Summer in Trøndelag! After weeks of single-digit temperatures (Celsius, in June!) the heat was on, and we needed to cool down. Knut’s cousin Gry arrived in Trøndelag with her bathing suit in her luggage, ready to join a ‘ToBatheOrNotToBathe Adventure‘. What could possibly be a better choice than the river Nævra on a short detour between Værnes Airport and Trondheim?
Even the norse god Odin (carved into the tree trunk) thinks this is a fantastic area for barbecue and outdoor sleeping in hammocks.
We had tried to have a bath in Nævra before, but ended up swimming in Humla, so this time we started a little further upstream. This is a really nice area! ‘Næverhølet‘ was a tantalizing name on the map that we absolutely had to try. Well yes, there was kind of a hole in the river as it meandered quietly and beautifully. But to go bathing there? No, it just seemed too boring.
Tobatheornottobathe in Næverhølet? Not this time, no.
So we went back to the car, and oh yes, that was the right choice. Further downstream there were waterfalls! You can jump, and you can swim in Nævra!
Næver waterfall number 1?
We first tested something that might have been ‘No 1‘. (ref post ‘Winter Waterfall Wonderland‘).
Three in No 1
‘No 2‘ was more like a jacuzzi, but fun, Gry thought.
One in No 2.
‘No 3‘, on the other hand – it was impossible. Despite a good height, there was no free fall, and no pool to swim in either.
When we arrived, there were 3 boys jumping into ‘No 1‘. Fortunately, they stepped back when we arrived, so we didn’t get them in the head. However, we didn’t dive this time. Knut did not want to risk a recurrence of his back problem, and the ladies, unfortunately, just weren’t brave enough.
But as a bathing place! Bathing or jumping in Nævra is just right!
Tobatheornottobathe celebrates 2 years these days. Hooray!
Our youngest daughter, Une, is home from France this summer and helps with practical tasks inside and outside the house: painting, masonry and miscellaneous. That is really good for us. It’s actually very nice to have a longer visit at home, and very satisfying to make progress on the house, which ‘Should have been completely finished at once (10 years ago), not almost-finished like everyone else are doing it!‘ That did not happen of course, we were so tired of house building and fixing, that when the house was good enough to live in, we stopped working and never quite reached the end. The first item on the program that has actually been finished this summer is painting the flagpole (and casting a new foundation, since we suddenly discovered that the old one just crumbled away). It was 10 years since the last time. Yes, we have to do regular maintenance in between activities to finish the house, and then it takes even longer.
Since 2 years of bathing and blogging coincided with the completion of the flagpole, we had to flag. Photo: Une Hunstad Løwø
In the absence of a longer holiday/trip abroad this summer, we wanted to celebrate with something spectacular and different, and so the 2-year’s bath became a SPA in Trondheim’s old mansion: Hotel Britannia.
You are welcome even before you enter. Who is looking forward to the SPA?
Apart from all the hot pots in Iceland, we have had no intention of reviewing water parks in our blog. But we really enjoy to treat ourselves with a little SPA every now and then. And Tospaornottospa was very excited about the wellness lounge in the basement of Britannia. A fun effect in the jacuzzi that didn’t have bubbles was the northern lights in the sky.
Northern lights in a relatively decent color right here, but occasionally it was blue? None of us have ever seen that!
Except that, there was a 12 m pool for swimming and a lot of different saunas, but what is the purpose of all the variants? Who wants to sit in a semi-lukewarm room with 55 degrees Celsius? But the Finnish sauna was absolutely perfect. And we always appreciate the possibility of a cold water dip. Hot and cold alternately, that’s the best! A bowl of ice to rub you with was a fun feature as well.
Idun was absolutely sure when we started the exploration of Trøndelag’s bathing spots: ‘If we put in a little effort, we will easily manage to bathe 2-3 times in all 39 municipalities in Trøndelag in one year!‘ Well, that was a bit optimistic. Not all weekends can be devoted to swimming, and besides, there is also bathing outside Trøndelag from time to time. Now, after 2 years, we are about halfway there. So then it’s just a matter of looking forward to 2 new years? We have to admit that the expenses for the 2-year celebration are not exactly in line with the income of the blog, which is rather precisely at 0. But it’s fun!
On the island Jøa you can travel in time! And that is thanks to Jan Tranaas, who has built an Iron Age house in Storvika.
Storvika (The Big Bay) is located on the west side of Jøa, Namsos. The long house is quite well camouflaged.
People have lived at Storvika/Tranås for at least 2,000 years. Here there are burials from the Iron Age, i.e. before the Viking Era. The finds contain traces of both the houses where people lived and the mounds where they were buried. Remains have been found for a ‘long house’ (more than 50 meters), a home for dozens of people, perhaps up to 50. Finds from Tranås include scissors, a sickle, a knife, parts of a sword and rivets made of iron, a spinning wheel and a baking plate of soapstone as well as a bronze pin. These finds are from around AD 400.
The Iron Age house on Jøa. For the next visit we will be wearing woven woolen clothes!
Building an Iron Age farm has cost Jan 20 years of thinking, 5 years of construction, 5,000 working hours and NOK 2 million. Well spent, both time and money, Tobatheornottobathe thinks, because the result is really fabulous. The new (from 2013) longhouse is 27 meters long and consists of stone, timber and turf. Naturally, we do not know in detail how the houses were built in the Iron Age – apart from the stone wall and the corner logs. Jan justifies his construction partly with findings from Sweden. The house in Storvika is heavy and solid and can withstand a storm or three. And that is needed, because the weather can be harsh at the coast of Trøndelag.
‘Janheim’ is furnished for guilds. Could an Iron Age wedding be something?
Jan’s dream has been to recreate the story of who the people in Namdalen originate from and how their ancestors lived. Today, there is scarce information about the way of life before the Viking Era. He thinks we need more knowledge about the time when the ‘Trønder‘ cleared the land, started cultivating the soil and for the first time built houses for people and cattle. People and animals lived together, the cattle provided warm houses during wintertime. Iron Age Jan has put coins under the logs, with the year when the house was built. So, if someone rediscovers the site in another 1,500 years, they don’t need the hassle of carbon dating to find the age of the house.
Tobatheornottobathe is considering a birthday party at ‘Janheim’! Maybe it is even possible to stay overnight here?
Storvika is an adventurous place, completely sheltered from modern times. We had a splendid bath in amazing surroundings, and a fantastic weather. The November bath will probably look a little different.
Enjoying the view.
Our swimming gear was not quite ironage-ish. Next time perhaps a woolen bikini made by the single-needle knitting technique? Or just nothing at all.
References: – Namdalsavisa 25/11-2013: ‘Jernalder-Jan hadde en drøm’. – Information on site.
In the Middle Ages there were only three churches in Namdalen: Nærøy, Overhalla and Fosnes at northern Jøa. Fosnes parish included, among others; Namsos, Flatanger, Otterøya and Gjæslingan.
Today there is only a chapel at Fosnes, as the church site has been moved to the village of Dun in the middle of the island. On the other side of Fosnesvågen you will find Fosnes Camping.
Early Christianity was good at cultural assimilation. The first churches were often placed on existing worshipping sites (hov), but this did not happen on Jøa. Peculiar! Placement of the church site was a very important decision, and around Jøa they had a dispute about this. A legend tells that in order to reach an agreement, fate (God) was allowed to prevail in the following way: The timber foundations of the church were pushed into the sea from Kirkenesset at Salsnes. The church was then to be erected where the logs drifted ashore. And the logs, they drifted ashore in Fosnesvågen on Jøa. But then no one rescued them before they went out to sea again. Now they ended up at Seierstad (today’s ferry quai) at Jøa. But again they drifted out to sea before being salvaged, and time passed. When the logs ran ashore for the third time, it was once again in Fosnesvågen. The logs were picked up and the church built at Fosnes (this is quite reminiscent of how the conquerers in Iceland let the Norse Gods decide the location of the farm by throwing the high seat logs into the sea and notifying where they drifted ashore).
Fosnes Chapel.
We went from Fosnes to Hov on the east side of Jøa (where the church should have been placed), but there were not much visible left of the old times. Further towards the sea, however, is Rakkavika, and that’s a nice place to have a bath.
Sheep and stones in Rakkavika.
We wondered a little about the name, whether a ‘rakker’ had lived there (the rakker used to be the executioner in Norwegian towns, and also the one who emptied toilets and latrines). However, this far out to sea and in areas so desolate, it is unlikely that anyone at Jøa was employed to empty the toilets or run as executioner. It may seem that the word comes from rakke = a ring where the sail is attached to the mast (the ring protrudes from the sail), and in nature something that sticks out is called a headland. Tobatheornottobathe therefore concludes that the name ‘Rakkavika’ means Oddevik (Headland Bay), a really charming contradiction. Comments are welcome!
Nice trails at Hovsodden.
From Rakkavika, there are beautiful hiking trails in several directions. Because of that, we actually did not bathe there, as we wanted to see where the paths brought us. A well-arranged trail leads out towards the sea, to Hovsodden. Benches and tables, a barbecue and a view map are placed there. A fantastic place with a wonderful view!
Hovsodden. Splendid view towards the ocean.
From the barbecue area, an easier, marked path goes all the way to Jøa’s westernmost point. For small children’s feet, this is a really nice ‘mountain tour’, with the possibility of climbing the ‘Rakkabolt’, Jøa’s ‘Kjeragbolt’.
The Conqueress of Rakkabolten.
Once at the sea, you will find the finest white beach you could wish for. At least if you have small children with you.
Beautiful white sand on the beach at Hovsodden. The interesting, yellow geology is a rock of Styrofoam.
Tobatheornottobathe prefer to bathe from rocks in stead of sand, so we went even further out, to Oksholmen (The Oxen Islet). And yes, it was a really wonderful bath.
The coastal rocks were black of algae, and warm! It was really nice to dry off in the sun. For sure it is just right to swim in Rakkavika, but perhaps even better to have a bath at Hovsodden.
Tobatheornottobathe sought out the Olav Duun Festival on the island Jøa in Namsos municipality in the north of Trøndelag. We wanted to get to know Olav Duun, his writing and the island where he grew up – and we were also pretty sure that 3 days as islanders would provide opportunities for great swimming experiences.
Tractor eggs with a view towards the Dun village.
The Dun farms are located approximately in the middle of Jøa, characterized by a beautiful agricultural landscape surrounded by charming crags. On one of this there was an old fortress. In Gaelic, fortresses are called dún (such as Dún Aonghasa, which we have written about in another post). Some historians have other theories about the source of the name Dun, but we found this theory very likely, wether the Irish borrowed the name from the Vikings or vice versa. Here in Dun, Ole Julius Raabye grew up. When young, he was a fisherman for many years, before moving to Levanger in 1901 to study teaching. At that occasion Ole changed his name to Olav Duun.
Olav Duun’s childhood home. Earlier placed where the building on the right is now.
Olav Duun worked hard. In addition to his job as a teacher, he published 31 books in as many years. The sixth volume of his masterpiece ‘Juvikfolke‘ was finished in 1923, so 2023 was the 100 years celebration. He wrote with a non-standard grammar, almost writing in dialect. Which might be the reason many Norwegians from other parts of the country find him hard to read. Duun was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature several times, but never received it. In 1925 he lost it to Georg Bernhard Shaw by one vote. The ‘Aftenposten‘ newspaper in Oslo was so sure that Duun would win, that they published a paper on the day the award was to be announced with the headline ‘Today Olav Duun will win the Nobel Prize‘, only to withdraw the statement in the evening news. There has been “Fake News” before!
View from the writing room in the childhood home of Olav Duun.
From a nice tour in the Duun house, we went quickly over to Jøa’s cultural house ‘Fyret‘ (The Lighthouse) and a presentation of ‘Juvikfolke‘ as a 3 hour monologue by Hildegunn Eggen.
The Jøa community center has emphasized the name ‘Fyret‘ by erecting a lighthouse directly in front of it. It is borrowed from Kystverket (Coastal department) and previously was used somewhere along the Møre coastline.
Jøa is perfect for cycling. From Fyret, it’s only a few minutes trip down to Faksdal, where the old quai provides a good atmosphere, good food and good drink.
Faksdal brygge.
What’s more – at Faksdal Brygge it feels just right to jump off the quay!
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 north side of Jøa.
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.
‘Dun’ church with a view north towards Brakstad on the right.
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.
The orange tent at Brakstad. Some partying here as well, although it is a little different from the Roskilde festival in Denmark.
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.
You will have to search hard to find a sunset more stunning than Brakstad in June!
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.
Pure joy!
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!
Knut is considering the possibility for a morning bath…
…but the decision was in practice already taken!
A book bath or any type of bath is just right at Brakstad Hamn!
The area in the far north-east of Iceland is largely wasteland, it is a bit like Svalbard (Spitsbergen). You can really wonder why someone wanted to settle here – and that there are still buildings 1000 years later! But it turns out that these have been valuable areas. The main reason is fish, of course, and in earlier times most certainly walrus.
Desolate but dramatic nature in the north of Iceland.
Perhaps something more surprising for us Norwegians: driftwood. Iceland was dependent on imported wood for centuries, and Denmark’s trade monopoly did not help the situation.
Sheep and driftwood at the far north.
Owning land with a large influx of driftwood was very lucrative, and large quantities of wood have always drifted to the north coast of Iceland.
Neatly and less neatly stacked driftwood in the northwest of Iceland (Vestfirðir).
We went for a walk beyond Hraunhafnartangi in the hope of being able to swim at Iceland’s northernmost point. There is a lighthouse there, and next to it are the remains of a turf house. But we couldn’t swim there this time, the swells were too big.
North Cape Iceland. The old lighthouse keeper’s residence is still struggling.
On the way back, just before arriving at Raufarhöfn, we found a great beach close to the road. Clear water, birds and a sheltered bay with fine-grained sand. Can’t ask for more then, right?
Fishing is Iceland’s main industry, although tourism is well on its way up to number 2. In 1970, fish accounted for a whopping 90% of the export. This has been gradually reduced, but fish still accounts for almost 40%. The country is therefore very vulnerable to fluctuations in fish stocks and prices on world markets.
Who’s fishing who in Fáskrúðsfjörður?
One result of this is the many fishing conflicts Iceland has been involved in. Especially with England, which resulted in physical attacks in the 60’s.
Fishing history in Siglufjörður.
In Norway, it is perhaps the quarreling about ‘Smutthullet’ (the Loophole, a 62,400 square kilometers area of the Barent’s sea) that is freshest in the memory. When the cod fishery stopped in the 90’s, Icelandic fishermen had to find new places to find fish. The solution was to start fishing in Smutthullet, outside the 200 nautical mile economic zone from both Russia and Norway, but that was not very popular neither in Russia nor in Norway. The Norwegian coastguard took the Icelandic trawlers ashore and fined them. In 1999, an agreement was concluded between Russia, Norway and Iceland on quota exchange, which put an end to the unregulated Icelandic cod fishing in Smutthullet.
Dramatic nature in the northeast of Iceland.
In Iceland, a system of fishing quotas came into place as a law in 1983. At the first allocations, in 1984, they based the quotas on fishing experience per vessel.
Þórshöfn.
In the north-east of Iceland, there is not much else to live on other than fish. There are a few villages, one of which is Þórshöfn with barely 400 inhabitants. Here man found a very safe natural harbor. The god Þór was thanked for this, hence the name.
Colorful stone figures by Þórshöfn.
The morning bath at Þórshöfn is best taken in the sea. We followed the stone edge just out of the town, where the residental area starts – there you will find a nice little bay. The stone edge was decorated with painted stones in bright colours, presumably made by school children.
A morning bath in Þórshöfn is just right.
This far north, you can expect exceptionally beautiful, crystal clear water and an abundance of birds. Absolutely wonderful!
After a refreshing bath in Þórshöfn, an excursion to Langanes and the wrecked Douglas DC-3 R4D-S aircraft is just right. The accident occurred in 1969 during landing with a strong crosswind. The plane (from the US Navy) is located where the old airport used to be, and serves as a shelter for sheep in bad weather.
The Douglas plane wreck at Langanes.
You will need to pass a fence and join some icelandic horses to get near it, but the farmer did not come running to send us away, so we guess it was ok to have a closer look.
Southwards from Sandefjord, two long peninsulas run between the Sandefjord fjord and the outer Oslofjord, inspiredly named Østerøya (the Easter Island) and Vesterøya (the Western Island). 1000 years ago these were real islands, and you could sail inland from Oslofjord via Tønsberg to Sandefjord.
Vøra was at the bottom of the sea some 1,000 years ago.
When digging a cable trench on Auve, above Vøra on Vesterøya, a number of antiquities were found in 1972, and a Stone Age settlement was later archaeologically excavated. Of the finds, no less than 71 pieces of amber and a whopping 41,021 pieces of pottery have been counted. Much of this was extremely well preserved, as it lay in a sand dune formed by flying sand between 2000-2500 BC.
We were at Vøra to meet Knut’s sister Brit and her husband Stein, who have built a beautiful house on the old seabed. Brit is planning to start winter swimming, so it was a brilliant idea to start the swimming season in April together with Tobatheornottobathe!
Brit and Stein’s dream house.
It turned out to be a great beach bath (the house has its own beach line), with the Master of the Masters’ House (season 2022) in the background, but without hard competitions this time. Next time maybe we will be competing sitting in 90 degrees?
The house of the Masters!Some resisted the temptation. Photo: Une Hunstad Løwø
Easter was approaching the end and so did our Ireland tour, in Cork. By Cork we find the world’s second largest natural harbor (after Sydney): Cobh.
This drew our attention to one of the songs that we play together with ‘The Dirty Old Band‘.
The Irish rover (Trad) On the Fourth of July Eighteen hundred and six We set sail from the sweet Cobh of Cork We were sailing away With a cargo of bricks For the grand City Hall in New York ‘Twas a wonderful craft She was rigged for and aft And oh, how the wild winds drove her She stood several blasts She had twenty-seven masts And they called her ‘The Irish Rover’
Cobh Cathedral, or ‘St Colman’s Cathedral’, has Ireland’s highest spire with its 300 feet.
Cobh was named Queenstown 1849-1920, after a visit by Queen Victoria (a little boring if all places she visited would change name?). Around 2.5 out of 6 million Irish emigrants left Ireland via Cobh during the years 1848-1950. A journey across the Atlantic was an expensive and very dramatic event. The travelers had to borrow money from most of their relatives to afford the tickets, and it was unlikely that they would ever return. The farewell therefore became a kind of a funeral, since they were not going to see each other again. In the evening and night before departure, it was customary to hold a wake for the traveller, also called an ‘American wake‘. The setting was usually sad, although there was a hope for a better life behind the decision. In poor families, it was not usual to sing, dance or drink alcohol during an American wake. The usual thing to do was fasting. To break the fast one had to go to church, and in Cobh Cathedral for many years they held mass very early in the morning so that the emigrants could eat before boarding the ships.
Cobh is a colorful, small town.
Cobh today has just under 13,000 inhabitants, and it is a colorful and cozy little town. The main industry is tourism, with a focus on its status as a port city, and around 100,000 cruise tourists arrive the city each year. Besides ‘The Irish Rover’, which with its 27 masts would have been a very large ship, there was another giant that left Europe from Cobh: The Titanic. Cobh, then known as Queenstown, was the Titanic’s last port of call. But it was much too big for the quay, so contrary to what is shown in the film, she was anchored outside the islands of Haulbowline and Spike. Transport to and from took place with smaller tender boats.
‘America’, one of two tender boats that shuffled to and from Titanic in 1912. Photo from the Titanic Museum, Cobh.
123 passengers boarded the Titanic from Queenstown (and one lucky soul left the ship). Of these, 44 people survived. The old ‘White Star Line’ office is today a museum. Quite small, but pretty good. A very wise move to get close to the disaster is that the ticket you get is a copy of what the ticket from 1912 looked like – inscribed with an actual name among the 123. At the end of the tour, you can look up your alias yourself and find out if you survived or not.
Boarding card a la Titanic.
Idun was assigned the 30-year-old maid Marcelle (Maggie) Daly, who traveled third class and survived. Knut’s alias was Thomas Myles, aged 60, who traveled in second class. His family was visited by a survivor a few weeks after the accident, who could tell them that Mr Myles was allocated a place in a lifeboat, but stepped back, as it was ‘Women and children first‘. Unfortunately, Knut did not survive, but he kept his honor.
Now time was just right for a bath, and we actually saw some youngsters jumping from the pier by the Titanic Museum. But then there was this thing about permission. On the way to the pier, the prohibition sign was impossible to ignore, so “we” decided not to have a bath in Cobh city center anyway, since around 50% of tobatheornottobathe doesn’t like to break rules if not necessary.
Knut scouts for a suitable bathing spot. The wooden structure is the remains of the quay from 1912.
Instead, we went for a beach bath! Winter swimming has become popular also in Ireland, and we had received a tip about Cuskinny beach, which is less than 3 km from Cobh. The beach is shallow, so unless you want to wade far far away in mud, you should go there at high tide. We did, and this was a very nice bath. Beautiful, clear water, not too fine sand, and quite a few bathers with and without wetsuits and buoys.
Dogs and ladies at Cuskinny Beach, Cobh.
As very often before when taking a bath in not exactly warm water- it was the ladies who were in the majority (we only saw a couple of men among the 15 swimmers). And the average age was high, when Idun waded into the water she was actually the youngest. A splendid bath in wonderful sunshine!
Cuskinny beach
Once back at the car park, a sauna had suddenly appeared. It was Mike who had built a wood-fired sauna from a horse transport wagon. Awesome! He drives from beach to beach, and charges 10 euros per person per half an hour.
It is better to have a sauna when you know about it before you are finished bathing, so this time we didn’t try it.
