Ski and Paddle Norway 2009

Distance 40km | Time 7.5hrs | Ascent 0m | Descent 0m

I had arranged to meet Tom Amundsen today. He would start paddling from Egersund, where I anticipated finishing today, and he would paddle north to meet me around Sirevag and then we would continue together to Egersund. We had spoken about leaving our starting points around 1000. However when I looked out at the sea at 0700 I thought twice about it. It was a good force 5, if not 6, and the sea was full of white horses. However, as the morning unfolded the wind dropped to a force four so I set off at 1000.

There were both showers and sun which the North West wind changed at will but generally it was quite overcast. The swell was much less than yesterday but the wind was causing some of the tops to topple into small white horses still.

I paddled down past more shipwrecks and many beaches. As usual these beaches were defined by large glacial boulders. In the ice ages Jaeren was the edge of the ice sheet and where this slow westwards moving ice sheet met the north westwards flowing mega glacier which ran off the present coast along the Norwegian Channel. Lots of moraines were deposited here either by streams under the ice sheet or from the retreating glacier. The boulders and sand In Jaeren come from these deposits.

At Varhaug I passed a couple of substantial farms with its large wooden barns. In amongst these was a church. It had all the proportions and shape of a normal church but it seemed in miniature. I tried to get a picture of it in the waves and barely succeeded.

I paddled on down past Vigrestad where the waves started to grow in size again in this brisk North West wind. I soon reached the lighthouse at Kvassheim Fyr and phoned Tom in the lee. He had just arrived at Sirevag and would wait. I was still an hour’s for me to paddle.

The crossing of Ognabukta was reasonably quick due to the strong wind behind me. At the north end of the bay is was quite calm but as I got to the south end near the town of Sirevag the waves where up to a good 1.5 metres and many were breaking.

There were many tystie here again and I was surprised to see them as their favoured nesting places are in cracks and crevices along rocky shores and here there was mostly sand and dunes. There were also many eider duck. This year’s male juveniles were already changing colour from brown to the distinctive white patches.

I met Tom Amundsen just after the massive breakwater at Sirevag and we paddled south. The waves round the point south of Sirevag were sometimes up to two metres and we were often out of sight of each other. However it was a short piece rocky of coast and after 2 km we were round the headland. I think we both enjoyed the waves here. While they were quite substantial we both knew that we had paddled alone round many remote headlands in Northern Norway where these Jaeren waves would have been small to medium.

The coastline seemed to change completely after this headland and the beach and boulder landscape of Jaeren was replaced by 20-30 metre high craggy outcrops and islets. The rock seemed to be granite but it was too choppy to get close enough to see. Occasionally the sea surged between the islets and it was possible to surf the odd short lived wave, but by and large it was quite sheltered. If was obviously along here the tystie found nesting places.

The next hour was an easy run between these sheltered rocky islets with the wind behind us. We chatted a lot and paddled a little, with the wind giving us an extra 2-3 km per hour. The island of Eigeroy gradually came closer as we left the rocky islands along the coast of Nordregapet and entered Egersund sound.

There were lots of very nice boat sheds, cabins and old small holdings down here and the soil seemed fertile and the fields very green. This was a steeper landscape and more rocky landscape than Jaeren. On the mainland side of the sound was a small waterfall right into the sea. We took it in turns to paddle under it. If I was in my drysuit I could have had a shower.

The island of Eigeroy was one of the very few islands on this North Sea coastline and the sound behind it was one of the few really good harbours on this coast. As a consequence the town has a long fishing history and is home to one of the biggest fishing fleets in Norway.

I had a lot of writing to do and the forecast for the next day was poor. I did not want to try an write in a rain lashed and exposed tent so decided to try and get a cabin at a campsite. There was one marked on the map before Egersund and Tom confirmed with a local it was OK.

We then split up. I went up to the campsite and Tom down the sound under the bridge to his van. The paddle up to the camp site went under an iron bridge and into a basin with an island in it. It was just possible to go to the west of this island up a metre wide channel. The island itself was like a park with dense deciduous trees and small boat houses along the fringe. It was idyllic. The rowan trees were now heavy with red berries.

After the channel however my heart sank as I came to halt as the bay ended with a river. There was no way up this large river as it tumbled down rapids to the basin and the campsite was still half a km up stream. I left the kayak and walked. They had a free cabin which I took.

Just then Tom arrived and we returned to the kayak, hid it and then carried some stuff back to the cabin. He had to return to Sandnes and I had to eat, shower and start the writing. It was about 2000 when I started but I only managed a couple of hours. I still felt I was in the kayak and the waves of the day were continuing to bounce me around. I crashed out at midnight.

I was a good day with some interesting paddling again and a mixture of scenery from beach to the more familiar craggy pine covered coastline. The little I had seen from Egersund seemed idyllic. I was also great to paddle with someone else and share the high spirits of paddling in the medium sized waves off Sirevag.

Distance 39km | Time 8hrs | Ascent 0m | Descent 0m

I slept well and was up at 0700 so I could see the Oyvind before he went to work and the kids before school. I had also arranged to meet Tom at 0800. Tom would give me a hand carrying the stuff to the beach and see me off. The weather however did not look promising with a good force 5 still and frequent showers.

Tom arrived at 0800 and we chatted for a good hour before I started to get things ready during this time the weather was easing a bit. Eventually at 0930 we put the drybags in the wheelbarrow which Elin pushed to the shore while Tom and I carried the kayak. After a heartfelt goodbye I said paddled out of the bay at 1000. My thoughts as I entered the fjord were how nice the Amundsen family was and how good they had been to me. We will keep in touch I am certain.

I paddled across Hafrsfjord and negotiated some skerries to get into the open sea. The wind was now just a force four but the force six over the last 2 days had left the legacy of a large swell. Once I was past the skerries the swell must have been around 2.5 metres. I headed south and paddled down the coast with the new offices of the oil industry at Tananger on my east and the old lighthouse on the islet of Flatholmen on my west. I then crossed the mouth of the deep Risavik bay to reach another headland.

Tom had warned me about a feature on the coast and that was the shallow boulder ridges stretching out from every point. I could see what he meant. Most of the coast here was sandy beach but between the beaches were headlands of large glacial boulders. These headlands gradually descended into the sea and beyond. Often there were boulders nearly a km from the shore out from the headlands. As the swell passed over the boulders it rose into high waves and then crashed around the boulder. In this swell I had to be on the lookout the whole time and make some detours around the headlands.

I soon crossed Sola bay with its huge sandy beach of very light sand and then reached Olberg on the south side of it. Again I had to make detours here to avoid eruptions in the sea caused by visible and unseen submerged boulders toppling the swell. I needed to stop soon afterwards for a pause and to prepare myself for the next stretch which was Jaerens Rev, an infamous stretch of coast. I changed paddles to the larger blade and clipped myself to the kayak and attached the paddle leach.

While I was resting at Hellersto I went to take some photos of the sea crashing onto the rocks outside the harbour. The camera fell out of my pocket and into a rock pool. I retrieved it but it had already drowned. The card was OK though. The camera I use is not waterproof but has a good lens compared to the Olympus waterproof one. However I cannot get good action shots as I have to open up the day hatch to get the camera. Luckily I had the foresight to anticipate the camera would get wet and have two of the same.

I left Hellersto and once more headed back into the swell. There was the roar of breaking surf along the coast here as this swell formed waves and they dumped onto the beaches. I passed a shipwreck here which showed how bad this coast can be. In fact there were a few wrecks here. They seemed to be almost as common as in Finnmark. However here they were still along the shore, while in Finnmark the huge boats were hurled high onto the rocks.

All along the shore here, behind the beaches, sand dunes and boulders was the most productive farmland in Norway. The farmers here were rich. The huge barns where large herds of dairy cattle were milked and spent the night had traditional tiles on the roofs and the farm houses were traditional but large with many embellishments like balconies and rows of dormer windows in the mansard roofs. Around the farms where lush fields of grass and large herds of cattle. Jaeren was synonymous with farming.

I approached Jaerens Rev with some trepidation. As I headed down Borestranda beach I was heading further and further along a peninsula which jutted into the North Sea and its swell. The map marked an area of dangerous waves here and I could see a boulder ridge extending into the sea and then surf where this ridge was submerged. However contrary to my expectations the swell did not increase and was still 2.5 metres. Indeed if anything it diminished slightly.

I passed the peninsula quite easily and was never concerned by the conditions. Once I returned to the shore after detouring round the boulder ridge the sea became much calmer and it became a pleasant evening. I paddled along the beach at Orrestranden which is Norway’s longest at about 5 km. There were some large waves breaking along the beach and I would not have been comfortable landing the fully laden kayak through them.

By the time I got to the end of this beach it was 1700 and I was looking for somewhere to camp and do some writing. There was however nowhere which was easy to land, looked nice to camp at and most importantly would not trap me if the wind increased in the night and the surf was too big in the morning.

I paddled past Skeie and Naerland and then started heading out round a peninsula again when I saw some boatsheds on a grassy pasture with some tables nearby. It looked ideal and it was sheltered also as it was in a spit of land and the sheltered side was the Haana river estuary. I paddled up the estuary for 200 metres passing a group of some 20 swans and landed on grass. I got out and had the luxury of dragging the fully loaded kayak straight up the meadow to a campspot.

It was a windy evening but I found a table in the lee of a boatshed. I put up the tent to dry, cooked supper, processed the photos and watched the fly fishermen hoping for salmon, but by 2100 I could just not start to write. As darkness approached it started to rain and I gave up and went to bed at 2230.

It had been an excellent day. The paddling was interesting and the scenery was a nice change. The big beaches the flat coast and the big farms in green fields reminded me very much of the land just over the sea from here; namely the coast around the north east of Scotland.

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

The weather forecast was right and it was indeed another foul day. The rain was torrential and was bouncing back off the garden furniture. In addition the wind was at least as strong as yesterday and the tops of the trees were swaying and whipping in the wind. It was not a day for paddling.

I had the luxury of having very little to do. The writing was up to date. I had done all the tinkering with the website and there was nothing nagging on that topic. Tom had brought some books around and I spent the morning reading through them. One was a book by a Swede called Jim Danielsen who paddled the Norwegian coast some 20 years ago and was perhaps the first to do so. The other was a coffee table type book with masses of aerial photographs from northern Norway and Finnmark in particular.

A little after lunch Tom and his partner, Vivian, came round. While Tom and myself were not talking about the paddling Vivian and myself were talking about working offshore in the North Sea as she worked in that field and was occasionally on the rigs, but as largely based in Stavanger arranging training.

It was apparent that Tom was most taken by Finnmark out of all the sections of the trip. In retrospect Finnmark would probably be the most memorable for me also. It was certainly the most challenging so far. Troms was perhaps the most spectacular and Nordland (Helgelandskyst) the most idyllic.

There was a short pause in the weather so we went for a short walk nearby along the edge of the Hafrsfjord. There was a great battle here in which Harald Harfagre defeated his rivals some 1000 years ago and united Norway under him. He then appointed 12 governors to rule the districts he had collected together.

There was a large monument at the edge of this fjord on a knoll of a broken chain link. This was to commemorate the 130 odd people who lost their life when the 5 legged semi submersible capsized after a chain broke and a leg broke off. This happened in the early days of the North Sea around 1980. There was a list of names. Apparently about half were from the Stavanger region but I counted about 10 Scottish names on it also.

Before the rain returned we headed back to Toms’ brothers house. Tom and Vivian soon had to go but Tom arranged to come and help with the kayak tomorrow and also to meet for a paddle on Tuesday around the Egersund area.

Just before they left Oyvind, Elin and the two nice kids, Lasse and Elena, returned. They had been at a cabin with other members of the extended family. There was more brotherly banter and leg-pulling before Tom finally left.

In the evening Elin treated everyone to a carry out meal and Oyvind showed me how he had transformed the house. He had added another storey virtually by building a new roof over the present one and then removing the original one. The upstairs space created was large and bright. Tom helped him with much of this while a brother-in-law did all the electrics.

After the kids were in bed we chatted for a few hours until after midnight. Oyvind a joiner to trade had an interesting history as a UN peace keeper in Lebanon for a few years.

It was a very sociable day in very good company. I am genuinely sure I will keep in touch with the Amundsens and hope I can repay their superb hospitality in Scotland some day.

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

I managed some of the writing last night but still had a good mornings’ left. When I looked out of the window over the garden to the barely visible sea I was delighted I could stay here. It was pouring rain and it was a force six with plenty of white caps in the bay. I could perhaps have paddled some 10 km to Olberg but would not have got further and I would have been soaked in the process.

After breakfast which Oyvind and his wife Elin had kindly left for me I wrote. I had the television on and it was nice to catch up with some world’s affairs and athletics between writing. I also changed a few things on the website and posted some very high resolution posters for various press people to download and use.

In the afternoon Elin arrived and we chatted. She kindly brought some more food for me including bacon and eggs for breakfast tomorrow. Then Tom arrived and it was getting quite sociable. In the meantime the wind and rain continued outside and I though how lucky I was to find sanctuary with the Amundsens.

Then there was noise at the door which heralded the arrival of more Amundsens. It was Torild, one of Toms 3 sisters and Mr Amundsen. Torild kindly brought fruit for us and for the first time this year I probably had my daily 5 fruit or veg. Mr Amundsen brought beer.

It was a very cheerful afternoon with just about a fifth of this large and enthusiastic family. After a couple of hours with a lot of banter everybody left to return to their homes and cabins and suddenly the house felt quiet. I spent more of the evening loading photos and watching the television. The weather forecast for tomorrow did not make good viewing and it looked like I would be here another day.

It had been a great day. It is always nice to be indoors when there is no doubt about the paddling. It gave me a chance to write. It was also lovely to meet some more of the friendly, happy Amundsen family. They were almost the yardstick of how a family should be.

To view the newspaper article from Tidens Krav from 1 August please click on the link below: 

Tidenskrav 1st August 2009