Norway Post 14

In the hostel I ran into Married Sara. I gave her pictures I took and we cheerfully talked of what we'd been up to since we last paddle together.

Day 11

After installing my skeg and failing to get my phone straightened out I launched at two in the afternoon, the woman who sold me the sim card told me it might take a few days. I started off tired and despite the heavily archipelagic seascape I navigated through, I felt a little scared. I was going north, I could have gone south but I was going north. It'll get prettier and more interesting and a number of experienced kayakers told me this was the way to go. The sea and air temperature will also get colder. I hope I'm up for it.

After three hours it was pouring rain. I fought into a head wind and passed a man in a small motor boat pulling cages out of the water. I had only paddled half the distance I wanted to, but I was tired and cold.

"Ahoy!" I called out. "Can I sleep in your boat house tonight?"

"No," he told me.

"Thanks anyways."

We talked a little more and I pulled into the marina. He came in just behind me and told me he changed his mind. I went crabbing with him for an hour and then slept wonderfully in his clean dining room boathouse where he brought me chocolate.

Norway Post 13

Two nails protruded from the side of a boat house on the main dock. I tied a line between them and hung my kayaking outfit to dry: I wear a neoprene farmer Jon, cap, skirt, dry top, and booties to stay warm. The water temperature is in the lower 50's.

Boathouses lined the placid water of the bay, all locked. A man walked by and asked me if I was going to sleep in the boathouse I hung my things on.

"I can't.  It's locked. Is it yours?"

"No, but I'll call a guy who can let you in." He made a phone call and a few moments later a car pulled up and a smiling plump bald man let me into the boathouse. The floor was buried under a foot of refuse. Old cardboard boxes, broken glass, and all sorts of garbage made it impossible to enter without climbing a dump. There was some chuckling from the few men who were now gathered to welcome me into their town.

"Kids used to throw their garbage in here at night, before we started locking it," he told me, "but there's a clear space in the back."

I put on shoes and went to check it out. The space was clear, but dirty. Pieces of a torn up mattress littered the corner.  It was more or less the right shape of floor to sleep on.

"Thank you for the offer," I told the men waiting for my response. "I haven't made up my mind yet. I might prefer to sleep under the stars after all."

I found an abandoned boathouse that was empty. The lock on the door would have kept me out if the whole in the wall hadn't let me in. I slept dry in the rain and woke only slightly dusty in the morning.

After breakfast I walked up the hill to use the market's bathroom and ran into the man who let me into the rubbish filled boathouse "So did you sleep inside or out?"

"Inside, thank you for everything."

Day 10

After passing under Northern Europe's largest stone bridge I followed a chain of islands east through a narrow fjord shaped by two larger islands with low hills. I stuck to the southern side of the smaller in between islands to shelter from the strong north wind. Whenever I crossed from one island to the next, I edged strongly into the wind to compensate for the weather cocking. The crossings were short, though on account of my skirt being a little bit too big, whenever I edge cold water seeps into my boat.

The plan was to pull up to a boat house on the northern end of Alesund and then walk to the hostel that I had my new skeg shipped to.

I passed what looked like a mining operation, an a factory or two, but no boathouses. They're everywhere a village or single cottage is lining the water, except for the north side of Alesund.

I pulled into the main harbor in the center of town and asked a sailor working on his boat if he thought my kayak was safe overnight on the dock. He kindly offered to let me keep my kayak on his deck. Then thought I might also want to talk to the kayak rental place five minutes away.

Jonathan at kayak tomorrow was happy to let me store my boat in his shop. He had everything set up to get the salt of my gear and hang it to dry. 

 From there I got a Norwegian simcard for my phone for about $55.  The phone still didn't work, but the woman in the store told me to just be patient.

I went to two different post offices to pick up two packages sent to the same address. In one package was my skeg and the other my skeg chord. Jonathan was happy to help me install them.

Norway Post 12

Day 9

For most of the day I paddled into a headwind. I stuck close to the edge of the fjord  to keep away from the strongest winds except for when I had to cross.

Shortly before finishing in Skodje I passed through a channel about 15 feet wide. For a hundred meters or so I pushed into a tidal current that made me feel like I was paddling up a brisk river, but then the waters widened and the current died down.

In the clear water I passed a jellyfish the size of a microwave.

Here in Skodje there are lots of boathouses on the water. They're all locked, but an old one has a big hole in one of the walls. Hopefully it'll keep me dry tonight. It rained yesterday. It rained today. It's expected to rain through the end of the week. It's cold.

Norway Post 11

On Sunday I separated my hat from my life jacket so that I could wear my hat while climbing to the top of the fjord. I separated my hat from my glasses when I got too hot in the shade and wanted to take my hat off. After the hike, when I rolled my kayak to cool down I lost my glasses.

Day 8

For the third and final time I paddled through Geirangerfjord past it's fantastic waterfalls and beneath its enormous cliffs.

When I got to where the fjord split I turned south into a strong headwind and paddled to Hellesylt because when I came up with my route back in NJ it seemed like I'd want to take a look.

After the enormous struggle into the wind, I turned around and made great time with a robust tail wind.

I ended my day at Uksvika. Sadly, as I knew they would be, the Germans were gone. I had hoped that someone similarly friendly would be renting the house, but it was empty.

I walked for another kilometer or so to the next house with my empty water bag. The woman who answered the door was happy to give me water, though she did not ask if there was anything else she could do for me like invite me into her shower. When she returned the bag several children were squeezed into the doorway to quietly look at me. The bag was only about a third full, not enough. I thanked her and took the bag.

Back at my boat I filled the bag from a stream with my water filter, having used my extra day in Geiranger to kill the colony growing there with bleach.

Norway Post 10

Over a week ago I spent a night in a hostel in Oslo, and it was there that I met an American named Sara. She was pretty, energetic, and to my great surprise accepted my invitation to kayak with me for nine weeks in Norway. Nobody ever accepted my random invitations. I was shocked. The only kayak she'd ever been in was a sit-on-top, which is not really a kayak at all. I talked her down to a week. Perhaps I wouldn't make lots of miles, but she was pretty enough so that it didn't matter.

She couldn't start right away, but she'd rent a boat from a local outfitter and meet me in Geiranger. I never thought she'd actually show up so far from anywhere. What were the odds that I would get to paddle for a week with a beautiful woman in Norway's breathtaking fjords? We're talking about me; I'm about as likely to hook up with a beautiful woman for a week of kayaking as a princess is to find a prince while kissing frogs, because that's the girl I need, only I don't turn into a prince so hopefully Sara won't be disappointed.

She showed up Saturday afternoon after a long bus ride through the night. We talked about kayaking and how my trip had been so far. We talked about the gear we had and the gear she needed. We talked about her time in Norway; she's looking for work in communications. We talked about her schooling and her husband back home and how she's working on her thesis for her masters to graduate.

Maybe she meant ex-husband. Did you say you were married?

"Yah. He's applying to medical school."

I should have taken my grandma's advice and become a doctor.

It looked like I'd be kayaking slowly for a week with a girl who, like most others, wasn't the least bit interested in me. Maybe she had some redeeming characteristic that made up for her being married, like the ability to juggle flaming batons. That would have been cool.

Except there was news in the evening. The outfitter she was going to rent the kayak from changed the price. The old price apparently hadn't included delivery to Geiranger, even though that had been discussed at length. The new price was too expensive for her, so she couldn't come after all.

I felt guilty that she came all that way on account of me with nothing to show for it. My hosts, who only did daily kayak rentals, gave us a kayak for the day for free. We paddled for an hour to a trail head at the bottom of the fjord and climbed to a breathtaking vista near the top. The paddling and the climbing took almost all day, and it was a day well spent for both of us.

Besides the great hike, my chafing wounds got to heal a little bit. I taught some kayaking techniques to my hosts in the evening, and I was invited to go backpacking in South America with Freeda in the fall. Freeda is a dazzlingly beautiful Scandinavian who studied at the University of Miami on a full rowing scholarship.

I don't yet have a teaching gig for next year since the school that I taught at last year announced on the last day that they were closing. It would be amazing to go to South America with Freeda. I don't know if I have enough money, and I'd probably meet her there only to find that she brought a boyfriend. Except what if that boyfriend turned out to be me?

Norway Post 9

Day 7

I headed south into Geirangerfjorden. Aside from the occasional gust, the weather was calm. Clouds passed in front of the sun intermittently.

Streams gushed off steep snowy peaks besides the water. They poured over cliffs and fell for such a long time that they almost entirely evaporated into mists before spreading over the rocks or sea below. Every nook and cranny of the tree patched rock faces was a conduit for the melting mountain top snow to find its way to the sea. The brutally tall peaks were alive with water. Their veins flowed with the stuff of life, and on every spot that some form of life could cling, something grew.

I passed four Dutch kayakers in fancy boats with top notch gear and we stopped and chatted for a bit. I would have loved to join them but they were headed in the opposite direction and I was expected in Geiranger. They're only paddling for three days, so I'll likely see them again on my way out of the fjord.

It was near one of the most breathtaking natural displays, where seven waterfalls fell from the same towering cliff into the sea, that I met two other paddlers in a tandem. They rented it for the afternoon from the place around the bend.

Good. The guy, who's name I couldn't remember, rented out kayaks in the fjord. Apparently he was the only one, my fellow paddlers informed me, so I'd paddle the short remaining distance in their company and be done. I was tired. It had been a long day and a long week.

The couple were Norwegians from Oslo on holiday. He was an engineer and worked with the country's hydro electric system. I had seen two station on the fjord so far. The system provides the country with most of its electricity, and with all the water falling off the mountains, it's no surprise.

We arrived at the dock. My host, whose name I still couldn't remember, told me that he'd have someone wait for me since he couldn't be there himself. However, the guy at the dock never heard of me and wasn't waiting for me. He suggested that I look for my friend at another kayak rental place in the main part of the village a kilometer on.

I looked around. I was tired and getting cold. My chafing hurt.

After I gave up on finding another kayak rental place, I got out and looked up my host's name on my phone. I then paddled the kilometer back to the first dock and asked if Rubio worked there.

He did. I was welcomed into Rubio's home and invited to shower. Rubio, a co manager with Mark at Geiranger Adventure was a wonderful host. Rubio and Mark are also exceptional kayakers and guides, and if you ever find yourself in Geiranger go for a paddle with them. You'll have a great time and be awed and inspired by this spectacular fjord.

Norway Post 8

Day 6

I slept wonderfully, waking up only once in the middle of the night to check if the tide had taken my boat. My efforts to haul it up cleared the high tide line by half a foot. I figured it would be safe if I got it above the lowest point where I could find green land grass growing between the rocks, and it was.

In the morning, as I ate my breakfast, dolphins snorted and surfaced about 50 meters out. Based on their size, I suspected it was the same trio I had seen previously. Once I'd launched and was on my way I saw them again, together with two other slightly larger members of their pod. 

Later in the day I saw the squirrely water creature that might be an otter for just a couple of seconds. They're very shy.

In the bay at Skotet there's a dock at the bottom of a heavily wooded incredibly steep slope. A young Norwegian ran to the edge and leaped off the dock with a hoot. It was warm and sunny; the water was about 55 degrees.

He yelped in Norwegian what undoubtedly translated to "COLD!" and swam back to the dock.  His friends chuckled as he climbed back onto the dock.  Hopefully they'd give it a shot themselves.

I wanted to confirm that I was where I thought I was, so I asked if I was in Skotet.  It was, strange that I didn't see any houses.

I followed the fjord south and finished wearily in the small marina in Uksvika. There I met some Germans renting a house for the week. They gave me a shower, beer, seasonings for my dinner, and lots of good cheer.  Norway seems to be full of happy people and flowing with showers.