Eventful Weekend

It was a somewhat interesting weekend. I had planned to have a quite one and work on a project that we are trying to finish up. Hmmm
Thursday night (cos the weekend always used to start on Thursday) was Sandy's stag bbq at his house. Ten guys, a fridge full of beer and a couple of bottles of whisky, what could possibly go wrong? Enough said I think!

Friday night I was home alone, recovering from Thursday. Took photos of the meteor shower, did a bit of work, watched a movie and headed to bed at midnight. Woke up at 2.30 to the sound of somebody breaking into my house! For fucksake this is Norway! This isn't supposed to happen here. Anyway the were rather suprised to see a naked and very angry me in the corridor which was enough to ensure they beat a hasty retreat! Couldn't really give chase with no clothes-on so I had to let it go. Bastards had climbed in through the very small window in the washing machine room. Obviously thought the house was empty! Scum.

Next morning up neighbour took it on himself to deliver 10 tonnes of stone which he had promised months ago for my garden. He dumped it at the top of the stairs so I had to get it all moved. Fortunatly Sandy and Helen were keen to help and after a very long day of moving barrow fulls of stone down 25 steps the job was done. Very grateful for the help! That would have been hell alone. Stayed in and worked Saturday night, no visitors in the night this time.

Sunday went for a kayak trip with Sandy. It was a lovely day and we headed out to Turøy in Øygarden (north Sotra). Paddled out and once we got into the open ocean the swell was gnarly. Not so big (c. 1-2 m ) but really choppy and broken up, coming from all sorts of directions and breaking over us. Lots of concentration required and I was convinced I was going to fall out. Headed around the island and just as we turned the south west corner and headed around, Sandy got hit by a oblique wave from behind which sent him for a swim. We got him back in the boat pretty quick and all was fine. We surfed in and then headed back north on the sheltered side of island. A more eventful trip than we had planned.

Got back and feel asleep trying to do some of the goddam work! All in all a rather eventful weekend. Back to work on Monday

Summer is here (at last)

After a fairly shitte start to the summer (the wettest July on record), things suddenly got better on Thursday when the sun came out. So since then I have:

1. Been to see Muse, supported by the White Lies. I had heard very good things about Muse live and was really looking forward to it. In the end it was OK, the rest of the crowd were going mental so maybe it was just me. It was good but probably not quite what I was expecting. The White Lies were excellent again. Went drinking afterwards and ran into all sorts of folk in town which made me realise it's a long time since I properly went out. A good night.


First of all a bit of White Lies


And then some Muse, the crowd are loving it!

2. Saturday, I pottered about and continued the ongoing saga of my patio building. Great to just hang out at the lair with nothing to do.

3. Saturday evening I went to visit some friends who live in the "highest house in Bergen" right up on the hillside 160 steps from the highest point that you can drive. Very pleasent evening with a barbi whilst watching the sunset set across the city and Askøy. There are few places in the World that are better than Bergen when the weather is like this.

Sunset dinner on the side of Sandviks Fjell above Bergen with Askøy in the distance

Andreas and Stefi on the balcony

4. Sunday I went for a kayak trip with Sandy. We were out for about 4 hours from Glasvær in the south of Sotra. Perfect paddling conditions to tour in and out of all the little islands. Reasonable swell in the open ocean which was just big enough to be fun. A very nice afteroon out.

Sandy Paddling near Glesvær

Yes summer in western Norway is great, shame its so short.

Life in the Big Brother household...

Had my little brother visiting for the last week – he keeps saying “Day 3 in the big brother house”, in a gordie accent, so it seemed like a fitting title for a post. Apologies to anyone who came here via a search engine whilst looking for info about the mind numbingly dull, reality TV show...

Anyway we’ve had an entertaining and varied week and on the whole the weather has been stunning. Les arrived very late Monday night. Tuesday was my birthday, 42 which is apparently the “meaning of life”, no white mice or vogons but I do know where my towel is. Had a barbq in the evening with a few folk coming over, all very pleasant and civilized. Got lots of nice presi's, so thanks folks.

Wednesday, Les and I tackled the building job that has been taunting me for two years every time I walk up the steps to my car. Not just a question of building a garden wall but also lots of drainage to be put in place. Apparently it rains a lot here! Got a fair bit of it done, including the tricky bits, now I need to wait another two years and then finish the job.

Thursday we took the boat out. All was going well as we skimmed over the mirror like waters, around the back of Lille Sotra. Then I let Les drive and he was having fun, making appreciative noises, just about the time smoke started coming out the engine. Bugger! We let it cool down but it was not looking good, so we bobbed about for a bit and then waved down a passing boat to get towed to the nearest marina. Then called Rolf and he came and towed us home that evening. Not sure what is wrong yet, best guess is a stuck impellor which has buggered the cooling system. Hmm probably going to be expensive.

Friday we pottered about, enjoyed the sunshine and got ready for the weekend. Saturday morning we headed up to Gudvangen with Katharine, Emma and four kayaks to meet Sandy and Helen. After some car shuffling we put the boats in the water at Flåm and started paddling. Now since Emma and Helen and never been in kayaks before and Les, not for a few years there was potential for another epic like the last time so I checked the weather repeatedly and made them practice getting out the boats etc. Fortunatly the water was warm and the tourists were entertained. We then headed off for two days on one of the World’s most outstanding fjord trips.

Saturday afternoon we paddled to the top of Nærøyfjorden and camped on a small headland. Not too many flat spots for the tents but we managed to squeeze on, got a fire going, popped some champagne for Helen’s birthday and cooked food, drank some beer and had a very pleasant evening, retiring to bed at a still very light, midnight.

Next day the weather was a bit more cloudy but still great. Paddled along the amazing Nærøyfjord back to Gudvangen. Finished up at about 3pm, with some tired and sunburnt people but no major incidents. I have done the trip before but never in that direction. The situation is just amazing and it’s definitely worth doing again and again.

Sunday night we returned to Bergen, sorted out the gear and watched some DVDs. All in all a fine week at the Big Brother household.

Summer in Bergen

Had a fantastic week – just finished a big project in work and things have relaxed a lot. There are only 5 people in the office now. Lunch is like being on some TV reality show as the numbers decrease by the day! The weather has been really nice so we have been out playing every evening. Climbed most of the routes at Atlantis on Monday eve with Katharine and she managed to led her first route – good effort. Went kayaking down at Glesvær on Wednesday evening. Really lovely conditions, no wind and a beautiful sunset.

Last night went to Gjøkeredet with Scott, Jamie and Camilla. The crag was basking in the evening sun. Scott and I climbed a load of routes, trying to stay on the steep stuff, away from the slabs which were greasy in the heat. Ended up trying to solo a traverse over the water and predictably fell in. The water was lovely and the subsequent swim was a great way to cool off.

This is life in western Norway at its best.

Photos by Jamie - next time please try and make me a look a bit more heroic and a bit less fat - Ta! :-)

A bomb proof roll...

... is a good thing to have when sea-kayaking

I have no idea who this guy is but he is cool as.... a very cool thing

Can't remember who sent me this movie but I thought I'd share it with you

Weekend is here, the weather is sunny. Playing on the boat tonight and tomorrow, climbing Sunday. Rock'n'roll on the rift margin

Have a good weekend

Nerdy things to do with a GPS and a kayak in Western Norway

The degree confluence project is an attempt to document all the land or near-land intersection points of cardinal lines of latitude and longitude.

Basically it means lots of nerds go and take photos of the exact point in space where 6 degrees North crosses 54 degrees East etc. Then they post them on the web...

Why? Buggered if I know, but it beats watching shitte tv or worse, football. Its also a good way to spend a day and visit a point on the Earth`s surface that has no other merit, ie it is not a summit or especially pretty or anything. It just happens to be where two arbitary navigation lines cross.

Essentially its an excuse to get out the house and visit somewhere random.

So last year when I found out that 60N/5E had never been visited and it was just off the coast to the south of us it seemed a good way to waste a day, infact a whole weekend.

You can read the account here ...

Sea Kayaking in a World Heritage Fjord - Gudvangen to Flåm

Aurlands Fjord and its neighbouring Nærøyfjord are the poster boys of Norwegian Fjords, along with their northern cousin Geiranger, they are the ones that feature in all the brochure and magazine articles; they are also a World Heritage site. Aurlands extends south from Sognfjord as and splits into two branches of an inverted Y. Sitting at the bottom of the western arm (Nærøyfjord) is the little town of Gudvangen and at the base of the eastern arm is Flåm. I have long wanted to kayak between the two and last weekend go the chance to do it.


The weather was stunning and the forecast was good, well as good as the forecast can be here, it changes on a daily basis. Katharine and I roped in Cecelia, Arne and Vibeke (the Sunmøre crew) to join us on the adventure. A two day drip, camping in the middle, should be an easy 50 km.

Friday night Chris Clark, or “farmer Clark” as he is now called since he bought 20 acres of Derbyshire’s finest, was in town. He came up and stayed at the evil lair and we drank beer, sat in the tub and put the world to rites. Interesting to discuss how perception and desire changes as you get older. We talked about how he is becoming more and more attached to his land and has less desire to travel. We also talked about cars, engines, girls and our respective experiences in academia – so everything has change! Was good to catch up.

Next morning woke up with a predictably bad head and we loaded all the gear, dropped Chris at the airport and meet the others, only half an hour late! Drove the 2.5 hours to Gudvangen and the weather was stunning, this was going to be a good trip.

Dropped the cars, loaded the boats and headed up the fjord. It was stunning, the water still has a mirror, the sides shooting 2000 m up, cut by long white streaks of snow melt water falls. Yep I could see why this was a World heritage site.

All was going well, it was Cecelia’s first time in a kayak so we kept an eye on her, especially when the big boats went past and created big bow waves. Arne was whizzing around like a Labrador on a day in the park and the rest of us just paddled leisurely.


Towards the end of the day, about 20 km in we grabbed the last on the fading sun on a small beach with a beer before crossing over to another very nice beach where we set up tents, light a big fire, cooked up pasta and drank more beer. Arne was a bit under the weather – claims it was the previous evenings pølser – which is quite possible!

Next morning the weather was a bit colder and the cloud had come in, a taste of things to come? We had a leisurely breakfast packed up and headed out. Great mornings paddling, awesome scenery, playing in the base of the waterfalls, taking pictures and enjoying being there. Rounded the corner into Aurlandsfjord and a small family of goats chased us along the rocky shoreline until the cliffs once again become vertical and they had to stop.

Further along we stopped at Stigen where a Californian couple live in a small house in a hanging valley 400 m above the fjord. We pulled in, the landing was pretty tricky and the boats had to be hauled out and suspended from a wooden beam. The difficultly was compounded by the fact that we were immediately mobbed by goats, hundreds of them, clambering over the boats, chewing everything, barging us and each other. At first it was funny but it rapidly got a bit tedious! Eventually the goats lost interest; we had lunch and then hiked up the side. From the base it seemed highly unfeasible that there was a path going up the near vertical sides, this didn’t get much better, even as we followed the well trodden path. Eventually it all became clear and we made the short steep climb to the farm house – amazing views but a long way to go to for the morning paper.

By the time we got back down to the boats the wind had seriously picked up. It was coming from the south, funnelling along the fjord and we were heading straight into it. It was hard work and the swell was picking up.

Everyone put their heads down and paddled in their own little world. Katharine stuck with Cecelia who was struggling quite badly. After about 3 hours we got within 1km of Flåm. The wind was now really strong and it was almost impossible to make any headway, but with no beaches there was nothing to do but kept pushing on. Eventually Arne, Vibeke and I regrouped in little sheltered bay to wait for the others, it was painful to watch their slow progress and you could see that Cecelia was very tired, but if they could get to us, she could rest and then their was less than a klick to go.

Then as I watched, her boat was twisted side on to the growing swell by a gust and she was flipped over. FUCK!

I went to help and with the wind behind, surfing on the waves, I was there in minutes! Got her hanging on the front of my boat and we tried to X rescue but she was too tired to lift her boat out of the water in the swell. So I just flipped it over and hauled her back in and we pumped it out. That’s not a recognized rescue but it has worked very well for me, twice.

Katharine had rescued her paddle but she was clearly too cold and too tired to use it and we were getting blown further back up the fjord. Stuck a rope on her and towed. It seemed like hours and it seemed like we were hardly moving, it was brutal but eventually we made the resting place and then around the corner to the beach.

Arne and Vibeke appeared and helped us land the kayaks before cancelling the rescue they had ordered! Some people from Njord turned up anyway made us some warm drinks and checked her over. Everything was fine and while I was grateful for them coming out I was also very pleased that we sorted ourselves out and had not required rescue. It’s much better to be self-sufficient than being another accident statistic.

After that the guy from Njord kindly loaded our boats on to is van and dropped us back in Gudvangen and we headed back to Bergen arriving at 2am. Very tired but happy for a good adventure.

The trip is stunning, I would recommend it to anyone, just pay a bit more attention to the weather! All in all a great weekend.