Ski and Paddle Norway 2009

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

I woke at 0700 and looked outside. The wind was up and there was a snow shower passing over the hills to the east of Mehamn. It was as forecast and expected.

After breakfast I sorted out the food into six packets, each of which would do me 24 hours and then put them into compression bags and the two dry bags. I start a new food pack every evening for dinner and it contains the next days’ breakfast and lunch.

I then went and explored the wharfs again and went to the café to meet Hanne who was one of the family I met yesterday. I had lunch there and Hanne she showed me around the town where she spent her first 7 years some 40 years ago before moving south.

It was interesting to get a local view. We walked out to the small peninsula to the north of the town where there were some ruined German fortifications. Beyond the peninsula was the broad Sorfjorden. The weather was not so snowy now and the wind had dropped off to a force four. In addition the swell which has been so large in the previous days was starting to dwindle.

After the walk I returned to the youth hostel via the wharfs again. I spoke with one fisherman who had just landed nearly a ton of black halibut. These he caught on 12 longlines each with 300 hooks. He would leave the line out for 24 hours before returning the next day to take them up and set another 12 lines. He said it was normal to catch about 300 fish in this 24 hour period. He was from Lofoten and would be returning there in 3 weeks.

The weather forecast was still looking OK for tomorrow but it had deteriorated slightly. However impatience was now getting the better of caution and I had pretty much decided to go unless it blew up to a force five, which is very unlikely. Rather than cook I went to the hotel for a meal and then returned at 2200 to write the blog and prepare for an early start tomorrow.

It had been another day where I had nothing better to do than kill time; luckily I had some good company to help me.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 9:07 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.