Ski and Paddle Norway 2009

Distance 59km | Time 11.5hrs | Ascent 0m | Descent 0m

I slept well and woke at 0800, which is when I got up. I had to make a phone call to Oyvind Jorfald to ask him to post a spraydeck up to a kayak centre in Husvaer called Havnomaden where I would be staying in a couple of days. The current neoprene spraydeck has stretched and is letting in water when waves break over it. Unfortunately the new spraydeck is also neoprene, which despite being a popular material for kayak spraydecks, is fundamentally flawed in that it is just not watertight.

With the phone calls out of the way I went for another walk on the island. The sheep were lazing in the shade by some heavily folded rocks on the edge of a beach. Most sheep in Norway are very tame as they are kept indoors in the winter and hand feed, often by the farm children. Each sheep is individually known by each farmer who on average owns 20 to 50. While they don’t have the same status as pets they are still cherished.

There were a few small trees on the island but is was mostly grass, growing on rock or growing on sand dunes. It was a wonderfully peaceful place on this still morning. I packed the kayak up slowly and after appreciating the island of Sandvaer all morning left at midday. Again I did not have any destination in mind other than southwards, but I did want to go round the west side of the island of Donna.

I left the main island of Sandvaer and paddled out of the white sandy bay through numerous islets and skerries. It was still but the wind was forecast to get up. The water was glassy and it was easy to spot an otter as it swum from one skerry to another. It rather surprising to see one here as I had always though otters needed fresh water to rinse their coat in occasionally and there seemed to be none out here.

Beyond the skerries I could see the island of Traena. It was one of the most classic of all the steeper islands with about 4 large steep rock clumps rising off the flat island mantle they sat on. It lay on the outside of the coast, beyond the puffin colony of Lovund, and although surrounded by protective vaer or clusters of skerries it was almost in the Atlantic.

Just as I was leaving Sandvaer there was a skerry without a lot of mackerel or red nibbed terns nesting on it. I went ashore here to investigate and to see how big the chicks were. To my surprise most were still in the eggs as they had been in Bergsfjord some three weeks ago. There were a couple of chicks looking very vulnerable in the rudimentary nests. There was also a duck there sitting on a down filled nest hidden in tall rockrose in which there were 6 green eggs. I left the island quite quickly so as not to disturb more than I had.

As I paddled south from Sandvaer I crossed a stretch of open water before I reached the northern tip of Donna. The wind was starting to increase the whole time on the crossing and it was at least a force four when I reached Donna island. On the crossing I had seen many puffins bobbing about in the waves, which were probably on a fishing trip from Lovund island some 20 km to the west. It was the first time I had passed by puffins with beaks full of small fish which they were obviously collecting for the young chicks in their burrows.

On reaching Donna island I did not really know what to do. I had lingered too long on Sandvaer to find a shop open somewhere. It looked like supper would be mashed potato and hot chocolate as this was all I had left plus a litre of water. There could be guesthouse to the south of Donna on the island of Heroy and there was likely to be a shop there tomorrow so I started to head down there.

The wind was now a force six and I was being blown along as a tremendous rate. While sitting still I was doing 5.5 km per hour and if I paddled this only increased to around 8 km per hour. In this wind one would normally expect big seas but due to all the skerries and the 20,000 odd islands around here the fetch was only about 5 km at the most so there was little opportunity for waves to build up.

Half way down Donna I stopped at Skaga for a stretch. I was quite wet and a bit cold due to the wind and leaking spraydeck. I did not fancy camping. Suddenly I had an idea to go all the way to Husvaer where I was planning to go tomorrow. It was about 25 km away. I phoned them to ask if it was OK to arrive around midnight. No problem Inge said.

I set of for theirs at 2000. With the strong wind behind me, the tide with me and extra vigour in my arms I made exceptional time. I was doing about 8 km per hour as I blasted down across the Skagafjord to Seloy. I reached it quickly. This seemed to be a busy little area and there were plenty of houses, cabins and a marina here. There seemed to be a café at the bridge for the yachting fraternity.

I went under the bridge and into an open basin between knobbly islands to the west of Heroy. There were quite a few houses here also and many with robuer, or fishing sheds, at the bottom of the garden where there were well used fishing boats. To get past these knobbly islands I had to make a slight detour as the new road to them used a causeway instead of bridges except for one bridged channel.

Once I was under this bridge there was a straight run across some reasonably open water for some 8 km to the island cluster of Husvaer. With the strong north wind of force six the waves did start to get larger towards the end with masses of water washing over the decks and dribbling through onto my legs. Soon however I was in the shelter of the Husvaer archipelago and being blown down channels with just ripples again.

I found the place I was staying quite easily which is a surprise give the complexity of the landscape here where one can get lost among the islands. Usually I have a 1:400,000 road map and the fiddly small screen on a GPS to go by which has been fine up to now, but for Helgelandskyst the 1:50000 maps are really necessary to get the most out of the area. I arrived at 2330.

I had reached a kayak center called Havnomaden in Husvaer where I would stay two days. It was run by Bent and Inge Skauen. I had got a tip on this place from Jon who I paddled with in Varangerfjord in the first week of this kayak trip. I received a very warm welcome, and lovely meal and was shown an extremely comfortable and nice room and joint area where other kayakers cooked and hung out. There were a few others staying. After a warming shower I crashed out at 0100 in what felt like home.

It had been a long day with a very gentle tranquil start on an island paradise finishing up with a wet windy kayak where I got soaked from waves and spray but ended in a really nice place to warm up and recuperate again. There was also a stunning sunset with the island of Donna silhouetted in orange.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 9th, 2009 at 6:48 pm and is filed under Update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.