Treasures of Øye
I suppose that we have been so spoilt for highlights on this journey and I must accept that the ‘countdown’ to the end of our trip has begun. Now that we have rounded Statt, we have come very close to our final destination Ulsteinvik and that has come a bit like a shock to me. We have another ten days left until we have to bring our boat to the boatyard as the yard manager is going on holidays for two weeks after that. I think that we have managed to find a few last beautiful places to see before we go back to the U.K. (Let’s see how the weather is going to be, the barometer is falling as we speak, so to say…)
However, it all depends whether or not we can find the charts in Ålesund (we had bought charts up to Ålesund and no further…)
Were we going to see another fjord? Geiranger fjord is supposed to be the nicest fjord in Norway. Can it possibly be any nicer that Lysefjord? Geiranger is also the most touristy one (~ 500,000 visitors per year), with lots of speed ferries rushing in and out. Is it really worth a 70M inland detour?
Stephan found out about another fjord in our pilot book, also spectacular, only 30M to the south of Ålesund, the Norangsfjord.
Even without a chart you can navigate into the fjords. There are no hidden dangers, the water is extremely deep (up to 400m) to the very edge of the fjord. Our iPad was enough to get us there.
So here we are in Øye (62º 11’.5N 6º 39’E) (12/13.07) one of the greatest surprises of this cruise. A small village at the end of the fjord. We are surrounded with high mountains, the one next to us is 1,600m high. We are enjoying the scenery almost on our own (that is true). There are waterfalls plummeting down the bare rocks all around us and that, together with the chirping of hundreds of sea birds makes a very relaxing background sound.
The water is milky turquoise blue from all the melting snow still visible on the peaks. It is not salty and not too cold either. We had a great swim yesterday during a thunderstorm and today after a two and a half hours walk. Oh! and I forgot to mention that the air temperature has been around 26ºC for around four days now. Someone told us that it has been the warmest summer for ten years.
Tonight we will go for dinner in the Hotel Union, built in 1891 for aristocratic guests like Norway’s Håkon VII, Kaiser Wilhelm II who came annually by steam yacht until 1914 (some say to visit a mistress?) ) (…not a bad place to have a mistress) and Karen Blixen, author of Out of Africa. Today the hotel seems a bit like a time warp.
To be continued in our next post from Ålesund! (comments in italics by the proof reader).
However, it all depends whether or not we can find the charts in Ålesund (we had bought charts up to Ålesund and no further…)
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| Norangsfjord |
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| Easy Rider at Øye |
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| many shades of green |
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| warm enough for the skipper |
Tonight we will go for dinner in the Hotel Union, built in 1891 for aristocratic guests like Norway’s Håkon VII, Kaiser Wilhelm II who came annually by steam yacht until 1914 (some say to visit a mistress?) ) (…not a bad place to have a mistress) and Karen Blixen, author of Out of Africa. Today the hotel seems a bit like a time warp.
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| Hotel Union in Øye |
To be continued in our next post from Ålesund! (comments in italics by the proof reader).