Since returning from our trip to the UK we’ve been planning for our 2023 cruising and getting Away ready for some arctic water sailing.
Winter has sure settled in here in Norheimsund and we are getting used to the boat being covered in snow and ice, and walking through the various tracks using crampons on our shoes. Bernie has had his first experience in proper powder snow and went mad running and running around.
We’ve been completing a few boat jobs, like setting up the dingy, installing more hooks (I love hooks), installing some plant shelves (I love plants) and doing general maintenance and tidy up.
Seeing some fantastic weather on the horizon, we plan to explore a little of the Hardanger Fjord. We had heard the arm of the Fjord just north from us was a beautiful town called Botnen that has only 3 permanent inhabitants and is a stunning example of remote Norwegian scenery. So one day, we stocked up with fuel and food and headed out into the sunshine.
Arriving in Botnen the reflections in the completely still fjord were epic.
We spent 2 nights here and managed some walking into the hills with Bernie.
We noted that we still had a few days of calm still sunny weather and headed further in the fjord to Ulvik and town recommended to us with great mountain scenery.
There was too much ice to reach Ulvik nestled amongst the mountains but we enjoyed the sunset as we headed back to Kinsarvik in the main fjord.
You can watch our little adventure in the fjord here: https://youtu.be/TTYafDfqFW8
Bernie decided a big walk was in order so we followed the ‘waterfall’ track from Kinsarvik. We climbed up beside a hydro electric pipe to an icy monotone landscape. Bernie tried the thin ice at the top of the waterfall and ‘enjoyed’ some on lead time while near the water after that.
There was plenty of dramatic landscapes as we headed back to our sheltered corner of the fjord in Norheimsund. The depth is mostly too great for our depth sounder to register a reading, but occasionally it showed just a few meters depth in the middle of the fjord. We weren’t able to determine if it was a passing orca, layers of fresh water or a stray russian submarine.
The local sailing club invited us to give a talk about our adventures at their meeting. It was so popular that we sold out the first venue and had to be upgraded to the local school classroom! We had spent the previous couple of weeks discussing together what in the world Norwegian sailors would want to hear from us! We figured pictures and stories of white sand beaches, sunshine and turquoise water were a welcome distraction from the winter weather and so we regaled them about our trip up the Australian East Coast in Addictive. Naturally we also added sufficient detail about Away, and a few of our adventures in Europe which resulted in a number of new visitors to Away over the coming days! So much social! Out of all the people listening to us, the only clearly bored person was the 10 year old who took to climbing on her Mum, so we were happy to have been entertaining.
It was finally time to break the winter inertia and start heading up the coast. The first stop is Bergen to clean Away’s bottom and stock up with fresh coffee beans.
