Day 17 Slåttholmen to Sortland

Day 17/Monday 29th of July. Slåttholmen to Sortland 34 km/485 km total
A very good morning to the same sea bird music that had lulled us to sleep (?) during the night.
We got off to a 1000 start since we had a plan to get to Sortland not too late.
Conditions were on our side. Mirror blank sea as we crossed Hadselfjorden.
The northwest side of Hadselfjorden is quite densely populated so it took some time to find a good lunch spot which was not on someone’s “innmark”. On the plus side we were well beyond half way when we stopped for lunch.
As we paddled on we were met by Eirik Bentsen. A friend from OKK that grew up here at Sortland. He accompanied us in to the jetty at Scandic hotel. Our “camp site” for the night.
En route Eirik and Stein -old colleagues from “Milsluker’n” got to update each other on letest events.
Sortland is a place with about 10 000 inhabitants, about the same as Erling’s home village Sula.
But Sortland is completely different; they have succeeded in becoming the shopping destination of the whole of Vesterålen.
So if any “Sulalendinger” reads this, it is a bit like if the Moa shopping center was at Devold fabrikken.
Anyway, it is peak season and even Sortland did not have restaurants enough for all guests, we had to wait till 2100 to get seated.
But the food was definitely worth waiting for.
Eirik and a couple of friends came by for a chat and a beer, and only one; time to rest for tomorrow when the plan is first to shop supplies and then paddle on to Andøya, where Stein spent three years some 45 years ago. Therefore Andenes is a prime destination for this expedition. 80 km to go from Sortland.Read more