Ski and Paddle Norway 2009

Distance 48km | Time 8.5hrs | Ascent 0m | Descent 0m

I woke quite early at about 0300 and I surprised myself by getting up at once and having breakfast. I was packing my stuff and taping up some possible leaks in the kayak before girls were stirring in their tent.

As I was going about my tasks at 0330 there was perhaps the best skyscape I have seen on this trip. The sky was dark except for a bright orange strip which silhouetted the saw like profile of the mountains on the Lofoten island of Austvagoya.

When the girls did emerge around 0400 they broke camp and packed their kayaks with a well practiced efficiency. They were surprised to see my up as I said I would write the blog and probably get up later.

It was a dull overcast morning with just a slight northerly wind. The glow over the Lofoten Islands had gone out. These two girls banter and good spirits would brighten up the dullest of mornings however.

We push off from the sandy beach at 0500. They set the pace in their narrow streamlined kayaks and I paddled hard in my stable load lugging barge. With the wind behind us we made incredible time and already by 0700 had done nearly 15 km.

Headland after headland zoomed by with ruthless efficiency. I stopped to take a photo and was suddenly 100 metres behind. We spotted moose on one of the islands in the pretty archipelago to the west Skotstind. This mountain was at the west end of the typically steep and dramatic peninsula which ended in this troll like peak before plunging into the still sea and patchwork of island and sandy channels. Moose out here really surprised me, although they are good swimmers.

After another two quick hours of fast paddling we reached Vettoy on the very south east of the Stiegen peninsula. It was barely 0900 and we had already done 30 km. The next part of the journey was crossing Folda, which was a 16 km wide fjord. We pulled up on the beach and enjoyed the sun as the clouds peeled away.

However unlike the exposed fjord crossings of Austhavet and Ishavet, Folda fjord had numerous islands and skerries in a line across its mouth. I later discovered that most of these belong to a Nature Reserve due to its prime bird habitat.

We hopped from island to island with the sun getting higher and warmer. We shot past Helloya and paddled over to Karlsoy. I took a few photos here, most notably of the claw like Eidetind, 1020m, with its massive and vertical south face and fell behind, but the girls waited occasionally and we paddled on chatting.

At Karlsoy we stopped paddling for the goodbyes. I was heading over to Kjerringoy to hopefully find a room to wash cloths and myself, charge batteries and eat some vegetables. The map indicated a pensionat existed there but it was often wrong. Evelyn and Klara were continuing south for another 10 km to camp.

We paddled off in our different directions. I cannot help but admire their discipline and determination. Their policy of very early start meant a very early finish and they would probably already be camped and relaxing at 1400 with 50 km in the bag. At the same time this was not done with dogmatic rigidity and there was plenty of time for banter and fun. I could not manage the early starts on a regular basis as the writing often takes so much time I seldom get to bed before midnight and tend to relax in the mornings before I start.

I crossed the remaining 5 km to Kjerringoy and rounded the harbour breakwater to find a marina full of expensive yachts. It seemed Kjerringoy was a haven for the sailing fraternity to come and relax in. It was a very prosperous community. There was a guest house but it looked expensive. I tried my usual line of saying I was kayaking Norway’s coast and it often seemed to get me a massive reduction. It did again here.

The place was perfect and the room was great with power sockets everywhere and a balcony over the marina where I could hang cloths to dry. They let me use the washing machine for free and went out of their way to be helpful and interested. By 2300 the cloths were dry, all the writing was up to date, all batteries were recharged, I was clean and ready for a 0900 start tomorrow, and by which time the girls will already be past Bodo.

It had been another fantastic day. The early start was great in retrospect and it meant I had done a good day by 1330. I did not linger around the islands or photograph as much as I wanted but that was the price for the masses of free time in the evening. Having such good company for the first half of the day was also great. The guesthouse was also superb and tremendous value for money. It would be the first time I was not in my sleeping bag for 2 weeks.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 3rd, 2009 at 11:34 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.