In the Norwegian summer it seems that apart from humans you're guaranteed to see either sheep or clouds of buzzing flying insects. There are also sea birds aplenty and maybe the odd whale or seal poking its head out of the water. What I definitely didn't expect to see this far up north was a pair of camels. The farm on the other side of the small cove maybe wanted something more interesting than a horse to ride, so they acquired a pair of Bactrian camels (2 humps) from a Swedish breeder and have entered some sort of partnership to fly in a few Mongolian trainers to train up the pair. (find them on Instagram!)The details are hazy, but I guess it's not impossible for camels to live out comfortable lives in northern Norway - conditions on the steppes of Mongolia/central Asia are probably pretty freezing for part of the year anyway. The female is also currently with child so she's allowed a bit more freedom to roam the beach and surrounding hills.
I walked over for a closer look, and the two of them were pretty spaced out and curious enough to come up for a nuzzle. It's a shame I won't be here to see baby camels sprinting wildly around the beach in Spring. Later I climbed further up into the hills past their farm for a better look of Akkarfjord and our little house down below. I spent some time hurling rocks into the lake (full of midges) trying to get a nice photogenic shot of ripples breaking up the clear blue reflection. It would have been a lot more peaceful up there were it not for the swarms of mosquitoes, flies and midges that swarm your body if you stand still for more than a few seconds.