Lofoten Islands Expedition 2019
“The Famous Five visit Lofoten” by Enid Blyton
Day 04 – Island at North end of Raftsundet to Trollfiorden (12th August) by George “The Famous Five forget they are on holiday and get up very early”
Anne, who is very organised, had brought lots of useful information with her to Lofoten. With the help of Timmy, she planned today’s paddle to minimise the threat of the Raftstundet narrows. This meant being on the water by six. Dick was very concerned about breakfast, early morning porridge being an integral part of his daily routine. George still had too many irregular shaped food items at this time meaning her boat packing could be a bit slow. Maybe, there needs to be an EU Directive demanding that all vegetable shapes can tessellate. Anyway, this meant most of the group got up between 4:00 and 4:30 am. The exception of course being Timmy who can get ready jolly quickly. However, George is convinced that Timmy sleeps in his paddling clothes and having glimpsed the thread-bareness of the floor of Timmy’s
kennel, this is probably also necessary if he is going to stay dry.
We set off down Raftstundet, where we all failed to resist the urge to take multiple photos of the stunning scenery. Julian was often at the rear of the group camera in hand. Anne was getting increasingly concerned that we might not get through the narrows before the tide turned. George took the lead and paddled past the marker buoy at the start of the narrows, setting a responsible example. The rest of the group, including Anne stopped at the buoy and played in the flow around the buoy. Luckily, we made the end of the narrows before the tide turned, and George really wished she had also played around the buoy.
Anne was frequently concerned about our water provisions and she encouraged us all to top up our water supplies at the next stream. This meant we had at least 30 litres of water for the 5 of us and we were well supplied for the next stage of our adventure, second breakfast. We landed on the island of Ulvoya in a sheltered bay opposite the entrance to Trollfiorden. This was a great location to catch up on sleep, eat and drink (obviously ensuring we used our limited water supplies sparingly).
We then paddled across the very clear still water to the entrance of Trollfiorden. The stillness only being broken occasionally by the wake of the tourist boats. This created “invisible” swell, our kayaks moved up and down with the swell, but the surface still looked flat, most discombobulating. Paddling into Trollfiorden meant we all took a few more photos. When we got to the bottom of the fiord George was so distracted by the scenery she got stuck on a rock. Julian laughed, but dashing Dick came to her rescue. George, Juliana and Dick then got a spiffing surprise with Timmy and Anne deciding we were going to camp here for the night. George was confused as she thought all famous five expedition days were at least 30Km and included a paddle into a head wind.
Timmy, Dick, Julian and George decided to improve their hygiene in the waters of the fiord, Julian and Dick swimming a reasonable distance. Anne decided her constitution was too delicate for any immersion.
In the afternoon Dick, Julian and Anne carried out a stakeout, patiently observing and recording the actions of a sailing boat in the fiord. They observed the crew of the boat spray paint the name of their boat on the rock on the side of the fiord. Although this was done badly, and their attempts at getting to the cliff were entertaining it was still vandalism and the famous five planned to report it to the authorities on their return to civilisation.
After tea George and Dick climbed about 200m to the lake above Trollfiorden. We returned a couple of hours later to find Julian looking after Anne, with a bottle of whisky. Timmy, who had slept for most of the afternoon had retired to his kennel for the night.
We awarded Trollfiorden campsite 4.5 stars, it had lots of freshwater and a proper English toilet, which made Anne very happy. It would have had five stars if it wasn’t for all the tourist boats; in particular the Hurtigruten Ferry which visited the fiord at midnight and was very noisy!!
