Safe Return Doubtful

The storms overnight were merely a trickle of rain compared to what farmers had hoped for. They amounted to ten or twenty minutes of rain, with some decent rumbles of thunder and lightning flashes.

This morning dawned cloudless but cooler and fresher, the temperature had dropped to 14C overnight, but with the sun quite high by 8 am, it was already 20C.

My mission today was to get into the island’s mountains, the massif on the north side, separated by a river valley, currently not much more than a stream, from the main group of mountains in the island. But as is evident from the photos below, the northern range is quite spectacular with its cliffs and jagged edges. Looking at the, last night from Rakkavika, it was not easy to see how they could be (easily) scaled on foot.

I found a route though, on the Norwegian app UT, that approached them along the bike track in the river valley, the Nordveien. I came from the west, at Brekstad, though it’s equally possible, and maybe a bit shorter, to come from the east.

I had hoped to camp at Brekstad, but despite nobody being around at all, there are ‘no camping’ signs. It was only a ten minute drive from Rakkavika anyway, so a return there was easy.

At Brekstad is a very basic pub in a hut, which I have seen before. This has been open regularly in the summer though, until this year. Sadly, Jøa Kystlag will open for the last time on a weekend at the end of June, and thereafter just be open for its members, so without any staff.

Having covered the three kilometres on the bike track to the start of the climb to the Skakkjerringfjellet mountains, the path heading off into the forest, soon getting above the treeline and becoming steep. In a couple of places there were fixed ropes.

Once above the treeline scenically hiking becomes much more enjoyable. The summit was at 275 metres, and provides, as is becoming commonplace, an incredible 360 vista. My short movie doesn’t really do it justice.

We were out for about four hours in total, with a distance of just over 8 kilometres, a slow 8 kilometres..

We then returned to Rakkavika beach for an afternoon of reading and reviewing as the fine weather continued, with temperatures in the mid-20s. An evening of cricket lies ahead, with the start of the T20 Blast and England also, from the Oval.