail close to it, it looks like a black area in the water. Here the ice is a darker blue than the lighter compressed snow with lots of air bubbles.

The Svarisen Glacier used to reach all the way down to the sea, but today with the continuously warmer climate, it is retreating further and further up the slope.

When you go on the Svartisen excursion on the Northbound Hurtigruten ships, you are sailed to a bay close by, and either walk the 15 minutes yourself or are driven by minibus to the visitors center across the lake from The Svartisen Glacier.

You should resist the urge to stay in the visitors center all the time during the stay and take a walk along the shore Eastwards at least part of the time. Included in the excursion price is coffee and cake at the visitors center, and the selection of cakes is large and very tasty. But keep your focus - you came to see the glacier?

You won't have time to walk around the lake all the way to the glacier, but a decent telelens and binoculars will get you very close.

After the visit to Svartisen you get on a bus after another short sail, and you get to Saltstraumen and then back on board at Bodø.