Katharine has gone to the alps to hurl herself down a ski slope on my mountain bike with the Leppards et al. I probably would have gone with them except I am off to Oz in 3 weeks to play with my new motorbike in the outback. So I have been home alone.
Thursday night KJK was in town so we went for some food at USF, it was a lovely evening and we sat outside by the water, caught up and watch the world go by.
Friday night went out on the boat on my own. Headed in towards Bergen and explored the coast. Found so good potential DWS spots – just need to find somebody stupid enough to go with me. Explored around Bergen and tried to get a feel for handling the boat. It’s big, fast and a bit unsteady at speed i.e. fun but scary! Ended up heading around the back of Askøy, the north side of the island was a bit more sheltered so I opened it up and got to 38 knots. Not bad! The trip was a bit further than I thought and coming down the main channel on the landward side of Sotra was straight into the wind and some biggish waves. Almost ran out of fuel but made it back. When I arrived in the marina I realized that I had been smiling solidly for two hours. A good toy.
S
aturday had a agreed to take the Pope and the A-man out for a spin. Picked them up with a guy called Paul at the Bryggen and we blasted out to sea. Very happy to see the boat was much more stable with 4 people in and we cruised at a steady 30, bouncing over some big waves. Everyone had a go at driving and we got it up to 40.7! Now just need to wait for a calm day… The Pope checked out some potential mountain biking on the footwall dip slope of southern Sotra – he has a theory that this place could be the next Moab! I am skeptical…Ended up in Lysefjord, had an ice cream and then blasted back. Just as we came under the Sotra Bridge we caught up with a huge cruise liner, pushing out a massive wake. It had to be done! I gunned the motor straight at the 3m high bow wave and we tipped the crest and surfed down the front, getting soaked from the spray. The boys loved it, they were laughing so much I thought Atle was going to cry, in fact they loved it so much we had to do it again, three more times. By the end we had a pretty big audience on the ship, as Tor said, they probably thought it was a bunch of kids pratting around – they were right!
Saturday night chilled out at home and then Sunday morning Jamie came around and we headed down to southern Sotra and Jesusvegan for some trad climbing. Haven’t climbed trad for two years, what with having a broken ankle and all that. We found the crag after some bush whacking and Jamie opted to lead the first route. Two pitch little gem which he strung into one, with a tricky move through a bulge near the top. I lead the next route which was also a cracker, it felt really good to be leading on natural gear and although the route wasn’t especially hard it had
its moments, pulling into a balancy scoop above the gear. Sitting at the top belaying with that post route rush, looking out over blue skies and the sea it felt great to be alive. This is what living in Norway is all about.We did one more then came back for tea and the last piece of my birthday cheese cake.
Any weekend when you can play with your boat, climb trad and eat cheese cake is a good one in my book!
At last some proper climbing photos! Courtesy of Jamie
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