Much ado about nothing

Waking up to the noise of lawnmowers after 10 h I went to pay for my pitch. In the reception building I had a look at the ferry schedule which gave the departure of the next sailing at 11:15, which the lady behind the counter confirmed. That made me panic a little, I knew it was going to be close. At that moment the receptonist informed me that their card reader was broken and I was going to have to pay via an online bill she'd email me, which turned out to be that questionable Visa Pay mechanism with its dodgy looking website that gives the impression of having been coded over a weekend by the nephew of the Visa corp. CEO. What's more, they were asking 400 NOK for the night on that bog-standard campsite of theirs, what an utter ripoff. With the ferry occupying my mind I didn't protest and just wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible.

Mainly cause I hadn't packed yet. To my surprise I managed to bag my belongings and disassemble the tent in under ten minutes and hurried to the pier. No ferry there at 11:15. Turns out the schedule I read was for another ferry which was running late, and it was still like 25 min till the one to Forvik. So much stress for ultimately no reason. Shoutout to reception lady for not even inquiring which ferry I meant.

Island hopping

Ferries are a nuisance. Today's ride involved three crossings, each with a half hour to an hour and a half of waiting. Nothing against a bit of downtime every now and then but the uncertainty those ferries add is bound to mess up every plan. Easily the most annoying day so far.

While I was waiting for the ferry to Forvik the touring couple from Tromsø caught up with me and we shared some experiences and practical advice (hi guys! hope you made it safely to your destination). The other two crossings however were just a lot of involuntary downtime.

Half time

Waiting for and then on the Anddalsvåg ferry in the wind I got really chilly so I decided to call it a day at the next campsite at Brønnøysund. That campsite looks inviting from the outside but quite bafflingly it is run by the first person in Norway that I met who doesn't speak English. She understood me well enough though to point me to a pitch and show me around the campsite, gesturing. Showers and kitchen looked clean and comfy.

Since it was only 20 h I went to downtown Brønnøysund for some sightseeing and shopping. At the port I noticed a sign stating the town is located exactly in the middle between the Nordkapp and Lindesnes, 840 km in both directions. So this day marks an important milestone of the trip that I was completely oblivious of, geographical half time!

All in all just 115 km on the road -- second shortest distance after that first half day out of Tromsø airport -- with about 750 m of elevation. You could almost call it a rest day, let's just hope my legs agree.

The cursed camp

Returning to the tent I couldn't wait to cook some fish and grab a shower. However, in the meantime a group of French campervanians had arrived that were hogging the kitchen and at the shower -- singular, there turned out to be only a single shower for each sex -- a queue was forming. So much for convenience. I went back to the tent to at least start composing this entry and had another shot at showering half an hour later. The queue was gone but a cleaning lady had appeared that was asking for 20 NOK in coins for the use of that shower -- the second time I had to use cash in this country -- and was eyeing my every move around the restroom building.

All fresh and clean after the shower I noticed the kitchen was unoccupied now, grabbed my fish and turned on the stove. When I was about to have the first portion, two women dropped by to charge their phones. A minute later creepy cleaning lady showed up too and they broke out in a vivid conversation in Norwegian, from what I could make out about the music festival that is going on in town right now. So much for a quiet meal and finishing this blog post earlier than the last days.

Now for that sleep I wanted to catch up on. It's past one in the morning and there's a bunch of drunks outside popping beer cans while on the field next to the campsite a farmer is working overtime in his tractor. What a strange place this is.

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