Safe Return Doubtful

There were a few rumbles of thunder around yesterday evening but any rain that fell was out at sea. The flat bit of land I was on to the south of Brekstad was still and humid. It was difficult to sleep, especially for Roja, who ended up on the grass outside for most of the night. According to my van thermometer the overnight low was 21C.

This morning we walked on the beach, I chatted with the boss at the campsite for a while before we left. He was building a new handicapped bathroom which the law has told him he needs. They have a longer summer season here, and as the family lives in a neighbouring house, they open all year. Further north, in the Arctic, many sites are only open for six weeks. The facilities were excellent, and I certainly got my money’s worth.

I’m a couple of hours north at the end of a peninsula reachable by a small road, but very picturesque, and quiet. Most likely it was busier at the weekend, as it has a hotel on the quay which offers cabins for fishing enthusiasts and services for incoming boats. I met an American couple from Jackson, Wyoming and we sat in conversation for quite a while. I had spent the eclipse in Jackson, surrounded by the Teton hills on a bikepacking course in August 2017. The couple had sailed across the Atlantic from Boston three years ago, and each winter moor up their yacht, and fly back home. They were in Shetland last summer by coincidence, as so was I, and had sailed with the Tall Ships for a few days. I saw the Tall Ships when I was on Fetlar, so I had probably seen them from a distance.

There’s some good walking around the small town here. In the mid-afternoon it was too hot for Roja, so we set off over a hill to a beach where he could swim. He’s not as keen on salt water as he is on lakes and rivers, but swims for several minutes at a time nonetheless.

Though some of the humidity has lessened from yesterday, it has been another warm day, in the late twenties. The forecast is for a cooler day tomorrow, then a very warm day on Wednesday, in the 30s, before cooling down later in the week. However, that was the forecast last week, and the cooler weather didn’t materialise.