A Steep Learning Curve

• By admin
• June 21, 2016
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Only 8 hours to go

I’m handing over to Graeme for this one!!…….After my crash and losing each other for about 40 minutes in Copenhagen we were strongly admonished by Helen’s brother Martin that we look after each other – well kid sisters perhaps do not always do as older brothers advise. Having had the magical experience being back on our bikes we wanted another bike ride the next day, our last day in the Lofoten, in part to enjoy my return to the saddle, but also to enjoy, for the last time, the sheer wonder of the mountains and huge spaces between their steep snow and forested sides.  Unfortunately, I had not recharged my electric bike battery, so of course a walk was our other option. We had driven across a small fjord via a causeway and decided to park at one end where a 4km walk along a track would take us go the head of the fjord. A beautiful sunny day with little wind and we were soon at the head of the fjord. The tide was out so we went for a paddle for quite a distance along the shore and we could see a track on the other side of the fjord, with what seems like a perfectly climbable wooded hill to cross. The trap was laid! Five or six hours later I found the other side about 2 hours after Helen, she tired, me exhausted but there is more. We still had to get round yet another headland to reach the path on the other side of the fjord. After another hour of scrambling along the rocks on the shore line we came to a sheer wall of rock dropping vertically into the water, and the tide fully in. We wrapped our phones in the foil that had been used to wrap our sandwiches then sealed them in a crisp packet and took to the waters – part scramble and part swim in arctic waters! We were both so fixed on getting to safety we did not feel the temperature at all. Back on the track that had been our target Helen shot ahead on a 4k walk to get the van whilst I trudged on to meet her. Both soaking but safe!