19th August 2023 (sunny and mild during day, cold morning and night) 20km

A glimpse of colour overnight.

The sun has got his hat on

Hip hip hip hooray

The sun has got his hat on

And he's coming out to play

Woke at 7am and wondered what the bright light was coming through the tent.
It seems a while since we woke to light and warmth.
I've been wearing my cycling longs for days, (and nights), but it seems much longer.

Outside was a beautiful scene of white sandy beach, still clear ocean with the waves gently lapping the shore.  The small islands in the foreground led the eye to the bigger picture behind, the island of Haya.

The days of mist and rain, have, for the moment, been pushed back in the memory and if only for today, we're going to revel in the sunshine.  We intend to do some walking around the area and explore the island as far as the roads will take us.

I went for a walk along the road as Julia was talking to Seena.  It was nice to be able to feel the warmth on your skin and get back to taking clear images with blue sky, rather than low hung mist and fog with shadowy silhouettes barely visible through the murk.

Had some banana, cashews and a coffee to tide us over as the local shop didn't open until 10am. At 9.45am we wandered into the village to find the shop, a Makroken, where we bought breakfast.  Because it is Sunday tomorrow, we needed to stock up, but there were things they didn't have that we felt sure the Joker, 10kms away would.  Back at the tent, we ate our usual delicious breakfast and after a while Seena took off , heading for Tromso and her bus, heading for Zurich, whilst Alessandro has decided that he is going for Nordkapp.  Still, he is young, but he only has nine days to get there and back to Tromso for his flight to Milano.

Decided we were going to climb the local mountain, Nordkollen.  Took our swimming gear, to get a dip after the climb in one of the beautiful bays around here.  The walk took us 1 1/2 hours and the views were well worth any sweat expired.

Spied a lovely bay and once the walk was completed, in we went.  Let me tell you....it was refreshing.  We estimate from previous swims that it was no more than 12 C, possibly less.  It certainly got colder the deeper we went and you weren't looking to stand around in the water chatting.  Only your teeth were chattering.  It was however, just what we needed after being confined to the same clothes for numerous days.

No matter what the temperature,  sometimes you just have to!

Back to the tent to hang up the gear, in a breeze that had sprung up and was rather cool.
After wearing shorts all day, we were now back into our cycling longs and merinos for the ride to the Joker supermarket.  It was a 20km round trip in what was now a very cold, stiff breeze.  But it was quite enjoyable with the unencumbered bikes.

All stocked up for Sunday and a steady paced ride back to Vango, who was taking it all in his/her stride.  (He/she doesn't identify,  but it seems too impersonal to call her it).

Pre dinner ritual as the kayakers from this morning (which I failed to mention) were beaching their craft. They'd certainly had a long day as they set off about 9am and now it was 4.30pm.
We, for some reason happened to be in their flight path, even though the most direct route was unimpeded. I guess it's my animal magnetism back at work.

Had soup for dinner. We couldn't read the flavour but it tasted very much like uncle Ben's Mexican rice, without the rice.  Funny, when we were talking to Evan, he said "what do you have for dinner?"
We said "you know that 3 min rice? Well they only have one flavour."
Evan replies "yeah, Mexican."
We laughed and talked about what we put with it to change it up but funny us Kiwis gravitate towards the same thing.

Coffee to follow along with an antihistamine chaser and we settled down for the night at 9pm, just as someone let their kids out to play. Probably been cooped up in a van all day.
Thanks again to the antihistamine,  they didn't bother us for long.