Lofoten Islands Expedition 2019
“The Famous Five visit Lofoten” by Enid Blyton
Day 06 – Finoya Island (smiley face island) to Brettesnes Vagen harbour (lunch) to Sandvika beach (14th August) Anne “The Famous Five go to Mystery Island”
The Famous Five awoke far too early and emerged from their tents one by one, bleary eyed.
“What a lovely day for breakfast” said Dick, hungrily.
“Err” said Julian. “It’s not a lovely day, look!”
The children looked around. During the night a thick sea mist had crept over Smiley Island and enveloped it in a cloak of impenetrable grey.
“Where’s the land gone?” said George
“Which way do we even paddle to get to the land?” said Anne
“We’re marooned!” said Julien
“Oh cripes!” said Dick
“Lummy” said George
“Crikey” said everyone.
Just then the children noticed that Timmy was already in his boat, and he was pawing the water excitedly with his paddle.
“Woof” said Timmy, and then “woof woof” he said again.
“Do you think…” said Anne
“That Timmy is trying to…” Said George
“Tell us something?” said Julian.
“Yes” said Dick “I think he’s saying that if we paddle on a course of 250 degrees magnetic, we’ll reach the large island of Storemolla in around 1 hour and 28 minutes, arriving at a point just north of the Gulvika inlet”
“And will a heading of 250 degrees offset the possible slight northerly tidal flow between the islands of Storemolla and Arsteinen?” queried Anne.
“I don’t know” said Dick “there’s only so much information that Timmy can tell us by going ‘Woof’ three times”.
He children followed Timmy’s plan. The passage across the water was eerie, with only the occasional skerry looming from the murk to provide some relief from the shrouding blanket of grey. Anne was at the front, using a little compass that Uncle Jann the kayak hire man had kindly stuck to the front of her boat. Gradually, vague shapes began to develop in the monochrome view in front of them. These grew into hulking and monstrous mountains, wrapped in mist and disappearing upwards into the damp claggy clouds above. The Famous Five paddled south south-west along the primeval shoreline to the harbour of Brettesness. The scene was set for an adventure!
As they entered the harbour, they noted a quay on the one side, and a number of houses on the other. It was obviously quite a large community, but…it was deserted! There was not a soul in sight!
“Why is there no one here?” asked Anne, quizzically.
“Let’s find out, it’s bound to be a spiffing adventure” said Julian, trembling with excitement.
“Let’s split up, I bet whoever’s responsible would get away with it if it wasn’t for us meddling kids” said George, momentarily forgetting that they were the Famous Five and not the crew of the Mystery Machine in Scooby-Doo.
“Stuff that,” said Dick “let’s have first-lunch instead”. So, they did.
As the children gobbled down their food Timmy communicated, using a complex sequence of ‘Woofs’ and tail wags, his suggestions for the rest ofthe day and the next. These involved a circumnavigation of the adjacent island of LitleMola, followed by a visit to the next island of Skrova, a camp on one of the islands and culminating with a 7.5km crossing to the ‘mainland’. The 
others readily agreed with Timmy’s plan, and off they set.
As they started their circumnavigation Timmy started looking around and sniffing the air. He then pulled out a portable telephone that he kept attached to his collar, punched a few buttons with his paw, and in a moment the weather forecast appeared on the instrument. Timmy conferred with Anne, and Anne conferred with Timmy. After much conferring they announced that the forecast predicted strong winds at some time over the next two days, although with a rather unpredictable time of arrival. They considered that it would be very grown up if they erred on the side of caution and gave up the idea of a camp on the islands in case they were stormbound and missed their flight back home (or were forced to paddle back in bad conditions). George and Julien thought this was a sensible plan as well. Dick couldn’t give one jot what they did as long as he was on a beach eating second-lunch very soon.
The Famous Five therefore began their second crossing of the day, towards a scatter of skerries and islands on the ‘mainland’ at the south eastern end of Austnesfjorden. They arrived after a short while and amused themselves looking for a 
campsite for the night. They found one fairly quickly – a charming little sandy bay called Sandvika. This was not really a surprise, because almost all charming little sandy bays on Lofoten are called Sandvika. They immediately got to work erecting, tents, climbing inside them and having ’40-winks’ (or 122,781 winks in Anne’s case). Dick decided to forgo the 40-winking bit and had second lunch instead. He then remembered, with delight, that he hadn’t had time earlier for elevenses, so he ate that as well. Then it was time for tea. And then it was time for supper. Dick decided that it had been quite a good day.
It had been raining gently since they arrived, and they settled under a tarp in the evening to chat about the Adventure of Mystery Island. After a while Timmy retired to his kennel, George went off to re-arrange her bags of tomatoes and Dick sneaked away to search for a packet of spare porridge that he was sure was stuck right at the pointy end of his kayak’s front compartment. Julien and Anne found a spare bottle of Ginger Beer – again.
