Mefjordvær: a windy and rainy day

It rained all night, and hasn’t stopped much all day. The wind has also picked up this afternoon, with strong gusts bending the trees and whipping the sea into waves.

We drove 15 minutes from Hillesøy to the ferry port at Brensholmen. There we had coffee and breakfast, then wrote a shopping list before watching the ferry arrive.

The ferry took about 45 minutes to get to Botnhamn on the island of Senja. Senja is quite a large island and beautiful, even in the rain, with steep jagged peaks and long narrow fjords. There were dozens of waterfalls tumbling down the mountains.

We drove through several of the narrowest tunnels we’ve come across so far. One was about a kilometre long and not much wider than single lane, but there were passing places, thank goodness.

I could see some of the peaks we hope to hike… Segla, Heston and Barden, for example… but John couldn’t take his eyes off the narrow, winding roads for long enough to look properly!

We stopped at Senjahoppen to visit a small supermarket to buy enough ingredients for meals for the week. They didn’t have any chicken breasts though! Luckily we do have some in the freezer… we won’t starve anyway!

At about 1 o’clock, we arrived at our campsite in Medfjordvær, where we settled onto our pre booked pitch. It’s a small site with just 8 campervan pitches and 3 tent pitches, but has all the facilities we need… even a mini sauna!

There’s a washing machine and tumble dryer that are included in the cost, so we’ve washed and dryed our towels and half of our clothes (those that could go in the dryer). Hopefully, we’ll get everything else washed on a dry day when we can put them on the line outside.

Apart from that, we haven’t done anything this afternoon, preferring to relax and stay warm in Molly Moho. We feel very sorry for the backpackers, cyclists and campers who are soaked to the skin in this awful weather. They’re far more hardcore than me. I’d have booked into a hotel!

It’s forecast to be very windy all day again tomorrow, although it looks as though there’ll be less rain. Hopefully, we’ll be able to do a low level walk. The big peaks are calling though. Please let there be some better weather soon!