Safe Return Doubtful

I’ve been four days at Stave beach which was busy when I arrived but after a day of rain yesterday there is hardly anyone here today.

I’m at a campsite as Andøya is popular with visitors particularly at this time of year, and wild camping is forbidden in most, if not all, places. If it were allowed, it would be mayhem for the residents in the summer.

I’m parked at the far most extremity of the camping field, ten metres from the beach. To be down on the beach side of the site you need to be self-sufficient for power, so the busiest place is a few hundred metres away in the field behind the buildings where there is hook-up available.

My neighbours for the first two days here, when the sun was shining, were a solo German guy with his 17 year old Highland Terrier with dementia. The poor dog just walked around in 2 metre circles all day, unaware of anything going on around him. The German had a spacious roof tent on his car. My other neighbour was an older Norwegian couple in a Tesla Model 3, away from their home in Stavanger for a week. They were staying in their car, which didn’t look very comfortable. The guy worked for the Department of Economic Development in the city which is known as the green energy capital of Norway. Both of my neighbours really need good weather. The only place to go in rain was their cars, which were packed with luggage.

Rain came on Saturday morning, at 10 am as forecast, and with it they both departed, as did pretty much everyone else on the site.

On Friday Roja and I hiked along the coast to Høyvika Beach.

The path goes over a pass at 180 metres, and involves a bit of scrambling for the shirt section of climb and descent. The beach is wonderfully isolated as it isn’t such a straightforward path to get there.

Saturday being a rain day worked well for me, as there were four rugby internationals on, starting with England playing in Dunedin at 9 am, we had an early start with some beachcombing at 7:30 am. We did get out in the rain in the mid-afternoon, but Roja is getting to the age now where when he hears the rain on the roof, so long as he has been out once, he is as lacking in enthusiasm as I am for a second soaking.

By lunchtime in Sunday the clouds cleared and gave way to a breezy and partly cloudy afternoon. I actually took my first run for a long time, difficult to recall exactly when, but at least 18 months ago. We were out for 90 minutes or so in a steady drizzle and covered a very flat 8 kilometers or so.