65 – Monday: Not quite to Plan

After our routine exercise before breakfast, K went out with the tripod and took some pix of a boat house on stilts as the colour of the water, rocks and seaweed fascinated her and played with shutter and aperture.  Still don’t know how the boats got to the water as the tidal range is minimal!  But the water truly reflects whatever is around it.  At one point on our journey the sea was so calm with the sky reflected in it that a cruise ship looked as it if was floating in the sky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove onto Svolvaer, as it is really the major town on the islands, to pick up some free wifi (blog upload and app & podcasts downloads) and visit the Tourist information.  Half failed on both counts.  No free wifi, so forced to enjoy a cake and coffee where we obtained the wifi password, and the Tourist I.C. could only give us some info on the one island.  Chemical toilet emptying does not seem to be plentiful in the islands, presumably as they are encouraging you to pay for camp sites.  The TIC had given us a list of emptying points but as most were campsites, we knew we would have to pay.  So, we duly pulled into the first campsite … it was sunny, it had really nice facilities and a washing machine …. the office was shut for lunch so we could not ask about emptying our toilet.  We got the table and chairs out and had our own lunch ….. 10 mins in, it was a no brainer … we would stay the night.  Actually really cheap; £18.50.  Wash loads £1.80 each and a shower £0.90.   Lovely owner who explained that he had worked on the site for 15 years and was now in his 4th season.   We did not move from the site all afternoon.  So lovely to get table and chairs out end erect the wind break (part of K’s leaving work gift) –  yes, my May camping girls, even had an erection beer.

In fact, we got so comfortable, that we booked for the next night too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

66 – Tuesday:  Bikes and BBQ

A leisurely start followed by some exercise.  James had followed a track behind the campsite which was hard work and came back as a sweaty puddle.  So we capitalised on his burst of energy and cycled, via a wooden church (did not go in as they charged the equivalent of the meat for our BBQ), back to Svolvaer to the supermarket.  Had lunch in the main square where the most humungous seagull virtually landed on J’s head after his sarney …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PM was spent very productively:  removing the skunk like stripe of grey from K’s head.  J was girded loins all ready to do the task, but lucky for him, could not get the rubber gloves on.  He was relegated to mirror holder.  Mum, I followed your technique and spotted a missed area to the side, but invisible as my hair hangs down 🙂  Really pleased to ge able to get rid of the grey

BBQ evening – bliss.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

67 – Wednesday:  Weather change and Viking Museum

Having collected the final laundry load, exercised and performed full sanitary services on Chardonnay, we moved on from our comfortable pitch … really lovely to be still for a couple of days.  We drove down a virtually single track road with loads of other motor homes … thankfully lots of passing places to a small but major fishing village called Henningsvaer.  Just pretty but we got to see some of the stockfish hanging to dry and loaded in a truck.  The mostly cod is dipped in seawater and then hung to dry for the summer.  Protected from seagulls by netting – perhaps I should wrap J in netting?  Apparently you can buy it as a snack, bash it first to get the skin off as well as cook with it, after more bashing!  I had thought is might be like the Portuguese salt cod that i was not overly keen on, but we will keep our eyes open to try it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had intended to skip the viking museum – how much more can one take … but the reviews of the Borg Viking Museum were excellent.  Despite the entry fee of £25 (thank goodness J is a senior – has to have some benefits!), we really rated it.  They discovered the longest Chieftain’s long house in Scandinavia.  Excellent AV interactive with individual headsets and artefacts to explain the importance of this site.  Viking living made real in the long house by staff and a walk down to the viking ship, passing an axe throwing youth (Health and Safety has definitely gone mad in UK – real fires and axes).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over night pitch on a side road, beside a little used football pitch and …. no other motorhomes … yet!