Safe Return Doubtful

I’m at the confluence of two fjords, Bergsfjord and Sandlandsfjord. Where they meet they become Langfjord. I spent two days at Sandland Brygge where I got to know the owners and a few of the guests. The owners, Stina and Steinar, have managed the place in 2011, and run it in recent years for deep sea fishing holidays, though do accept the occasional guest for other activities, but their fishing package includes transport from Alta airport (two hours by boat), and all the equipment including personal use if a boat. It’s quite a niche audience, but there is no mortgage to pay, as it was family owned, and they have renovated steadily since. Their website is impressive also.

The postman came for a chat yesterday, a German guy with his Alaskan Husky dog, and a stressless round to rival the Bampton one in Cumbria. Two more dogs appeared, and I was soon introduced to Stina. I had spoken to her on the telephone on arrival, just making sure it was okay to stay by their marina.

Last night at 11 pm one of the English guys came over with a beer, and we sat outside the van for a chat. He was the father of a family group, two sons and a grandson, who were staying for a week, from Nottingham. The danger can be, with these package type arrangements, that the guests don’t really realise where they are. it was actually the second time he had visited, but he wasn’t aware of the midnight sun for example, and, other than Alta, where they had arrived to, didn’t know much about the surrounding area. He also thought the Norwegian beer was fantastic, though I was happy to enjoy his company rather than dispute it, one can come over as a beer snob.

I had a plan to walk around Sandland lake yesterday, as the cloud was low, and any peak would have had no view. I got about a third of the way around though, and binned it. It was exceptionally boggy, the bogs harbour mosquitoes. Instead, I spent more time on the beach, which is about three kilometres long.

This morning I moved up to the north most point of the peninsula where the road becomes a track for a couple of kilometres, but is driveable. Just as I arrived, a Norwegian guy parked up also, with his Boykin spaniel, who he out to train for the hunting season which begins in September. We walked together for ten minutes or so. He is on holiday in their family second home from Trondheim, and spends a few weeks here in summer, and a few in March. His passion is extreme skiing, amd the area, which includes the Lyngen Alps, that I wrote about a few days ago, are popular with extreme skiers. Like several I have spoken to here, he decried the drain of population. Here, Sandlandfjord, is unfashionable it seems, whereas the neighbouring island of Sørøya receives more tourists. He worries that with the downturn of the local fishing businessses the ferry will be considered as no longer viable, and the place will really struggle to survive. As he was training his dog, we split up, and I headed up to a couple of small peaks that despite their diminutive stature, 264 and 197 metres respectively, commanded wonderful views.

I abandoned the track for the return journey, and took in another couple of dumplings, before reaching the headland itself, which is a weather-beaten and eroded cluster of cliffs and their debris that looked resplendent on a fine morning like this one.

We had seen reindeer throughout the trek, but unknowingly, had herded them to the top of the peninsula. Now unsure which way to go, the twenty-odd off them stood and stared at us for a few seconds, then stood and stared at a family and their dog below, and made their way, at speed, across the jagged rock, between us.

I’ve encountered a herd up close before, but even second time up, it is a delightful and memorable experience.

I had planned to move on return, but the place I was parked was ideal to stay, especially as the house close by is currently unoccupied.

After an afternoon attending to various matters, we headed out in the early evening back to the stony beach we had been this morning, though the reindeer now were far away.