On the largely sunny day that we saw the legendary Torghatten and its famous hole (Photo-essay)

"Now we'll see more sun!" proclaimed Anna, the MS Richard With's lively tour manager, after the ship crossed the Arctic Circle and left the Arctic region on the southbound section of its coastal voyage.  And while we still did have rainy periods and cold temperatures made even more frigid feeling as a result of the strong winds that kept on blowing, it's true enough that we saw quite a bit more sunshine the day that we passed by the island of Vikingen and its Arctic Circle monument.  

Unfortunately, the weather still didn't fully cooperate to enable us to see the tops of the famous Seven Sisters mountain range when we passed by them in the early afternoon.  More fortuitously though, we were indeed able to see the natural phenomena identified in the ship's program notes as the (visual) highlight of the day: Torghatten, the hat-shaped mountain and its hole which supposedly was the result of an arrow going through it.  So went a Norwegian legend recounted in a short video shown  shortly before we sailed around -- not just past -- the granite mountain on Torget Island! ;b

Well, hello there beautifully bright blue skies! 

Steaming away from Nesna, an old trading post with still 

just 1,000 inhabitants that the ship only briefly stopped at

Like in gray Trondheim the previous Sunday, there weren't

many people out on the main streets of Brønnøysund

despite the weather being quite a bit nicer that day!

Puppet Ponyo says: "Prepare yourself to be bowled over

by nature's grandeur and beauty!"

 Behold the granite behemoth that is Torghatten!

 "What's the big deal about the hole?" I hear you ask

Now, then, ain't that a cool sight? ;b

And as a bonus, it was also nice to see the sunlight

create silvery reflections on the water :)