Wiebe Wakker
July 3, 2016
Day 109 | Friday July 1
After 3 nights it was time to leave Stavanger. I’m on my way to the North Cape and this country is bigger as I expected. From the south to the north is the same distance as from Oslo to Parma. And that’s about the distance I covered in the last 2 months…
My next stop was in Mosterhamn, on the island Bømblo. Anne-Grethe heard about my project through the website of the Norwegian EV association. She lives together in this old and nice house with Leif Kåre, they have been together for 10 years and are in their late 50’s. Anne-Grethe had a hard time as she lost 2 of her children and she believes her best time is yet to come. She dreams of making a trip around the world and especially Australia, I hope we’ll meet there.
The island were they life on is not very big and to cover the most distances they walk. Leif Kåre is an mechanic and make pars for boats, Anne-Grethe works with people who have dementia in a home which is only 5 minutes from their house. To get to the other side of the island they use an electric car and have normal car to get to other cities.
Leif Kåre is a big football fan, in Amsterdam he visited the Ajax stadium and he went to London for the Arsenal one. So of course we watched Belgium – Wales at home and it was one of the first matched this cup I could see fully. After the match they switched on another channel were they had live broadcast of birds sitting on a rock in northern Norway. I was a bit surprised as I never saw a livestream of birds just sitting but apparently this is a phenomenon and actually fun to watch.
Day 110 | Saturday July 2
I had a decent sleep and felt I was recovered from the long walks in Preikenstolen. Today my hosts took me for a sightseeing tour around Bømlo. It is a very idyllic and typical Norwegian island. Many lakes with colored houses on the shores, deep forests and roads with yellow lines. There is something attracting about those yellow lines, I don’t know why.
We visited the old part where many years ago a goldmine was responsible for the biggest income of the island. Almost everyone here has a boat, to fish or just for pleasure. Anne-Grethe and Leif Kåre have a boat too but it needed service. Were they parked the boat they are building a new home which they will use in the summer.
Around 4 I said goodbye to them and started driving towards Bergen, one of the 5 biggest cities in Norway. When I neared the ferry I realized I had forgotten my jacket in Mosterhamn. I couldn’t go without it so had to drive back 45 minutes. I came back with 55% which was just not enough to make it to Bergen so I had to charge the car for a few hours and let my host in Bergen know I would arrive a bit later, which was no problemo.
Around 12.30 I arrived the my hosts in Bergen. To be sure I would find them they hung up balloons on every corner of the street. On the first corner even an Norwegian flag with my name on it. We talked for a little bit and then went to bed. They transformed their storage in the garden into a guest room and this was probably the smallest I slept in but I had the best sleep.
