Day 183. Buvag to Holkstad
Posted by: James on July 2, 2009Distance 41km | Time 9.5hrs | Ascent 0m | Descent 0m
I woke quite early at about 0500 as I expected the two Swedish girls to paddle past and drop in around 0700 as they tried to do yesterday. So I was ready to paddle with them when they arrived. It was an overcast but still morning with mist lingering on all the peaks.
When the girls did not show I phoned them. They had just gone past a half hour previously and could not see me. We arranged to meet for lunch at a place they would stop. I set off paddling around 0730.
It was an easy paddle on the still sea, but much of the scenery was obscured still by the low cloud, however it was lifting fast and the sun was breaking through in places. Here and there a mountain ridge on this wild west side of Hamaroy would break free of the mist.
Hamaroy is where one of Norway’s best known writers, Knut Hamsun, grew up and the wild landscape here must have influenced his psyche. The mountains here were high and steep and were covered in a thick birch forest which made them look like a tropical jungle. There were only a few beaches on this dramatic and, apart from Buvag, uninhabited west side of the island.
I had to wait for a ferry to go past before I crossed the short Okssundet to the island of Lundoya. There were a few puffins about and it was easy to spot them at 500 metres so still was the day. Lundoya carried on in the same theme as Hamaroy with very steep mountains covered in the jungle of birch. There were a few beaches here and one half way down the west side was stunning. It was called Fjetterstad
It was set in a bay with a lush island with an abandoned farm one it. The side of the island facing the bay was covered in white sand and grassy skerries where many hundreds of terns were nesting. The farm was derelict but in its day, in the summertime it must have been a near paradise. Across the green water of the sandy bottomed bay was a half km beach of near white sand. Behind the beach rose the steep ridges covered in birch jungle. It looked like and was becoming as hot as something from Mauritius or Caribbean but was empty. I landed here for a quick stretch and to soak up the beauty.
As I was leaving a text came through from the Swedish Girls. They were some 7-8 km ahead on Gasdussan and were cooking lunch. My route initially took me across a small sound and into an archipelago of small islands north of the larger island of Engeloya. These small islands were quite rocky but with a lot of grass here and there. Some farmers had moved sheep and goats onto them to graze in peace through the summer. Most of the islands had a brilliant white beach. A few were connected at low tide by these very white sands.
Right on the very northern tip of Engeloya, at a place called Hamnvika, was a idyllic old fisherman’s robuer or cabin with white beaches and turquoise waters all around the bay formed by the islands. It was a picture postcard place. The whole coastline here was a mantle of islands and farmed land with very steep mountains rising nearly a 1000 metres just inland. All the mountains were very sharp and spectacular.
From Hamnvika at the tip I crossed an open bay to the next headland called Gasdussan. There was a tidal island here with sheep wandering across the sand from the main Engeloya island to take advantage of the rich grass. The Girls were waiting on a beach here. As I pulled up I got a warm welcome.
The Girls, Evelyn and Klara, were two young Swedish girls in their mid 20’s. They had kayaked around Sweden’s coast last year and now this year were doing Norway’s coast. They started some 3 weeks behind me and although they had taken a slightly different route saving about a week they had managed to catch up by putting in many huge days.
As we had lunch under a rowan tree beside the foundation stonework of a long gone farm building we chatted a lot about the trip. We had met and stayed with many of the same people and paddled much of the same waters. It was an enthusiastic chat for a good two hours.
They aimed to do 50 km each day and had already done 40 this morning. So they were looking for another 10. We carried their heavy boats down the beach to the low tide and set off. The chat and banter continued in the kayaks.
As we rounded the blunt peninsula we entered another archipelago of small islands. There were sandy beaches everywhere again and a few of the islands had old summer farms on them which were now leisure homes for the children or grandchildren of the last farmer.
One of the islands, Lauvoya, was an old small scale trading hamlet. It was perhaps the largest island in this group. It still had a prosperous looking farm surrounded by mature deciduous trees and a very large warehouse on the jetty. This farm was set in lush green fields and a short distance away was a sandy spit to an islet surrounded by a white beach. It was a serene setting.
It was now late afternoon and we decided to find somewhere to camp. As we emerged from one of the many channels between the islands we spotted a large white beach about 2 km away to the south east by the village of Holkstad. There was immediate consensus to make for it and camp there.
Within half an hour after landing the tents were up between the usual red boatsheds and we were chatting on the grass for another few hours. I cooked outside in the sun for a change in the still evening. The odd mosquito was a pest. The girls prepared for bed very early and by 2030 they were heading to their tent; and this was a late night for them! They were getting up as usual at 0330 to be on the water for 0500.
I still had the blog to do. I inserted the last of the 4 laptop batteries to find it was dead. I only had a few minutes of power left. I down loaded the pictures in case I dropped the camera and looked at the map for somewhere suitable to charge the all the batteries tomorrow. Kjerringoy some 50 km to the south looked good. I crashed out at 2100 and prepared myself for a Swedish start.
It had been a great day. Fantastic scenery, great weather and the good company of two witty, smart, bold Swedish Girls.