Spawning (1924)

We're inside the Arctic Circle now.

Pilot

Pillion; astride the circumference

It surprisingly mild - though we've experienced how quickly and dramatically the temperature changes with each new weather front. Still, we'll be at Nordkapp and travelling south within the week, so we should escape the worst weather the region has to offer.

We're at a small town called Jockfall. It's situated on a river (the Kalix) at the point of a waterfall. The camp site we're staying at (in a fairly rustic cabin) is mostly frequented by fly-fishermen. The river is a salmon spawning route and the falls are climbed by fish making their way from the sea - 130k downstream - back to their place of their origin to produce their own offspring and repeat the cycle. It's quite captivating.

View from camp-site cafe bar

The locals, though some are keen fishermen, accept custodianship of the salmon and have built a 'salmon ladder' at the far side of the falls as seen from his photo, to encourage the salmon to their spawning grounds.

Salmon ladder

There is no night-time darkness here as we would recognise it and the mosquitoes roam in armed gangs, carry weapons and have tattoos.

Do check 'Noonpics', the daily trip photo. See the link on the navigation bar below the blog title (select Web View on smartphones.)