Ski and Paddle Norway 2009

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

I woke early and listened to the rain on the tent. It was not heavy but it seemed consistent. There was little wind and the tent barely flapped. The skies were dark with cloud and hardly moving. It looked like the wet weather was here for a while. The forecast said all day.

Rain does not really hamper the kayaker at all. It is of little consequence compared to wind which is the big consideration. However it makes camping and breaking camp a bit of a nuisance. In addition I had a lot of writing to do which I had postponed for the last days. I would make a start on this and see what happened.

After breakfast at 0800 I got the laptop out and experimented with various positions to be able to write comfortably in the tent. I had bought an attachment which turned my thermarest mattress into a floor level chair, and used my solid foam paddle float as a desk. It seemed to work.

I processed a few photos and then wrote up three days. This whole procedure took about 4 hours but there was a lot of inefficiency and it could have taken just 2 hours. In the end it was all ready so I went on line with the smallest of signals and managed to upload it all.

It was about 1300 now and the rain had not ceased. It was perfectly possible to paddle but given the good weather forecasts for the next days I decided to wait a day. Things were also still a bit of a jumble and I needed time to find things like the GPS which was mislaid in the wrong bag hopefully.

After sorting out my possessions again and luckily finding the GPS I had a siesta. It had been quite a long day yesterday and the late night meant I was tired still. It would not be a waste of a wet afternoon if I had a sleep rather than paddle I thought. It was a long sleep indeed and I did not wake until 1700.

In the late afternoon I went to get more water and then cooked pasta and pesto. It was not a good camping combination as it was too much fuss. I had brought it as a reserve but it took up too much room so I ate the lot.

After supper I went for a walk along each of the beaches. At the far end of the bigger beach was the Jakobselv river and beyond that a Russian lookout post on a knoll. The smaller beach was perhaps the nicer of the two as it was more sheltered and was hemmed in by outcrops.

There was a power spot in an electrical box near a couple of old cabin full of fishing tackle and a couple of small dinghies. This was very useful as it meant I could recharge the batteries after the mornings work. I am not sure who paid the bill but my use would have been negligible.

In the evening I wrote up yet another day which went quite quickly and then got an early night. I was more prepared to leave now than I was this morning which would have rushed things a bit.

It had been a lazy day really but perhaps one I needed. The wet weather made it quite easy to take the day off.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 8:33 am 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.