A classic Norwegian fishing port, tucked away on Austvagoya in the Lofoten Islands is Svolvaer. It is surrounded by peaks and beaches, bays and craggy inlets, an age-old picture, a jumble of white and red clapboard houses, the clear water filled with little, and bobbing boats.
Popular with mountain climbers, the town’s mountain Floya commands a spectacular viewpoint across the harbour and Vestfjord. Trollfjorden doesn’t come more startling than this – a 100 m-wide entrance to a narrow fjord with near-vertical mountainous sides up to 1,100 m high.
The passage slices through Austvagoya, on the edge of the Lofoten Islands, and there’s no way in, other than by boat or a dizzying hike. You can appreciate the silence while you cruise gently onward as white-tailed eagles soar overhead – and marvel as the ship slowly spins around to leave.
