Day 9 – A whirlwind of weather

It rained much of last night. After seeing a wet patch, we realized that some of the seam tape had frayed off the rain fly and occasional drips were coming into the tent. Not fun! The rain continued into the morning and we had breakfast in bed – that was a treat (says Viki).

We set out into the rain hoping that it wouldn’t last long. These first 15km were certainly the hardest of the day. It was raining, the wind was strong, and we quickly arrived at a long bridge descending into Sandnessjoen that was the bridge of death (says Viki). It was indeed buffetted by strong cross winds and was rather treacherous.

In Sandnessjoen we went to the local Kiwi (a supermarket) and stocked up for the next few days. I looked up the schedule for the ferry 37km away and it would be just possible to make the 1:15pm ferry if we pushed hard for >2 hours. We made it with 10 minutes to spare and were delighted, as the next ferry wouldn’t have been until 3:30pm. On board we had sandwiches and charged our devices – feeling fresh and recharged for the afternoon ahead.

It was just 17km to the next ferry, which we hadn’t looked up the schedule for and missed by 5 minutes. This turned out for the better, since this allowed us to dry the tent, make a big batch of muesli, do laundry, and shower… “shower” (using the sink).

Arriving in Horn at kilometre 71, we had a last push to reach our 100km target. Although tired, we pushed through, getting to the town of Berg just past 7pm, where we set up camp beside a picnic table and a flowing ocean.

It’s a beautiful evening – the absolute opposite of this morning. The air is calm, the sky pleasant, and the ground dry. We will now have our chocolate!