Jan Mayen

Briel­letår­net and Hau­gen­stran­da: The wide beach Hau­gen­stran­da is stretch­ing for about 4 kilo­me­tres on the north side of Jan Mayen, a wide-open land­scape of black vol­canic sand and large amounts of drift­wood. The open land­scape, the eter­nal thun­der of the waves against the shore, the dis­tant view towards Beeren­berg in the north­east and the coastal stack Briel­letår­net near­by in the south­west alto­geth­er make for an impres­sive land­scape experience.

Now we are stand­ing on a lit­tle right that con­nects the moun­tain Kval­rossen (“the wal­rus”) with the coastal stack Briel­letår­net. Briel­letår­net is about 91 metres high and got its name (“Brielle-tow­er”) from 17th cen­tu­ry Dutch whalers as it is sup­posed to be sim­i­lar to the Catharine-tow­er in Brielle, a town in the Dutch province South Hol­land. In good weath­er, we have got the view to the peak of Beeren­berg in a dis­tance of 22 kilo­me­tres and fas­ci­nat­ing rock for­ma­tions and colours nearby.

A steep descent is lead­ing down into a lit­tle name­less bay between Briel­letår­net and Kval­rossen. Sev­er­al small­er rock stacks are stand­ing here, mod­elled out of the vol­canic rocks by the heavy surf dur­ing vio­lent storms, which are not rare around Jan Mayen. The view to the sky, blue just for the dif­fer­ence, from a posi­tion between these stacks is amaz­ing and, pho­tographed with a wide-angle lense, a beau­ti­ful pho­to, even though the unbi­ased behold­er may not imme­di­ate­ly think of Jan Mayen when look­ing at it at the first glance.

Rock stacks at Briel­letår­net on Jan Mayen, pho­tographed ver­ti­cal­ly upwards with a wide angle lense.

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