Adventures in the Sun

The strong northerly we were supposed to be getting to blow us south of Bergen eventuated into a light northerly and then nothing. We persevered with the sailing as long as we had the patience (and time) for but in the end we spent half the day motoring. At least the sun was out and it was even feeling quite warm.
We were kept busy by admiring cabins along the waterfront, dodging big ships and catching mackerel again for dinner. It will take a while before we get sick of fresh mackerel!

For the last hour the wind picked up nicely and we got in to the harbour in Våge just before dinner and planned to enjoy the dockside sauna, but frustratingly, you can only book the sauna online 18hrs in advance or at the restaurant where we were told it was booked out for the rest of the evening. Oh well.
The next morning was a slow one with a tasty Lisa special rice omelette and hike preparation. We eventually got out for the hike closer to midday, helping a lady herd her sheep into the paddock on the way. It was slow progress once we got into the forest - lots of blueberries means stopping every few meters for a snack. It’s really quite problematic how tasty they are.
Part way up Russell split off to check out a landing spot for paragliding and made his own route from there back to the track, while Lisa and Angela continued up the path. It wasn’t the most well trodden path and a very wet one, but the views were great, and the sun was still shining! The positive side of having such a rainy summer is that we REALLY enjoy any sunshine we get now.
When Russell joined again at the top, he declared he had found ticks…flicking off at least 10 on his way up and indeed, he had a lot more of them, some of them already burrowing in to his skin. He wasn’t very happy about that. Turned out Angela and Lisa also had ticks, just not so many since they’d stayed on track.
The breeze was getting stronger and a bit all over the place gusty, but Russell decided to get his paraglider out for a little play around anyway. Luckily he decided not to fly because as he walked back to pack up after some ground handling, his reserve had somehow come out and was trailing behind - quite terrifying, and something that definitely needs figuring out why it happened before trying to fly again!
Getting back to the boat, we did a very fast, very hungry shop for dinner then the first thing we did was pick off all the ticks that we had missed up at the top of the hike (and dig out some of them), shower and wash all the clothes. We were thankful this marina had great free showers and laundry!
Safe to say Russell has been put off hiking in the south of Norway now.

We stayed another night in the marina, and headed off the next morning towards Rosendal, staying in a cute little bay in the islands outside of it. Passing the ‘salmon eye’ floating restaurant/museum on the way. Just one mackerel today, after a much longer than average fishing time. An evening was spent playing another game of catan and enjoying the sunset.

We got to wake up to yet another sunny day and had coffee in the sun before heading off to Sundal. We would have liked to go all the way up the fjord and do some hiking up there, but the distances are further than they look and without big days of motoring, we just didn’t have the time. So this little branch was a compromise and we were glad we did it! We got a spot on the dock with a view of the glacier and after a motivational coffee headed off for a hike up to the glacier lake. It turned out to be more of a highway than a hike, the car park was full with busses even and more people on the trail than we have seen for a while!
But it was still a very pretty hike and a nice spot on the lakeside for a snack before heading back down. We also managed the walk a lot quicker than most of our other recent walks since most of the blueberries were already eaten! Still managed to find some raspberries though.

Once back at the boat, we bought some local mince that Lisa turned into a bolognese and relaxed, enjoying the stunning surroundings, calm dock and the sun before it ducked behind the mountains.Read more