Safe Return Doubtful

I enjoy changing weather conditions, and for most of my life have lived near west coasts where the weather is shaped by what comes from the ocean. During my 5 years in Santiago there was little point in looking at a weather forecast, for 8 months a year the weather was the same, 30-34C in the day, 16-20C at night. I remember a local friend telling me there were 12 days of rain a year when I first arrived, and after that I counted them. He was never more than a day out.

So the last six weeks on the west coast of Norway were freak conditions. There was an occasional shower, but the high temperatures set records in Trondheim and Mo I Rana, farmers were desperate for rain. It was always going to come, just a question of when. A couple of times in the last fortnight it was predicted but failed to materialise. Yesterday however, the dry weather did break.

The late afternoons of today and yesterday have been dry, but for 8 hours or so in the morning it has been temperatures of about 10C and wet. Yesterday I stayed put a Mjelde, and read my book for longer than usual in the morning, but Roja gets restless, even though he can hear the rain on the roof. We went down a trail to the west side of the peninsula in the morning to Hovdsundet beach. Usually at this time of year it is busy, a good spot for overnight camping. But there was no one around today.

Back at the van a Finnish van had pulled up next to me, a young couple with 4 children, aged between 6 and 13. Surely they couldn’t be staying in the van. The older boy had a football, and was locked out of the van in the rain while the others changed clothes, and he came over to chat to me. He was the only member of the family who could speak English well. We spoke about the Euros, but then he told me about their vacation. They had been away a week, and were out camping wild every night, fishing, then cooking their catch on a fire. It was clear they were used to an outdoor adventure life, and they had decent gear. In the evening, despite the return of the rain, they left for Hovdsundet beach where I had been earlier. A great holiday for a family, and not expensive either.

This morning was a repeat of yesterday, the drumming of the rain on the roof, another book, 11 am and Roja restless. This time we headed down to Mjelde beach, where we had been the day we arrived, and like yesterday, saw nobody.

My plan is to head out onto a few of the peninsulas between here and Bognes, when I can get a ferry over to Vesterålen, and rejoin my original route there. The E6 is Norway’s arterial highway, and the small roads to the destinations I have identified branch off. Driving is incredibly scenic, and slow. Ferries and tunnels cross many fjords further south, but not in these sparsely populated areas up here.

My first destination is the small town of Styrkesnes, 25 kilometres west on a rough road from the E6 that finishes at the village. There is a couple of hikes I want to do here, that I have identified, though tomorrow is another rain day, so the bare rock involved in one of them may not be a good idea. Styrkesnes has about 50 houses dotted around the bay, but it only about 10 of them are currently occupied, and only 4 throughout the year.

It is a fantastic place to spend a few days, and as with many Norwegian villages, the community maintains an area for visitors. For such a small place, Styrkesnes has a football pitch and sports area, with a sauna and barbeque area, a pit toilet, and seating. The view across the fjord is quite arresting, across to the jagged peaks of Sjunkhatten National Park. As I write it is a humid evening, 16C, with a hint of rain in the air, to come later no doubt, no mosquitoes, but a few mygs as the Norwegians call them, or midges as we do.

It’s a great example of the sort of places you can find if you are prepared to get 45 minutes or so off the main drag, which is currently crammed with 15 metre long motorhomes.

Ideal surroundings to settle down and watch some Roses cricket.