#sommaroy

Travel often.

Another for the bucket list! 🤙✌️

Met a very special hiker.

Let's start the photo series about Norway with something positive. Met a cat in Sommaroy, mid-way up the mountain. I have so many questions!

- Is it normal for cats to go so far from home?

- Do they really follow the route? (The one I saw was following the track signs)

- How high in the mountains do home cats go?

It's midnight in Sommaroy, but the sun is still shining on this Norwegian island. The clock strikes 12, but the island's residents are playing, working, fishing and socializing. Nighttime commands sleep, but Sommaroy doesn't want to listen.

If the 350 residents of Sommaroy get their way, the clocks will stop ticking and the alarms will cease their noise. A campaign to do away with timekeeping on the island has gained momentum as Norway's parliament considers the island's petition.

"Why do we need time and clocks when there is no night?" reads the campaign's Facebook page. During a 70-day period leading up to and following the summer solstice, from May 18 to July 26, darkness never falls across the sky.

"There's always less wind at night here, perfect to paint the garage. Fishermen are out half the night, after all. If we get tired, we're fit to go after a nap on the sofa. Why don't we just sign out of time, throw away all the clocks and forget about them? Life would be so much easier," the Facebook post continues.

Kjell Ove Hveding spearheaded the No Time campaign and presented his petition to a member of parliament on June 13. During the endless summer days, islanders meet up at all hours and the conventions of time are meaningless, Hveding says.

He wants to formally eradicate time and boost residents' flexibility.

"When people in the government of Norway are talking about wintertime and summertime and moving the clock, we have a good laugh up here," Hveding says.

Sommaroy's main income comes from tourism and fishing. Becoming the world's first time-free zone would certainly provide a boon to the island's tourism allure.

Currently, when visitors cross the bridge into Sommaroy, they see a railing covered in wristwatches. The island is sending a clear message to tourists as it petitions to make "time a thing of the past."

Unburdened by darkness, Sommaroy has adapted to create new social conventions.

"Now, we make signs for every house in the village," Hveding says. "Whenever you put out the sign, all people who see the sign can knock on your door and say, 'I see the sign. I know that we are most welcome.' And that is the way of living, and we love it."

Because Sommaroy spends November to January in darkness, residents sleep less in the summer and want to spend their newfound daylight time accordingly.

"We want to spend more time just being alive," said Hveding on behalf of the island's residents.

Still, Hveding acknowledges that Sommaroy's situation is unique.

I've just come back from my vacation in Finland and Norway and had not only a few sunny days but also two days of amazing Northern Lights. I've never seen them before and - fun fact - I can't see them in color in the sky, only on the camera display and on the computer. I saw them in white instead but that was jaw dropping enough because they sure danced above our heads. I wore the Loki costum on two days, once on a camping ground close to Koskepää in Finland, our first stop after Helsinki, and then in Sommaroy, close to Tromsø in Norway. Have fun with the photos from my first two Loki photoshoots! :)

(I bought the clothing but made the props - Gungnir, the dagger, the pauldron and the vambraces - myself and applied the made-up)

The light reflexes on the aurora photo are not (!) edited, they were already on the original photo. I just made some artificial light dots disappear and edited the contrast.