Watch the sun skim the sea at one in the morning

Uttakleiv is a beach of pale sand on the north side of Lofoten, with nothing between it and the open sea. For a few weeks at the start of summer the sun does not go below the horizon here at all. It comes down toward the water, slides along the edge of it for a while, and starts climbing again.

The night starts with dinner together on Vestvågøy and a bag of warm layers. At about eleven the minibus heads north to the beach, about twenty minutes away, with hot drinks on board.

The sun is at its lowest at about ten past one. Nobody can decide whether it is very late or very early, and the group is back in bed at about two. Cloud is the one thing nobody controls on this coast, which is why the trip spends a second night out by the sea, on the water.

Visit Lofoten gives Uttakleiv the midnight sun from 25 May to 18 July. The low point comes after one rather than at midnight because of summer time: on Central European Time, solar midnight on this beach falls at about five past twelve.