A short "Holiday" in Norway!

It has been lovely to share the beauty of Norway with Daniels family, we have been lucky enough to have had some incredible weather for them too. The sun has provided warm September days, the leaves beginning to fall from the trees on these windless days.

A walk on Dyroya, looking across to Senja

When Daniels family had originally booked over to Norway we had our fingers crossed for at least one day of calm, we need not have worried though, its been calm for 90% of their stay, hopefully that calm weather can hold on a little longer, it would make the rest of our journey north much smoother sailing! 

It has seemed a little strange to feel like we have been basically abandoning the boat, only having moved her once on a quick trip to Kjotta. Had time allowed we would have loved to take her further, showing Daniels family some of the quiet beautiful places we have explored in the passed weeks, Helloya, Bjarkoy and Meloyvaer. 

Calm evening return sail from Kjotta

We have taken advantage of the opportunity to give Quickstep a bit of an overdue spring clean, unloading lockers before cleaning and repacking. Its nice also to get a proper idea of what stock we have aboard. 

Away from jobs aboard we have had a very relaxed weeks "Holiday", we hired a car in Harstad and have toured by land, reaching walks and sights we just couldn't do by foot. A day trip to Sweden was exciting too, always fun to see a new country. The walks within the Abisko National park were beautiful, we would love to spend more time in Sweden in the future too. They were treated to a great Northern Lights show during their stay too.

Lovely walks on Andorja

We even headed north along the road, so technically we have been further north than Quickstep, we will be sure to change that soon though! While we had the ability with a car we have enjoyed seeing further inland areas, we are unlikely to have a car again during our time in Norway, the inland parts were just as impressive as the coastal scenery. In another life time we would like to spend years walking and cycling through Norway, there is simply too much to see, too little time!  

Flat calm mid September weather

What an experience being back in a house too, having separate rooms to walk between is a bit of a novelty for us! Being able to get up in the morning walk to the kitchen and put the kettle on is far removed from waking up, rolling up our mattresses before digging in the lockers to find the kettle and coffee, starting the generator.... As nice as it has been to have the luxury of space we are quite eager to get back to our lives on Quickstep, it might have its disadvantages but for us the lifestyle is great. 

So tomorrow after returning the car in Harstad via the airport we will get the speed ferry back to Engenes and walk the remaining miles back to Quickstep in Laupstad, we will if time (evenings are noticeably shorter now) and weather permits we might head a few miles north. If that isn't possible we hope to move soon after, overall we are aiming roughly towards Alta, but who knows where we will find to stop. 

Hot autumn days