Leben im Rudel: Tour de Nord

Part 13: Nyksund (Langoya, Vesterålen)

Good morning, Andoya! :-)

Charlie had made himself real comfortable in my bed.
How could I say no? There was a constant "husky-threat" out there... He needed comfort. :-D

One of my plans on Vesterålen had been to go on a whale safari. But despite the most awesome weather, out on the Sea, it would have been too windy - at least for delicate tourists - non of the whale watching boats had left the harbour for two days already.

So instead of watching whales, I decided to spend a relaxing day without too much physical activity. I had read about this old, abandoned fishing village, Nyksund, which became a ghost town in the 1970s. Only a few years ago, it came to new life, when artists re-discovered its beauty... :-)

Conveniently, Nyksund was also about a 2-hour-drive away, which gave me plenty of opportunity to see some more of Vesterålen. I know, I am repeating myself, but the scenery was super beautiful. Especially the last kilometers before reaching Nyksund were extraordinary! And when arriving in Nyksund, I think, I squeaked for joy. ;) It is like a mixture between an old Western Town and Venice. :-D This village has a charm that is hard to describe. It was super cool. I really loved it! I spent a lot of time in this small, small place - simply enjoying the atmosphere, taking pictures and eating well in a restaurant (it was my pampering-day, so it was allowed! ;) ).

arriving in Nyksund

There is a German vibe in Nyksund...

Quite a few Germans (and other foreigners/artists) have settled down here.

This tiny house was still empty... got me daydreaming... :)

2 unlikely friends ;)

On the way back to the car, I noticed a hiking path, which was winding its way pleasantly flat over a meadow. There was a sign informing me that this path would lead to another small fishing village called Sto. I checked the map on my phone, and when I saw that Sto would be only a few kilometer away along the cost, I decided to go visit this village as well.

So I started to go for a walk. I wore my lite, well ventilated city shoes. A handbag. No food. No water. You see where I am going with this.... ;-)

Everything started well. The path was easy, flat, well marked. The boys could run free and carelessly. But after a while, even I had to notice that I am not walking towards the coastline, which is where I thought I would be heading to. Instead, I constantly moved away from the Sea towards the mountains. The path started to be steeper and steeper, and before I knew it, I had to watch over the boys, so they wouldn't jump off a cliff. It was a hot day again... and I wondered, how I had ended up climbing a mountain... Just when I considered to turn around, I heard a couple of woman laughing somewhere ahead of me. When I met them, I asked whether this would be the trail towards Sto (which I highly doubted by then). I could tell that they were wondering what on earth I was doing there... And right they were. No sane person goes mountain climbing wearing a handbag and slippers, without a clue about neither the current location nor destination. ;-)

But kindly they told me anyways that I was standing at a fork, and both ways would lead to Sto: I could descend to the coastline (which would be shorter) or I could keep on climbing up the mountainside. They recommended the latter, and told me that I had anyways almost reached the highest point of the trail...

So I chose to take the mountain route and to come back via the coastal route. It was already afternoon, but I still believed that Sto wouldn't be too far away. So no problem! We kept on walking and walking.... The trail was super beautiful! Very diverse. Sometimes it was very exhausting and I had to climb; sometimes it was just easy strolling. I walked on the rooftop of the mountains, taking one summit after another, with a superb view to all directions. Fantastic!

I would have enjoyed it even more, if only I would have been prepared for this hike... But after a few hours of walking and still no sight of Sto, I did start to worry a little bit. I constantly checked my map, and I realized that walking over the mountains doesn't allow you to take the most direct path towards Sto. I was making a huge detour... The boys were very, very thirsty, and so was I. Unlike all other hikes before, there was no water nowhere (and I had no water with me)!
In addition, it was getting rather late. I still had a 2 hour drive back ahead of me, and Katrin and Uwe were waiting for me with dinner at 20:00... At 18:00, I wasn't even anywhere close to Sto. But I didn't want to turn around anymore either, because I thought that the coastal route would be so much faster to go back to Nyksund...

So I decided to call Katrin and Uwe to let them know that I would be "late" for dinner. But my phone refused to let me do any calls. At first, I thought that I wouldn't have any connection between the mountainsides. But later I learned that my phone simply didn't allow me to call anywhere else than to Finland!! How very useful! I had changed my contract just before I went on Holiday, and apparently there is a fine rule that doesn't allow you to call a foreign number for the first X months! Excellent! But being all smarty-pants, I thought "No problem! I allow for data roaming instead and call them via Skype! Ha!" Yeah, ha!, that wasn't allowed by my phone either. Superb idea with this restrictive clause, really.

My bad conscience grew, the longer it took me to arrive at Sto. Hopefully Katrin and Uwe wouldn't start to worry. Uwe had previously given me a couple of "Norway survival advices" and reminded me several times that I should call him, if something would go wrong...

I really had to laugh at the irony! There I was. I had gone alone on a Holiday trip. I was free, nothing to plan, and nobody to inform about where I would be when. Absolute independence! Yeah right.... Instead, I found myself rushing over rocks, almost running down the hillside, hoping nobody would send a search party after me, because I would be late for dinner... ;-) :-D

I believe it was around 20:30, when I finally reached that fishing village. I was so very thirsty by then, that I was hoping to find a café or a gas station... But seeing this tiny village didn't make me too hopeful. There were not even any people around, not talking about a restaurant or similar.
Luckily, a car turned into the road I was standing on, stopping in front of a house. I was a little desperate, feeling guilty, and I generally don't have too much shame... so I just ran towards the older couple that was about to go inside their house. I believe the woman wanted to rush inside, but her husband showed mercy and curiosity about this peculiar little tourist girl with her 2 dogs... :-D

I asked him, whether he could share his internet with me, because I had to call and tell that I would be late for dinner. :-D He probably wondered, why I wouldn't just use my phone, but he kindly invited me to come inside his house anyways! He guided me to his home office, while his wife was talking to him from the living room. It sounded like she would instruct him, not to have me touch anything... but then again I don't speak Norwegian. ;-) :-D He gave me his internet password, and I left saying thanks and takk in many repeats. :) When I was about to close their door behind me, I thought that I better check that the internet connection would hold also outside their house - and it didn't. So I had to go back inside - with the couple assuming that I would have left already - standing in the dark hallway, feeling like a burglar, waiting for the slow internet to connect me to Skype. But finally I heard the ring tone! Just to hear Uwe hanging up on me... All this hassle and he hangs up on me! Can you believe it?! :-D But with that, at least, my bad conscience was gone instantly. The only thing left was thirst. :-D

The friendly Norwegian had told me that there is a camping site close by, from where the costal route to Nyksund would start. I didn't care so much for the path as for water. So I went to the camping site and asked whether they could kindly give me some tap water for me and the boys. :) Not to appear stingy, I bought a coke, too. :-D
Over my tap water (most delicious water ever!), I started to chat with the host of the camping ground. I told him that I had accidentally ended up taking that mountain trail and that everything took a little longer than expected... He then showed me on a map where I had been hiking and that this trail A) has a name and B) is rather popular. :-D It's called the "Queen's route", because Queen Sonja visited this place in 1994 and fell in love with the scenery. Jaha. It measures 15 km and the total elevation gain is some 900 m, and it is said that the round trip takes about 5-6 hours. All of that is not much - if only I would have known it in advance! :-D

Considering the time and informing me that the coastal route would be indeed shorter, but would nevertheless take around 2 hours, the camp owner offered to take me with his fishing boat back to Nyksund! Super friendly! Too bad, I had to refuse. The boys and a fishing boat would have been a bad combination... :-D

But it didn't matter! All refreshed and hydrated, we started our way back to Nyksund. The boys were all energetic again, and it was amazingly beautiful to walk along the cost with the sun slowly setting over the Atlantic Ocean! Just when I thought nothing can go wrong anymore, the cozy-lazy coastal route came to an end and the trail made an (for me) unexpected turn up towards the mountains... I tried to figure out from the map, whether I had taken a wrong turn in the twilight... but since I didn't want to swim the Ocean, I had to climb up again anyways. The path led all the way to the fork, where I had met the ladies, and from there I knew the path would lead me back to my car.

When I finally arrived at the husky farm, Katrin, Uwe and their "little helpers" were sitting together in the living room. They were very curious about my day and we were chatting and laughing a lot. I even got a cold beer! :-) Uwe told me that he had been busy with feeding the huskies when I called and he didn't know the number... :-D

At the end of the day, I was super tired and happy-happy. :-) Katrin told me that the wind conditions were said to improve, so she had booked my the whale safari for the following day! And just when I thought that I really need to get some sleep before getting up early the next morning, Kristine (one of the helpers) came running in and said that there are northern lights outside! At first they were quite weak, but then they danced all over the sky. I had never seen this strong northern lights before! I was struggling, whether I should get my camera... but I was so very, very tired that I indeed convinced myself that I could also take pictures the next evening! :-D
Well, of course the next day there were no northern lights any more.... So I will have to rely on my memory with this. ;-)

If this long ~~blabla~~ text is putting you off, here's the take home message: Go visit Vesterålen! Go to Nyksund! And take that Queen's Route!!! It's stunning! :-) I'll go back there for sure! :-)