Kvalvika: Taking a Dip Above the Arctic Circle

Chris Veldhuis
Dec 16, 2012
2 min read

What A beautiful sight! We had been walking through fog for two days, knowing that we were missing all kinds of grandiose landscapes. When we had arrived on the camping, the evening before, we could smell the sea and heard gulls screeching over our heads. From the worn-out pictures at the reception we understood that this was supposed to be a beautiful campsite, situated directly at a small beach. When we arrived, however, it was nothing but a dull grassy plot with a public bathroom. It could have been a Dutch polder. Then, after another annoying morning in the mist, we finally emerged and entered a sun-drenched beach. Towards the mountains, a long stretch of grass had been neatly cut by an army of sheep. On the right hand fresh water fell from a sheer cliff. Kvalvika is a sanctuary protected by a great wall of rugged mountains, even holding back the mists

I immediately got rid of my clothes and heavy shoes and ran naked towards the water for a quick dive. Once refreshed my pals and I went looking for dry pieces of driftwood to start up a nice fire. After sunset it would be cold again and we wanted to dry our clothes, which were drenched with rain. The wood was not dry enough and we ended up using sheep droppings as fuel. With this we started up a small fire. We managed to keep it going until midnight.

By accident we found a little hut on the beach. Turned out to be the hut from North of the Sun, a movie by two surfers spending the winter there. They had used driftwood and just about everything they could find on the beach. It was wonderful craftsmanship. There was a bunk, a bookcase and even a little kitchen, complete with tap and sink.

After we set up our tents we enjoyed a nice instant dinner and some coffee from the percolator. Vincent, our photographer, went wild as the sun set quicker than he had anticipated and ran around to get some good pictures. That night I took out my sleeping bag and laid down in the sand near the smothering fire. I waited for the northern lights, for it was the first truly clear night.