June 5 & 6: An early morning ferry, Kannesteinen Rock & a lazy day in Ålesund
When we were in Oslo, we got started
looking at some of Norway’s amazing and bewildering geology. We’d hoped that we would hike some of the
fantastic rocks Norway has to offer, like Trolltunga, Pulpit Rock and Kjerag Rock,
but the seasons were working against us, and not all the necessary buses were
running. As a compromise, we had decided
that on our way up the coast, we would make a stop at Kannesteinen rock in the
little town of Måløy.
We woke up just after five, packed up the
tent and quickly walked back down the mountain to meet our ferry. The sun was well and truly up, even though it
was so early, and the near-cloudless sky lit up the fjords so they looked
bright and green.
Those clouds!
The express boat zoomed through the
Sognefjord and we switched boats just on our way out of the fjord. What appeared to be a whole school’s worth of
children boarded the boat in our place, and we were glad to be changing. It floated off looking very full indeed.
Eventually we got to Måløy and, at first
glance, it looked like an island covered in ferry ports. I was nominated to go into the local Kiwi and
ask which terminal we were to get the Hurtigruten from in the morning. I mightn’t’ve mentioned our early morning
predicament: we arrived on Måløy just before 1pm, and had decided to take the
Hurtigruten to Ålesund, our next stop.
The Hurtigruten only stops by Måløy at 4.30am, so this was to be the
time we left.
I popped into the Kiwi and asked the
friendly boy at the counter where we could board the Hurtigruten in the
morning. He seemed a little baffled by
my question and had to go and ask someone out back.
“It doesn’t leave from a ferry port,” he
said. “There’s a building over there
called The Bring. You board there.” As an afterthought he said, “I didn’t know
they picked up passengers here.”
I came out of the shop not fully convinced,
and this time Nicholas was nominated to go over to another ferry port and try
again for answers.
“So we do board from over there. It’s more of a loading dock than a terminal,
though.”
So Måløy was an island where nobody really
boarded the ferry (I guess they had a bridge here now). Our prospects weren’t looking super, but we
decided to head to the rock. Did I
mention how far the walk was to see the rock?
About 10km. Each way. With packs
(which we had now weighed) of close to 30kg on each of our backs.
The road wasn’t designed for pedestrians,
or multiple cars really, so we walked along the single-laned road beside trucks
and buses for about three hours. I
wondered if any of the buses were going where we were. They probably were.
It was just after five when we arrived at
the rock and sat down for lunch. We had
been sitting for maybe half an hour when a young Norwegian couple showed up and
we got to hold their dog while they posed with the rock. Nick took a turn jumping atop the rock for a
photo. I was quite happy to look, and
the rocks were super slippery.
Nicholas 'being Kannesteinen Rock'
Monster teeth (shells)
All this was done by half seven, and we
weren’t sure what to do next. Walk the
three hours back to the ferry terminal and sleep at the loading dock until the
ferry came? Nap at the rock and start
the walk back at midnight? It was
getting chilly so I broke out my sleeping bag and had a lay down on the wooden
platform that led to the Kannesteinen Rock.
Just after 10pm, Nicholas roused me and we
made the trek back to the ferry terminal.
I wish I could say it was a glam ferry terminal, or at least one with
decent heating, but this wasn’t the case.
Nicholas and I took shifts staying awake to guard our gear – for such a
small town, there were some drunk creeps hanging around – but sleep won out in
the end and I ended up breaking out my sleeping bag and napping for most of the
wait.
Just before 4am, we head over the loading
dock where we were to board the MS Richard With. We climbed aboard, stowed our luggage, and
fell asleep on the viewing deck. We were
completely wrecked.
We were still wrecked when we crawled
ashore at Ålesund, picked up the keys to our apartment, let ourselves in and
fell asleep for most of the day, waking up to indulge in hot food (can you
believe we hadn’t eaten hot food for 9 days?!) and download old movies.
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