0323 A few days around Austrheim

7^th – 12^th Aug 2015

War relics, crabs, and fishing

The first morning with Reagan and Grete was warm and sunny and we planned to go fishing with Grete’s brother Bjorn and his friend Nok who live nearby on the island (as do many other relatives), and also buy some local crabs for lunch.  So first stop was to go down to one of the nearby boat jetties where we found the man who was selling crabs.  As you can see, he had plenty of good sized ones, and we picked a dozen or so for the group of people who would be there. From there we set off to Bjorn’s place and his boat moored down below the house.

A lot of the houses around here have been in families for generations, and there is quite a lot of family history here, with extensions and changes being made over the years. At Bjorn’s house a stone “hole” was pointed out to us that is in fact where they used to store their potatoes because the temperature in the hole below the ground would remain constant and ideal – It is no longer used.

We then set off down to the jetty to go fishing, and while Bjorn got the boat ready, we did a bit of fishing off the rocks.  Grete caught a cod, Janet caught a rock, and somehow I managed to

catch 2 mackerel !  It was great down on the rocks.  Unfortunately Bjorn was having a hard time because he having disconnected the battery recently he had to enter a code to disarm the engine immobilizer – And the immobilizer did not want to accept the code !  Very frustrating, and after a couple of hours and “advice” from everyone, he finally had to give up – There was obviously something wrong with the immobilizer (how often have I heard of the same issue with cars !).   So we went back up to the house where the crabs had been boiled, and, together with a couple of other family friends who had come over, we all sat down and worked our way through the crabs.  Delicious !

In the evening we sat around the house drinking some wine having discussing matters of the world till late – If I do this too much I might get too used to it !!

The next day we went for a walk on a nearby island where there was the remains of an old WWII German camp and gun emplacement, set up to guard the fjords leading in to Bergen in order to prevent it being used.  It was a great walk through the fields, and very interesting to see what was left of the facility some 70 years later. 

We went into Bergen on Monday 10^th, and then on Tues 11^th, our last day here, we had a slow day round the house.  Reagan and I went down to check on his boat shed down at the water to make sure all was OK, and then we brought his life jackets back up to the house to protect them from the harsh winter conditions down in the boat shed. We then did a little work in Reagan’s recently rebuilt work shed before coming in for some tea.  The weather has been pretty miserable today so it was good to stay close to the house.

We also went into the local shopping centre to get some wifi – Reagan doesn’t have wifi at the house so we all went in to get emails and update blogs etc.  The shopping centre here acts as a kid of community centre where people can gather in a big area under cover – Kind of important in this part of the world with the not always perfect weather !! Now we need to start getting ourselves back into “travel mode” as we prepare to head north towards the Arctic tomorrow.  The weather is SUPPOSED to be improving tomorrow and as we head north, so our fingers are crossed that we will have sunshine for a few days………..

Pics here :-  https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0323AFewDaysInAustrheim?authkey=Gv1sRgCPim_rHr_9_ougE