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Day Five 01/07/01
We woke to find a low mist but beautiful sunshine, today was going to be warm. Back to the waters edge and a long breakfast admiring the mist filled fjord. It would have been nice to paddle right then with the mist all around us but for safety we waited until it cleared.
When the mist cleared we started the paddle back along Naeroyforden. With the sun shinning we were given a completely different fjord from yesterday's overcast and mist-filled one. It was a great day for paddling and we were going to enjoy it. Mark and Davy stopped and climbed one of the waterfalls, Stevie, Richie and I headed for the fjord's museum called Styvi Gaurdsmuseum. A tall elderly man showed us around a barn filled with various farming antiques and then around his house which had not seen any change for many years. The most interesting building was a small butter house with many original tools inside.
Davy and Mark had arrived by now and we left them to look round as we headed back to water for lunch. A long lunch later spent basking in the sun and watching the ferries pass, we moved back along the fjord. As we turned out of Naeroyforden and into Aurlandsfjord we met two local sea kayakers, we stopped and had a chat and were given directions to a campsite south of Stigen. Our second night under canvas proved to be the best night of the trip. After a really nice days paddle we made camp right on the waters edge. Mark went off to collect mussels and returned to cook them with garlic as an appetizer.
We collected drift wood and had a fire going in no time. It was a warm summers evening and we laid back and watched the world go by, well a few ferries and a small fishing boat. We again turned our hands to fishing but alas with no success. The best was still to come, for as we fished away happily we were passed by none other than the QE2.Fishing rods quickly dropped, cameras searched for in a panic to record the moment, it gave us a talking point while sitting round the camp fire along with Mark and Davy's theory of ships going 'downhill'. As the evening passed the "craic" was great and we headed to bed after midnight.
Day six, 02/07/01
Our last day of the trip, I couldn't wait to get on the water. It was like glass and with the sun shining it looked perfect. With Mark, Richie and Davy still packing their boats, Stevie and I headed out together. Of the whole trip this section was special. With the sun, flat water and fantastic scenery, the only sound to be heard was two sets of paddles gliding through the water it was truly a classic day for paddling.
We passed the small town of Stavkyrkje Undredal on our right, then continued forwards on the left bank. We stopped in Aurlandsvangen beside a little pier and if memory serves me right we had the first soaking of the trip when someone fell in exiting their boat.
Aurlandsvangen is a nice little town , we saw more people here in one afternoon than we had seen since leaving Bergen. We walked around, had coffee and some lunch. I can still see Richie sitting on the veranda of the restaurant wearing his long-johns which he had been paddling in all week, in fact I can still smell them. We visited the local museum and then the tourist office to book our accommodation in Flam.
Mark and I set off at a fair pace on the last leg of the journey to Flam. We wanted to make the last ferry back to Vik to collect the cars. The others caught up not far from Flam, by now we all realized this was our trip over and I'm sure we all had their own thoughts about it. For me, it was too short, another couple of days would have been nice! This was also the case for Mark and Davy, who both would have liked at least another days paddling. After returning to Bergen we set for Tysso, a small fjord north of Bergen for a single days paddle which really finished the trip for us on a high.
We reached Flam mid afternoon, a picturesque town set at the end of the fjord, full of tourists. As we arrived, an Italian cruise ship was leaving, we were in the process of having a closer look when she started her engines and reversed. There was a moments panic as we paddled clear to admire her from a safe distance. We beached the kayaks, lifted some gear and headed to the campsite. After a quick wash Mark, Richie, Stevie and I made it back to the ferry with minutes to spare. The journey back to Vik was interesting, it retraced most of our trip and gave us an opportunity to relive the previous week. It was during this trip we were able to get a better judge of the distances between the fjord walls and see that unless there was a heavy mist or we were stupid, the ferries would never have come close to us.
The next day we headed for Bergen to catch the ferry home, the highlight of that journey was running out of petrol nearing Stranraer and having to use the fuel in the Sigg bottles to get us to a petrol station.
We arrived in Belfast in the early hours of the following day, all tired but already planning the next trip.
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