Norway, July 1999
Oh, lovely speaks the north of Norway, when the rain stops and the sun shines on their fair fjords and beaches!! However, my trip was mostly rain and coldness, but still a fun experience in retrospect. I did not originally plan to make any trips up above the arctic circle, but when I met Patrice buying tickets at the train station with his friend Alex, from Britain, I thought, "What the heck, it'll be fun!". And I was almost right, except for the cold nights and long hike of over 40 km, which truly brought out the whipmering baby inside of me, ha!
Well, the trip began with the night train to Narvik, Norway. It took a little over 18 hours to reach our destination, but the sights in the morning were worth it, looking out from the train window as we wound our way through the mountain tops amongst the fjords. From Narvik we planned to immediately travel out to the island of Lofoten, however, our ferry was disabled for the day, so instead we hiked up the ski mountain that the town rested against. We set up our camp at about 900 meters above sea lever, the real sea being actually below us, and then continued to explore our mountain, almost all the way to the top, under the beginning of the midnight sun. After climbing around for a time, sliding down a little snow bank and becoming quite cold we settled in for our dinner and a fitful sleep. Well, I should say only a fitfull sleep for me, because I only brought my summer sleeping bag, good for +10 degrees and the morning temperature happened to be +3 degrees. We then hiked back down our mountain and boarded the ferry out to Lofoten island.
The ferry stopped over at several villages and towns that were only accessible by boat. During the ride we also viewed many beautiful sand and rock beaches with mediterranean appearances. Additionally, we also recieved some free roller rides, and listened to the beautiful sounds of other passengers sea sickness. Our arrival at Lofoten was heralded with the sun disappearing behind some low covered clouds.
Once on Lofoten we tried to rent bycycles but due to the rental office being closed we instead used our thumbs to move us around. And because of this we made the fortuante acquaintance of Espen J�rgensen. Espen is an avid fisherman, outdoors man, restaurant owner and chef, and well as once being a rock climber before having an unfortunate accident. He gave us al lift out to the city of Henningssvaer, which is reknowned for its fishing, whaling, and climbing industry. In the town of Henningsvaer we went to the Klatrekaf�(climber cafe), where we met people from all over the world who were here for the incredible fishing, climbing, and hiking. Unfortunately, this kaf� also put an incredible dent in my budget, at 46 Swedish crowns a beer, or nine dollars Canadian!! So, to make it worth while I, being my ignomiaus self, filched a Norlands glass with the map of norway on it. After wandering the sights, we made our camp near to Espens and then planned our next day's trip.
We decided to hithhike out to a place called Haukland strand(beach), nearly 80 km away(this was my hairbrained idea, woeness me) and of course we did it. We had success with hitchhiking to get there, kind of. We started well, but then had to walk aways, and then we gave up and took the bus to a town near the beach. From there we hitchhiked again with phenomanal success, having to walk at most only about 5 km more to reach our final destination. The beach was incredible, a truly exhiliterating sight to see, for there lay in the heart of the north a sight of the south, fully tropical beaches with white sand and sparkling green and blue water, but bordered by the high topped fjords of Norway. And sheep. Sheep running around all over the hills and roads, and atop the mountainous tops. So after one hour of true awe by me, Alex's running around in bare feet and leaving his email, and Patrices accompanpied awe, we finally left this place to begin our treck home. And a treck it did become!!
We tried to hitchhike, but nobody wanted us. So we walked about 10 km before we caught our first hitch, which lasted for about 10 km, but some is better than nothing. Then we walked again, and after several more kms we caught another hitch. Again a blessing, and then, that was our last hitch. We walked and walked until finally we came to a diner, 10 minutes before they closed. The wonderful old lady who worked there looked at us, and then gave us some food and drink, wonderful, wonderful old lady! And then we continued walking, walking, walking. One nice empty car passed us, but the guy ignored us. And some young punks passed us, leaving us the finger. But still we had to walk. we walked through rain and cloud, around the sides of mountains and along the edges of the inland sea fjords. Beautiful, wonderous, but all shrouded in the despair of walking. We finally took a meal at two in the morning or so, eating in the full cloudy light of the midnight sun. Beans, and weiners, true blessings from the gods!! And then we walked more and more, over two bridges and around the sea's edge, taking small rests to let our feet recover. And then we walked more, till finally, we arrived at our home camp, at 900 in the morning, a homeward trek that began at 2000 the previous evening.
I slept like a rock, and when I awoke I cooked everything we had, and we ate it all. And then we slept and rested more. We finally managed the energy to go into the town and take coffee and hot chocolate in a nice, cozy hotel. So, after resting up for a whole day, we began our trek back to the main town to catch the ferry. Again began our ordeal of hitchhiking, but this time we had much success and we also took the bus for the last few kms. We took our ferry again, upon which we slept like the dead, back to Narvik. In Narvik we searched for a place to tent(but not up the mountain) and finally camped out beside the train station. In the morning we caught the train to Kiruna, Sweden and from there we took a flight back to Stockholm thus ending our trudging trip from hell, one of the most fun experiences I�ve ever had, when looking back at.
back