Nærøyfjorden
I wasn't able to get pictures up a few days ago, but now I don't even feel the need to finish that post. It was about trains, buses and ferry boat rides to and around the Hardangerfjord, which was plenty beautiful, and I met good people, but too touristy.
What I want to share now is the four days I just spent kayaking on the Nærøyfjord (which lets me use both the æ and the ø on this keyboard). It's the narrowest of the fjords and is part of a World Heritage area. The company I got the kayak from was quite reasonably not willing to let an unknown solo paddler go off for days, so I was part of a two day tour group for two days then had two mostly on my own. Here's the beach where I camped. Places you can actually land a kayak are few and far between. Mostly it is steep walls that go up like 3000 ft. Believe it or not this was a very dry year here. Even so everywhere you look there are amazing waterfalls, each of which would be a destination in itself most places.
The days on my own were the best. First I found a tasty-looking waterfall so I could fill my water bottles (yes, the water is that clean, no need to treat it) and kayaked around a bit and went for a hike up to about 1000 ft (no pictures from above because it was kind of foggy. It was beautiful but not so spectacular in the pictures)
Yesterday afternoon I pulled out at this farm called Styvi. No one in sight as I wandered around for a few minutes. Then I ran into a woman who looked to be about 80 years old getting a scythe and rake out of a barn. I tried to ask her if I could wander around, but she spoke no English (why would she) and my Norwegian is limited to knowing that appelsin means orange, not apple. But yes, we established I could walk over to her waterfall. A few minutes later she called me over next to a building to eat some big yellow berries (is that a gooseberry? she told me the name in Norwegian...) off the bushes there. Then since I was there, I helped her rake up the plants she was cutting. To be clear, she didn't need help. Through our "conversation" I learned that she lives there with one other older woman, maybe it's her sister, and they look after the whole place. She then took me to a barn that had a "museum." Actually I think all of the stuff was her family's from the past century. Lots of cool old farm stuff, handmade wooden boats and leather clothes and shoes, as well as school desks and books. These were hers from the 1930's. She also had drawings up (dated 1935 to 1938) which were cool and sad - they depicted wolves and other wildlife that isn't in the area any more (gone from hunting).
Especially when I was paddling alone, every time a ferry boat passed I became part of the tourist attraction. I'll be in a whole lot of people's vacation pictures. Definitely better than being on the ferry myself. Tomorrow I'm flying to Stockholm for the plant biomechanics conference. I haven't learned any Swedish, either...
What I want to share now is the four days I just spent kayaking on the Nærøyfjord (which lets me use both the æ and the ø on this keyboard). It's the narrowest of the fjords and is part of a World Heritage area. The company I got the kayak from was quite reasonably not willing to let an unknown solo paddler go off for days, so I was part of a two day tour group for two days then had two mostly on my own. Here's the beach where I camped. Places you can actually land a kayak are few and far between. Mostly it is steep walls that go up like 3000 ft. Believe it or not this was a very dry year here. Even so everywhere you look there are amazing waterfalls, each of which would be a destination in itself most places.
The days on my own were the best. First I found a tasty-looking waterfall so I could fill my water bottles (yes, the water is that clean, no need to treat it) and kayaked around a bit and went for a hike up to about 1000 ft (no pictures from above because it was kind of foggy. It was beautiful but not so spectacular in the pictures)
Yesterday afternoon I pulled out at this farm called Styvi. No one in sight as I wandered around for a few minutes. Then I ran into a woman who looked to be about 80 years old getting a scythe and rake out of a barn. I tried to ask her if I could wander around, but she spoke no English (why would she) and my Norwegian is limited to knowing that appelsin means orange, not apple. But yes, we established I could walk over to her waterfall. A few minutes later she called me over next to a building to eat some big yellow berries (is that a gooseberry? she told me the name in Norwegian...) off the bushes there. Then since I was there, I helped her rake up the plants she was cutting. To be clear, she didn't need help. Through our "conversation" I learned that she lives there with one other older woman, maybe it's her sister, and they look after the whole place. She then took me to a barn that had a "museum." Actually I think all of the stuff was her family's from the past century. Lots of cool old farm stuff, handmade wooden boats and leather clothes and shoes, as well as school desks and books. These were hers from the 1930's. She also had drawings up (dated 1935 to 1938) which were cool and sad - they depicted wolves and other wildlife that isn't in the area any more (gone from hunting).
Especially when I was paddling alone, every time a ferry boat passed I became part of the tourist attraction. I'll be in a whole lot of people's vacation pictures. Definitely better than being on the ferry myself. Tomorrow I'm flying to Stockholm for the plant biomechanics conference. I haven't learned any Swedish, either...
posted by Lori Bassman at 2:37 AM
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