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This morning we had a leisurely breakfast and tried to decide what to do. We took the advice of the hotel receptionist and crossed back over Sortland bridge and took the National Tourist Route to the island of Andoya, which is 300km inside the Arctic Circle, and the small town of Andenes. The National Tourist Route in Andoya runs between the open, bare outer coastline, the grass covered plains, pointed mountain peaks and the flat cloudberry marshes further south. Only Bleik Island’s nearly perfect cone-like form breaks the endless horizon which stretches all the way to Greenland. The beach at Bleik is Norway’s longest and fills the shoes with fine, white coral sand whilst ‘Bukkekirka’ creates a group of sculptured rocks. The houses in the fishing village of Bleik (many of them old nordland houses) are built close together while further south they are built in a line looking out on to the beach. It was raining and the dark clouds sat heavily on the mountain tops as we travelled along the rugged west coast. Eventually, the rain eased off and we even saw a glimmer of sunshine. The rest of the day stayed reasonably dry so that meant the camera had an outing too. Along the way a small group of young deer crossed the road in front of us and when we arrived in Andenes, we saw a sea eagle sitting on a rock. At nearby Bleik there are whale watching trips and you can take a bird safari to visit the 80,000 puffins in the summer season which this is not. On our return, we decided that a walk around Sortland was in order so we set off in earnest. Unfortunately, our earnest didn't last very long as, despite being known as the 'blue city' due to the colour of many of the buildings, Sortland is not the most captivating of places. However, it gives us a good base from which to visit other places.
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