Day 17-2. Kjørnes campsite to Fjærland campsite
With the tent up our bags went into the tent and we headed on our bikes to the glacier centre. As this was only three hundred metres from the campsite it ended up being a bit silly. We locked up our bikes and walked to the dry warm building.
After hanging our wet rain gear on a coat rack we paid for our tickets. We'd arrived just in time to view the next panoramic film tour of the glaciers. This was wonderful and included a lot of footage shot from a helicopter. About halfway through I realised that I had become motion sick, so had to keep on looking away to hold the nausea at bay. Worth seeing though. It took us around an hour and a half looking at displays and other exhibits. The museum does not go into great depth on any subject but is a good introduction to the subject matter and I think pitched at a level that would still be interesting for younger children.
We decided to sit a little longer and have a cup of coffee. It seemed a good moment to buy and write postcards, Fjærland, like Jøsteldal being just a little lacking in the 'things you can do on a rainy and cold summer's evening' department. We'd got the impression that the centre closed at five but discovered that it shut at seven and that having paid once we would be to allowed go out and come back in again. So we went back to the campsite to make dinner and would then go back for coffee and cake and to write some postcards in the relative warmth of the centre.
Having reached our masochism quota for the trip we took our cooking stuff to the warm kitchen in the main block by the reception. We bought some eggs from the shop and made a big cheese omelette, and combined it with some instant mashed potatoes and dried vegetables. It was good to have a starch other than bread, a protein other than just cheese, and something resembling vegetables. Suitably fortified we headed back to the glacier centre for an evening orgy of cake tea and postcard writing. We sat in almost the same place as earlier, looking out on the fjord rain running down the outside of the four metre high windows. The cake was good as was the tea, and we got through all but six of the cards before last orders. Then we had to leave the warmth and return to the campsite enjoying the view once again.
We were lucky to discover a sort of common room in the reception block back at the campsite, and sat in front of the telly at a table to write the rest of the cards and bat ideas about for what to do next. We'd had an idea to follow the 13 up to Florø and then take the Hurtigruta and fjord express boat back to Vikøyri. However with the weather set to be bad for at least the next two days or so, this idea had rapidly lost its appeal. Plan B was to head to Vangsnes on the morning boat and camp in Vikøyri. Vikøyri seemed to have a few things to look at and hopefully after a short day the next one would bring better weather.
We finished our postcards whilst chatting to a young American woman travelling round Sweden and Norway who asked us why we were camping when we could rent a nice warm room in the campsite main building. We were a bit lost for an answer, until a day later Damae took the photo that is on the front page of the site. A bit intangible but there is something great about living under canvas when you spend most of your days and nights in concrete buildings.
I finished off the evening by taking some night photos of the campsite. It looked different to almost everwhere else I have been. The way the mist hung low over the hills and the brooding clouds higher up. Lovely.