Blog – Page 15 – ToBatheOrNotToBathe

Golden Mini Circle

If you have some time in Iceland, we would recommend you to spend more than one day at ‘The Golden Circle’. Þingvellir including (free) diving in Silfra should be a separate trip. The first day it is great to visit Gullfoss and Geysir Area. The waterfall Gullfoss is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Iceland, it is unbelievably beautiful in its power. Gullfoss has a large water flow and 32 meters height, divided into two falls. The waterfall was protected after a public action started by Sigríður Tómasdóttir, and a statue of her has been erected at the waterfall.

Gullfoss in the river Hvítá was worth protecting.

At Gullfoss you will find a big shop with a large selection of souvenirs and Icelandic clothes. And, strangely enough (since it looks like a typical tourist trap), also a very good lamb soup (kjötsúpa).

After some blowouts from Strokkur in Geysir Area, it’s a good time for a bath – but not in Strokkur, and not in Gullfoss!

We recommend going to Laugarvatn (Lake Laugar). There you have to visit Fontana spa. It is gorgeous, but be aware that this is a natural spa, including a distinct smell of sulfur. Especially the saunas require some overcoming, but what can you expect when you are ‘sitting on top of a Geysir’?

The pools are made of ordinary pool tiles, which is a fine contrast to the rough stones and drift timber that frames them.

What lifts the Fontana experience the most, is the possibility to switch between hot and cold baths. From a luxury ‘heitur pottir’ (hot pot) you can take a fresh swim in Laugarvatn. NB! Don’t even consider diving in! Laugarvatn is extremely shallow. The maximum depth is only 2 meters – even though the area is 2 km², and you actually risk to get abrasions on your knees when swimming!

But that feeling… To cool down in Laugarvatn before reentering a beautiful 42 degree pool from where you can contemplate the volcano Hekla far far away! If you swim along the shore to the right, though, the water in the lake itself is warm, there is warm water coming up from the lake bottom everywhere!

Laugarvatn. The volcano Hekla in the background.

Then we say like the Icelanders: Allt fint (everything’s fine)!

The white feathers

Höfn is located in the region Austurland, by Hornafjörður. Here you can find several guesthouses and good restaurants.

From Höfn you have a splendid view westwards to Vatnajökull’s plentiful extensions.

Höfn. Idun reminisces about growing up on Svalbard, Spitsbergen.

At the western side of Höfn, by the seaside, there is a nice hiking trail. The starting point is by the harbor, and the theme is astronomy. The solar planets are located along the path, sizes and distances are made to scale. Fascinating! By a small headland you will find an outdoor exhibition, with beautiful pictures of Vatnajökull, local happenings, and also a stone exhibition.

Gabbro exhibition by the hiking trail along Hornafjörður.

Arriving Höfn one late evening in September, we went to this headland to have a bath. It was perfect. A cliff hanger to be used as a natural wardrobe – it couldn’t be better!

What wasn’t perfect was the weather – gale. It was a rather cool experience. Because of the wind, we were freezing cold long before entering the water, and the bay of Hornafjörður is affected by melting water from the glaciers. Besides the cold, the Höfn ‘beach’ consisted of small, pointed stones… Not the best bathing experience, really. But we were contended (and no, we have never regretted a bath). After the bath we went straight to a restaurant for a wonderful dinner.

Evening panorama from the wardrobe. Idun struggles a bit with the word ‘horizontal’.

Back in Höfn in March, we wanted to give our favorite wardrobe another chance, calm seas were a promising start. Knut was ready to enter the fjord first – wearing swimming shoes this time. But he didn’t throw himself into the water right away. Halfway out he stopped, wondering, looking around. ‘Strange. There are a lot of feathers here. Plenty!’ Then he was silent for a while, until he suddenly shouted: ‘We shall not swim here! Those are not feathers, but toilet paper!’

The conclusion was basically that a bath in Höfn is not right. At least not right there, right then.

The abandoned houses

When driving around Iceland, it’s impossible not to notice all the abandoned farms.

Guesthouse and rusty but not abandoned barn at Rauðaberg.

If you add all that you don’t see as well – the number is high! Abandoned houses and barns built in turf (before the use of concrete took over), surrender to nature to such an extent that after a few years they are not visible except as small piles of grass.

Flatey. The shed practicing to become earth.

However, the concrete structures are visible many many years. A lot of them are ugly, but some are actually quite beautiful in all their decay. By Highway 1, west of Höfn, not far from Rauðaberg, there are some ancient houses decorated with new and modern graffiti.

Decorated old concrete with a view eastwards to Höfn.

Iceland has undergone a period of heavy urbanization, and when it comes to the capital area – to the extreme. Of Iceland’s 350,000 inhabitants, 65% lived in Reykjavik and the surrounding area in 2021.

In the heart of Haukadalen, not far from Rauðaberg, we had our coldest bath to date, in March, only a few days after a nice bath at the same place in beautiful spring weather. This time minus 4 degrees and a fresh gale, so we were freezing long before we started to undress. Knut was first ready, and plowed the ice towards the pool while Idun took pictures.

Yes, it is also time for a bath in minus four degrees. But admittedly, the idea of a hot pot was clearly also rather present in our brains.

A rather fresh bath in the ‘Nameless’ waterfall

Getting dressed afterwards was a rather cumbersome affair, since the fingers had trouble cooperating. But regrets? We have a few! But any baths are not among them.

Rauðaberg waterfall

Exactly one year ago, we took the first of a series of baths in Iceland. Some of us were going crazy of day after day with home office, and Iceland had a corona infection rate close to zero and was excempt from the Norwegian governments general advice of not travelling abroad. That made Iceland a good place to visit, we thought.

With help from Jon Sveinsson, who runs the Facebook site “Iceland, the photographer’s paradise”, we got a very good deal for a guest house at Rauðaberg for our quarantine period!

The first 5 days we could not enter any hot baths due to quarantine, but that’s no problem when you like cold baths as much as the hot!

If you ever get out of Reykjavík: It is possible to find splendid hiking tours outside the lists of Icelandic tourist attractions! Actually, it is very nice to go for a regular walk along valleys or by the shoreline. Does this sound boring? Not at all! Calm down, breathe deeply in the fresh air, and enjoy going for a walk without planning and queues and crowds of people.

During the quarantine at Rauðaberg, one day we went along the ‘Hauka’ (Hawk) valley below the mountains.

On the way we saw several farms, houses, fenced clusters of trees and plenty of small, beautiful waterfalls.

This is how it looks like when Knut thinks he is well camouflaged.

There were a lot of birds in the mountains. Mostly seagulls, but also ravens. The ravens always appear in pairs. No wonder the Norse mythology equipped Oðin with two ravens: Huginn and Muninn.

Entering the end of the valley we found a field of trees; pines and larch. A memorial has been erected by the road in honor of the forester who started planting trees here. And finally we arrived at a two level waterfall.

This got to be our personal bathing waterfall during the quarantine week. It was an excellent experience to swim in the pool below the waterfall. Such a beautiful place, with a waterfall that does not even have a name (that we could find). The fascinating thing about all waterfalls is how much strength they have when you stand in them, but when you check afterwards what flows out, there is close to nothing! How is it possible that something that looks like a small stream roars and knocks the air out of you when it falls over the waterfall edge? Water for sure is powerful!

Oh, how nice it was to get out of the home office. Away office in Iceland was so much, much better!

Telegraph Bay

Tromsø’s city beach is on the south tip of Tromøya (Trom island). We parked at the old aquarium, a starting point of nice hiking paths along the ocean. The old aquarium opened in 1952 and collected salt water from 25 m depth so the animals could have the same environment as in the sound.

For a period Tromsø Museum had not only seals and reindeer, but also polar bears in Telegraph Bay: Binna and Pelle (mother and son). It is said that they loved biscuits, but the main food was fish. In 1954 they escaped and started swimming towards Grindøya on the other side of the fjord. After a wild hunt they were recaptured and the police ordered them killed. And that was the end of the zoo in Telegraph Bay.

So we felt quite safe as we went for a test swim. The bay is named after a sea cable layed across the fjord to Tisnes in 1894. The cable house still stands and gave some shelter from the rather icy winds while we were changing.

Corona had loosened it’s grip, so there were quite a few people on the paths taking pictures of the beautiful mountains on Kvaløya.

For their sake we hope they had better luck with the equipment than we had that day! Our GoPro totally failed us, so we got only 4 pictures from the bath instead of 1 each second. We now have 2 GoPros, and a tripod for mobile, so we can assure getting at least some useful pictures from future baths.

But a nice, fresh bath it was. Right now is a good time for a bath in Telegraph Bay! Next time we go there, we’ll get some better pictures too…

Kayaking in Viking Land

Senja is Norway’s second largest island, with an area of 1586 km2 and almost 8000 inhabitants. The name possibly comes from the Norse ‘sundr’ = ‘separated, apart’, and in that case refers to the strongly divided coast. The nature at Senja is spectacular: High mountains, deep fjords and beautiful, white beaches.

Okay nature at Senja, in okay winter weather. The forested island is Tranøy.

On the south side of Senja island is the small island Tranøy (Crane island). On Tranøy, people settled some 2000 years ago. Remains of 3 boat houses from Viking times have been found, and also burial mounds. There we wanted to go kayaking!

Idun’s big brother Frode has vacuumed the second hand market of kayaks for years, so he is well equipped. Knut was corona sick and stayed home, so the seventh kayak was not in use this day.

Tranøy is an old church site, and was under the Archdiocese of Nidaros from 1270. Today there is a rectory on the island, with a museum in the old house.

Several exciting stories are presented in the museum. Here is a picture of a women’s brooch from around the year 900, which was found in the former Tranøy municipality.

Tranøy’s wild sheep. Back to the left you can see burial mounds.

There is a beautiful white beach on Tranøy, but for practical reasons there was no bathing done here this time (‘Someone’ had become hungry, and the food was forgotten in the car). Well back on ‘Mainland-Senja’, however, a bath was just the right thing to do, even though the sea was not quite as shiny as at the start of the trip.

A bath in front of Tranøy is just perfect!

Water can’t be more crystal clear than this, can it?

Bonfire house bath at Senja

North east on Senja (Norway’s second largest island) there is a cape and close to it a hillside with a chip in it (chip – skår, hillside – li, cape – odde: Skorliodden). It is a good view to the seaway in to Tromsø, which means it is a good place for a fort. Skorliodden fort was put up by the Norwegian Defence Forces with pre-german materials. The fort is now gone, but the pier is still there.

The weather forecast predicted some wind this day, so instead of the planned kayak-tour we went for a walk to watch the waves.

No, this hunt was only for pictures and baths. No rules broken.

We parked at Vangshamn and went by foot out to the fort, a nice half hour walk. And plenty of time to look forward to a bath in the extremely clear water!

From Skorliodden you see over the fjord towards Kvaløya wind mill park. Doesn’t look too bad, considering there are still plenty of untouched mountains left in Troms and Finnmark.

Inga enjoys her freedom. Kvaløya in the background.

On Skorliodden they have made a bonfire house after plans from Furøy Velforening. It is rather windy out on the cape, so some shelter is rather welcome.

Skorliodden bonfire house. Soon also with panorama windows.

Hot dogs in focus. Comfortable in the bonfire house on Skorliodden! Photo: Ulrike Naumann.

After food it was time for a bath, but strangely enough no one else than Idun and Knut wanted to have one. Most were happy just walking along the pier and looking at the waves. No closeup studies wanted.

Windy on the pier. Photo: Ulrike Naumann.

Quote from big brother: ‘’If you give me 50 kr, I’m happy to deny you to bathe today!’’. An offer we easily could refuse, who can withstand such a tempting bathing spot?

What will I see – over the giant waves? Photo: Ulrike Naumann.

Skorliodden wave pool. Photo: Ulrike Naumann.

They waves weren’t as big as expected though. So then we could return to the bonfire house.

Chilly and nice at Skorliodden. Photo: Ulrike Naumann.

It is always a good time for a bath at Senja!

Animal tracks in Sørreisa

Iduns big brother Frode lives on the peninsula Furøy (pine island, although it was called Leirøy, clay island while it was still an island) between Finnsnes and Sørreisa centre in Troms. Every winter he arranges an activity holiday for the Løwø siblings. This time we wanted to join! BUT – Idun broke her shoulder last time she skied, so the main activity of skiing wasn’t so tempting. A bath, on the contrary, is always tempting!

Close to Sørreisa church is Tømmervika (the Timber bay), and from there it is a short walk to Storvika (the Big bay) – Furøya’s primary bathing spot.

Quite easy to find Storvika, even though the road wasn’t cleared of snow.

Crossing the road were tracks of rabbit, moose, deer and fox. Deer are living here only for the second year. They rely on old conifer trees and last year the planted conifers were finally old enough. About the fox: we _think_ it was fox, since there were no human tracks nearby. Maybe if we could have heard what the fox said…

Nice with a sign to tell you to stop. Some never are able to do that.

The deer had had a gathering in Storvika, but it seems as the Humans are planning on reoccupying the area. A big bonfire was already in place. Tempting to bring out the matches…

Everything ready for a pentecost bonfire, or do we have to wait for midsummer?

In the background is a war ship participating in the exercise ‘Cold Response’. It had good speed as we arrived, but suddenly stopped. Was watching two crazy mid winter swimmers that interesting?

There was much seaweed on the way out, but wow (!) how clear the water is here up north. Big brother wondered if we did swim out to the small rock in the bay, some 250 m out. But we were there at high tide and didn’t notice any rock. Might have been just as well. Maybe next time!

Back at big brother’s house we could see who had made some of the tracks we saw! Not too shy, these ones…

It is always a good time for a bath in Storvika!

The old river outlet

The river Orkla is the basis for most of what is going on in Orkdalen (Orkla valley) and has given name to the town (from 2014) Orkanger and the new (from 2020), widened commune Orkland. The name possibly comes from the old norse ‘orka’ = work, which may describe the heavy streams in the upper river. There are no natural water magazines in Orkla, so floods are not uncommon. In the flood “Storofsen” in 1789, lives where lost. But it is a good salmon river, with the biggest catch ever being 25 kg.

The Orkla delta before routing to channels. Picture from info plate at ‘Furumoen’.

The river’s own work with creating a delta was not too much appreciated and the lower part of the river was channeled, so the delta could be used for industry instead.

Straight sight lines in the lower parts of Orkla.

The idea has worked well and there is now a significant amount of industry on Grønøra in Orkanger.

The channeling of Orkla turned the old outlet to a backwater. What to do with that? Plans existed to fill this up for industry as well, but local enthusiasts stopped it from happening. The last 15 years, Orkanger Vel has put great effort into Gammelosen (the old river outlet), and it has given results. Covered with white shell sand, you have the nicest little city beach you can ask for. Pure paradise!

Oh, yes, at Gammelosen there is sand under the snow.

The nice thing about going to a sand beach at winter time, is that you don’t bring half the beach with you back home, because of the snow layer on top! Perfect!

…and for those who for peculiar reasons might not appreciate cold baths: Right by Gammelosen is also Orklandsbadet (since 2020), with everything you could possibly want of water slides, swimming pools and saunas. Enjoy!

In the building behind us we could have taken a warm bath, but why would we?

For the sporty ones, this where the triathlon race Trøndertri is arranged in august. With some luck the ice is gone before that…

A bathing bay paradise

From the island of Storfosna (previous post) you can cycle further out to the ocean, to Kråkvåg (Crow Bay).

Holmen Island and Kråkvåg in the background.

On the way, the small island of Holmen is passed, and here they have set up a small bath tub. Unfortunately not in use in February 2022.

Bath tub in changing weather. Kråkvåg in the background.

Kråkvåg is both an island and an archipelago consisting of four islands. The name comes from the crows, which seek refuge here at night. The population of humans is around 50. This is an incredibly beautiful place!

Rocks and beaches at Kråkvåg island. Storslåttøya (big harvest island) in the back.

At Kråkvåg there are dozens of small and large, beautiful white beaches. There are so many that you will always be able to find a sheltered beach. Which comes in rather handy, there is a lot of wind here!

Not very far from beach to beach at Kråkvåg.

While cycling back and forth, unable to choose the best beach for bathing, we found Skjærgårdsstranda (Archipelago beach), and it basically chose itself.

At Skjærgårdsstranda, it’s always the right time for a bath.

The crowd of people was reasonable when we visited Skjærgårdsstranda at the end of February. But in the summer – what a paradise: benches, barbecue, bathtub, bathing bay and sauna! Here we had our fresh winter bath, a little exciting too. There were so big waves this day that a real drag was created in the small bay. Lovely!

At the end of the road you will find Kråkvåg fort, built in the 1980s.

After investing a billion kroner in building the fort, it was closed down before it came into use.

Kråkvåg with the Island Storfosna in the background.

Of course it wasn’t a waste of money. At least the ‘Kråkvåg people’ got a bridge!

This day we cycled almost forty kilometers. It was a hard exercise, because none of us had cycled much during the last 3 months. However, this was solved in the very best way: Accommodation and spa at Hovde farm in Brekstad.

It doesn’t get better than that!