Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal
Havsteinen, Sep 24 2008
To the main Havsteinen page (maps, route descriptions, etc.)
On the way to Havsteinen (right)
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Ever since I saw Havsteinen for the first time (the date was Dec 27 2005, and it was my first visit on Godøya), I decided that I wanted to visit this cool, slightly pointy rock. The only question was; "how do I get there?".
In the spring of 2008, I began to make inquires. I talked with several Godøy boat owners over the phone, but they just didn't feel they had the right boat for the task. Things seemed a bit difficult. I considered purchasing an inflatable boat, but I wasn't sure it would fit in my car. It humored me to reckon that, when inflated, the boat and the Tiger might be equally large..
(silence..)
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But in troubled times, who rises up to the occasion? My most excellent neighbour Pål, of course. He is, bar none, the most giving person I know, and it's only been a few months since he took me island hopping in Ellingsøyfjorden. Pål offered to take me to Havsteinen. And this wasn't a 5-minute boat ride, either. Havsteinen was a good 12km boat ride away.
On Sep. 24 2008, all conditions were met. Pål had the time, I had the time, the weather was good and the sea was calm. The timing was double-perfect for me, suffering from YAAI (yet another annoying inflammation) in my foot. We drove directly from Gåseidnes to Havsteinen, where we circled around the island, looking for a place to anchor up. Even if the sea was fairly calm, Pål decided that he would wait for me in the boat.
I moved quickly up the ridge, passed the lighthouse and reached on the high point 6:18pm. The walk up took 6 minutes. The local sheep (they have to be wild ones, surely??) acted as if they saw humans for the first time, and vanished before I got the camera up. After a few pictures, I headed back down, and Pål proposed that we returned via Hessafjorden.
So we drove up Hessafjorden (between Sukkertoppen and Sula), and I got slightly worried when I noticed a really big vessel coming our way. I'm not terribly scared of the sea, but I'm a big wimp in small boats. A very ugly Oslofjord crossing a few years back, gave me this scare. But Pål was calm as a duck, which helped. And yes, it slammed, but now I was just enjoying the trip.
We then crossed the sound between Hessa and Aspøya, before heading into Ålesundet (the sound between Aspøya and Nørvøya). This was very cool. I had never seen Ålesund this way before. Once in Borgundfjorden, we returned to Gåseidnes via the Brosundet sound. This was a very nice 2 hour, 34km trip. Once again; many, many thanks to Pål.
Ålesund and Hjørundfjord peaks
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