Day Fourteen

Nesna - Forøya

54km

19.7 km/h average

A gray rainy day

West-southwest wind (mostly tailwind), occasionally strong

Today was a rather lazy day. To cut the long fjord towards Mo I Rana, we waited for the fast ferry. Unfortunately, it only departed at 5 in the afternoon. So first of all, sleep in, check emails, have a leisurely breakfast, and enjoy all the amenities of a cabin, especially when it's constantly raining outside. Unfortunately, at 12 o'clock, we had to leave our cozy home. First, we went shopping without any hurry, and then to the harbor in the waiting room. I tried fishing at the harbor mole, but the wind was so strong and against me that I couldn't cast the spinner far and it always drifted against the harbor wall. Out of 10 casts, I had about 5 pieces of seaweed. And since it was raining and the wind was really cold, I soon went to the others in the waiting room. I spent the next 3 hours reading and finished the book, so now I carry about 500g less.

The ferry was really fast and quickly took us through the gray and foggy fjord landscape. I don't know if it was because the mountain peaks were all covered in clouds, but the landscape seemed even more enchanting, the mountains higher, and the slopes almost vertical. White foaming streams constantly cascaded down the rock walls, and in this scenery, I felt small and insignificant. Although it was raining constantly, sometimes stronger and sometimes weaker, we made good progress. We had an hour and a half for the first 26km and 350 meters of elevation. Then the next ferry departed. Although we stopped frequently, we easily covered the distance in time. 26km isn't much, but on these few kilometers, the perspectives constantly changed. After just a few kilometers, the same mountain looked completely different. That was also partly due to the constantly changing route. Most of the time, the path led us along the coast and therefore changed its direction frequently.

The second ferry took almost an hour, and during the crossing, we crossed the Arctic Circle. We celebrated this rather inconspicuous event (there was a small metal globe on the shore) with a sip from Jonathan's flask and me with an ice cream (so it couldn't be that cold despite the rain (about 10 degrees Celsius)).

We had just under two hours for the next 28km, but we also had to conquer 550 meters of elevation. Somehow, this stretch was much tougher than the first kilometers. We went through two tunnels, and especially the second tunnel was great to ride through. At the summit of the tunnel, we could already see the exit and rolled towards it for a good 2 km at high speed. And all this without a single car.

Although I was a bit worried, we arrived at the last ferry of the day much too early. We could already see our campsite on the other side, but still had to wait half an hour. I used the time and cast my fishing line a few times. On the first cast on the lake side of the dock, I caught a 30cm long cod. Because I was used to much larger cod from my Greenland trip, I threw it back. Later, I regretted it a bit. We should have eaten it. From the ferry, we briefly saw a dolphin or small whale (it didn't fully surface)

At the campsite, we got a large luxurious cabin (for a very reasonable price), I fished unsuccessfully for a while, then we had pasta with a very delicious cheese sauce. It's 1 o'clock now, it's bright, but rainy, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of the fantastic landscape tomorrow. It doesn't matter whether it's rainy or sunny - both have their charm.