North-west of Namsos municipality is the island of Jøa. About 400 wonderful people live here spread over 55 km². The island is shaped like a triangle with charming crags in the northern and central parts, and a flatter, more marshy landscape in the southeast. The name comes from Norse ‘jóð‘ = ‘that which is separated from‘.
The Norwegian author Olav Duun grew up on Jøa, and although he lived for many years in Holmestrand (southern Norway), all his books were set on this island. More about him in another post.
The legacy of Duun is well maintained on Jøa, and every two years they make a ‘Duun Festival‘ in June. We wanted to go there! Tobatheornottobathe had missed Hildegunn Eggen’s farewell performance at Trøndelag Teater, the monologue ‘Juvikfolket’. A play that in 3 hours brings out the essence of Olav Duun’s masterpiece in 6 volumes. So when we heard that there would be an absolutely last chance at the Olav Duun Festival 2023, it was easy to decide to go. It takes some hours to drive to Jøa from Trondheim, but it was well worth it, and Friday after work we went straight to the ‘book bath‘ (a moderated talk with book writers) at Brakstad, by the northwestern coast of the island.
We didn’t just do book bathing, of course. At Brakstad, nature is so fantastic, with sea and islands and islets and sun up and down, that we had to swim several times. And humming a little to DDE’s summer song ‘Lange Late Daga‘ (Long Lazy Days), which actually mentions Pøbben (The Pub) in Brakstad. Pøbben has this motto: ‘When good people serve, good people can drink‘. However, the DDE text is a bit illogical, so Knut forced himself to switch to Ulf Lundell’s ‘Öppna landskap‘ (Open Landscapes) after a while, another song that feels just right at Brakstadsundet.
Pøbben at Brakstad often serve shrimps, which are fished in the sea you can see from there. And although they were not so big, the taste was really great! To have an excuse to order some ‘Gammel Dansk‘ at the bar, we had to take a night bath first.
We had rented a Transit from ‘Bilkollektivet‘, which we were going to use as a mobile home. It was unfortunately a bit demanding, with cool dew at night and strong heat in the morning as soon as the sun rised.
All the more tempting with a fresh morning bath, as we in Tobatheornottobathe like to see it!
…but the decision was in practice already taken!
A book bath or any type of bath is just right at Brakstad Hamn!