Safe Return Doubtful

Abelvik is on the Seterneset peninsula and was a wonderful place for the weekend. There are a few holiday homes tucked away in the forest, all with incredible views over the Norwegian Sea and islands. While out cycling on Saturday morning I met a German couple who told me they had come to stay in an AirBnB here three years ago, and loved it so much they bought a parcel of land from the same farmer and built a house. They showed me the views from their huge glass front room window, and they were quite special.

The bay does attract some climbers. I met two young guys on Friday evening who were tent camping, and exploring some new routes that were only accessible from a dinghy by sea. This particular area has become more popular due to its inclusion on a climbing website, bringing people from all over Europe.

The heat is growing, as it tends to in a heatwave. I had a bit of shelter from the mountain behind me at the bay, but it got up to 27C on Saturday afternoon. Sunday was as warm, but with a breeze, though both nights went no lower than 20C. Consequently Roja has been doing a bit less. He really isn’t a fan of this sort of heat. We walked across to the neighbouring bay at Moldtun on Saturday morning, and were only out for 90 minutes or so. I got talking to the farmer whose land we needed to cross to access the bay, initially just to check that it was okay. In order to survive as a farmer these days, he uses the huge house only periodically during the year. He rents some fields out, farms some, and works labouring in Trondheim, an hour away. In the winter, he fishes. Like many across Europe at the moment, he is hammered by the increase in living costs, inflation has been high in Norway, and the currency has struggled against the Danish Kroner and the Euro. He wanted to hear more about my travelling, and his wife brought us tea. It turned out he had served for NATO in Bosnia in 1994 and 1995.

I enjoyed the two rugby finals, the Champions Cup more than the Challenge, though it was a game of two immense defences, with few tries. I watched an interesting new French horror film called Vincent Must Die, which I will review in the next few days.

On Sunday, this morning, we moved off. As the crow flies, at Abelvik I was 14 kilometres from the brewery at Uttian, where I was on Friday morning, and 12 kilometres from Brekstad, where I am now; though it took me 120 kilometres and 2 hours to drive to Brekstad. A solution may be to get a boat..

I’ve come to a campsite at Belan, just outside the towns of Brekstad. It was time for some laundry, and to give the van a good clean, which I have spent the last few hours doing. Norway has remarkably few laundrettes it seems. There is one in Trondheim, but I didn’t fancy driving into the city on such a hot day, another reason being the toll charges for driving in cities in Norway, which are expensive. This site offers a free laundry once the fee has been paid, 300 Kroner, or about £20. Actually quite few sites have washing machines, so I had carefully researched this one.

This afternoon was the hottest yet, again breaking records for the area, up at 30C and with the humidity building so much that as I write there are thunder clouds surrounding us, but fortunately, with my washing drying, no rain here just yet. It will be another very warm night, maybe a storm, but then clearing for fine weather for the week, hopefully a bit cooler.