Norway Post 5

Day 3

Bjorke Bjorke!

I looked over a pamphlet that I took from the hostel in Alesund.  It told me that I would find another hostel in Bjorke.*  So I changed my route a little because I was chafing and needed a shower.

I'm not in the kind of shape I was towards the end of my last expedition, and today was hard.  I took a break next to a waterfall and made myself some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which helped a little.

The largest eagle I have ever seen swooped over me like some prehistoric raptor.  Later I found it perched in a tree and took pictures, though it's hard to convey it's size from so far away.

The mountains grew taller and the gushing waterfalls pouring out of them more frequent and intense.  The enormity of the landscape and the tininess of Bjork bring all sorts of philosophical thoughts to mind, for which this author is unaccustomed.

The hostel wanted 650 NOK a night, which is more than twice what the last one wanted.  But they let me shower and use their wifi for free.

Thank you so much Hjorundfjord Vandrerhjem Bjorke!

A large part of keeping the chafing at bay is cleanliness.  I won't be able to shower as much on this trip as I did on the last one and I have to wear more cold weather paddling clothing than I did, which makes it worse.  I can't shower in the snow melt streams since they are painfully bitingly cold.  But maybe I'll maybe I'll develop the fortitude to sponge bathe.

*Yes, like the Swedish chef but more Norwegian.