Cabin Fever 10-13 July 2008

A few days after our arrival in Norway, me, Stein Magne and his brother Bjørn Vegar packed up food for the bbq and drove to their family cabin. The cabin is on a lake called Lysvannet in the middle of Senja. With no internet, phone, cell phone or TV, we had to entertain ourselves in the great outdoors.

The weather wasn't great when we got there, but that didn't stop us from rowing for our dinner.

I proudly made the trip's first catch, a lovely little arctic char that was promptly made into dinner.

But there were more days and more meals, so back into the boat we piled for more rowing adventures. A few hours of rowing, though, necessitate a campfire pitstop to relax, enjoy the scenery, warm yourself by the fire and perhaps try a bit more fishing.

Ahhh, the fire keeps the mosquitoes away...

I found my precision to be best when I wasn't actually aiming ha ha.

Bjørn Vegar caught a tasty wee trout on his first cast from the beach, and just had to go back for more.

One evening we set out in the boat around 7pm and took with us hot dogs for the campire, beer, coffee and camera. The day had been cloudy, but as the evening grew longer the clouds began to loosen up, revealing the perfectly windstill amazing Northern Norwegian summer nights that we miss so much.

After a fruitless first leg of about 5 hours, we made camp on a distant shore and I got right on setting the campfire to crackling and cozy. Beer, hot dogs and coffee ensued - what a life! Notice the sky (hint, it's midnight!).

The journey back turned out to be somewhat better, as Bjørn Vegar caught what was unanimously agreed to be this vacation's best fish, a fat and lovely trout.

Stein Magne was on rowing duty, as it was decided that Bjørn Vegar and I had to fish since we were the only ones getting bites.

But the real magic was when we got back to the cabin at 4am to blue skies and warm sunshine.

Bjørn Vegar and I made a B-line for our beds, but Stein Magne was so inspired by the morning that he wandered out into the woods armed with our macro lens. Here's one of my favorites: a buttercup, or smørblomst in Norwegian.

The following and final day of our trip was blue skies and warm temperatures. Perfect for cutting the weeds (and waking up the horseflies and mosquitoes!)

Stein and I went for a jog, then plunged outselves into the (yikes!) deceptively cold water to have a wash. Seeing as how the ice on the lake only melted a few weeks ago, bathing in the lake was, um... cold.