Day 122. Mehamn rest and weather day
Posted by: James on May 2, 2009Distance 0km | Time 0hrs | Ascent 0m | Descent 0m
I got up at 0700. The usually reliable weather forecast was wrong and it was pouring rain. The temperature was probably around plus 5. It did not entice me onto the cycle at all. I went back to bed and when I re-emerged at 0900 it had not changed.
It was however completely windstill. It would have been a great day for kayaking, but not cycling. Despite the fact I had done all I needed to do in Mehamn it looked liked I would have to spent another day here, as cycling over the two 350 metre plateaus between here and Bekkarfjord or Ifjord would not be fun.
Besides I had not had a day for ages where I had nothing to do. It would give me a chance to relax completely. Having said that I still had to find an address in Kirkenes and phone Ovind in Oslo to pack up and send various items to this same address.
After lunch I went for a wander around the town. It was essentially a fishing town with plenty of trawlers and fishing boats. The smaller boats would go out for a day or two and fish in the coastal waters while the larger boats would go out for a week or two. There were plenty of fish processing plants in the town.
It had a population of around 1000 people, so it was not a large town. It was mostly concentrated around the harbour. The youth hostel was sited opposite the town on a peninsula.
One of the usual products of the fish processing here was stockfish or dried cod. The fishing boats would bring in large amounts of cod. Much of this cod had the head and digestive system removed. Then the tails of two cod are tied together and they are hung up over a round log, some 20 brace along one log. There are then about 300 of these logs in a row and about 10 rows to one drying rack. Mehamn had two of these huge areas laid out in drying racks with about quarter of a million fish drying.
These fish would dry under nets to protect them from seagulls. After a month or two of drying these cod were ready to be exported to Spain, especially Galacia, where they are made into a revered Spanish dish called bacaloa.
By midday the rain had turned to drizzle, and by mid afternoon it had stopped. It was too late however to leave. I managed to scrape together some bike tools from Vidar’s workshop including a old puncture repair kit.
I spent the rest of the day snoozing and with a bit of writing. After a simple supper I allowed myself to watch some time-killing television.
It was not a well spent day, perhaps a wasted one even. I would leave tomorrow whatever the weather.