Ippocvardar: Paddling the North

So I went up North in august to visit my family. Yes, this is where I grew up. Beloved land.

So, when you see these houses..

And these mountains raise from the sea..

When you smell these fish flakes..

And see this road sign..

When you find yourself twist and turn along this road..

There is no doubt, you have reached above the arctic circle, you are in Northern Norway.

Let me take you to a fjord about two hours drive from my childhood home. I rented a kayak at a local climb and paddling school. The guy drove the kayak for me to a nice starting point in a small inlet with very shallow water. I have been in the area before, but not with the sea.

First I checked if it was possible to paddle under a little bridge and up to a lake at the other side of the road. It was not possible as the water was very shallow and big rocks stuck up from the water.

So, my plan was to cross the fjord to get to the other side and see if there was anything exciting to see there. The rent guy told me there was narrow side fjords on the other side with small farm settlements from the sixties/ seventies. People still used the houses in summertime.

I rented the kayak from six o´clock a Tuesday and returned it the same time Wednesday. So I had one trip in the evening the first day and another trip early the next day. On my evening trip, after having crossed the fjord I found a nice little inlet where I went to land and relaxed for a while. And of course I took a swim! 13 degrees Celcius in the water (That should be 55.4 Fahrenheit) Cold, in other words! Freezing in other words! :) Welcome to the North.

Wednesday I left the shore around twelve o´clock AM. I headed in the same direction as the day before, but I went deeper into the side fjord on the other side. It seemed to be quite long, with some amazingly high mountains at the end of it. Because of time and food limitation I didn´t go all to the end of the fjord. I also met a strange and challenging point on my way there as the water at a certain spot was shallow and running very fast which I assumed was a result of the tide. Coming to this narrow point which also seemed to me to be the only way to get further into the fjord was fascinating and a little frightening at the same time. As the stream was so strong you would get to a point of no return if you didn´t stop early enough. The water stream could easily tip me over if I made a little mistake.

For some reason I didn´t take any picture of the settlements. I think my camera was low on battery. But enjoy all the other pictures.