Chasing the Midnight sun in Norway

Squinting up at the sky, I’m blinded by the sun. As the waves lap against the hull of my ship I’m reminded of C.S. Lewis’s 1952 novel The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

The eponymous ship sails into an otherworldly ocean – the Last Sea – where the king crabs in Nordkapp – one of sun seems three times its normal size, making the passengers feel like Svalbard – as well as a husky in woods they’ve “sailed beyond the world”.

While the Dawn Treader sailed Lofoten Islands, I cruise north of the Scottish Isles to the northern tip of Norway. Yet the author’s fantasy feels apt for my midsummer journey aboard
Viking Mars as I slip into a new world of islands and cliffs, remote villages, ancient stones and white beaches set beneath that huge, never-setting sun.

In Orkney, the main attraction is the Ring of Brodgar, a mystical stone circle that predates the Vikings – and the Scots – by 40 centuries or so. On West Burra in the Shetlands, I stroll
along a beach with a Shetland pony.

My fellow passengers and I encounter king crabs in Nordkapp – one of Norway’s last outposts before Svalbard – as well as a husky in woods near Tromsø and sea eagles in the
Lofoten Islands.

We end on a musical note, in a living room in Bergen, where an operatic tenor takes us on
a tour of Norwegian music.

These sea lanes were at their busiest between 780 and 1472, as the Scandinavians launched longboats south and the Picts and Scots settled on the Scottish coast and in the Highlands. As we learn from onboard lectures, this was a time of dynamic trade – in ideas, beliefs and goods – with plenty of raiding too.

I live in Scotland and have been to Norway many times, but I felt humbled by this voyage: like I’d not experienced these lands properly until now – by sea.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’s characters drink buckets of water from the Last Sea and the elixir helps them cope with the eternal sunlight. I don’t recommend supping buckets of North Sea though – a drink from the bar will suffice.