The last trip was a bit of a transportation disaster, fishing disaster, but relaxation and renovation wise - excellent.
Arrived at Oslo, checked into hotel. Opened Ipad, and saw that the next leg of the journey ( by Norwegian) had just been postponed by more than 27 hours, due to the Boeing aircraft fiasco. No way we would shorten our stay that much, spending precious time at a boring airport hotel.....
So we ran back to the terminal, and bought new tickets (with SAS) to Bodø. No refund of the Norwegian tickets.
Ran back to the hotel, checked out ( still had to pay for the stay) ran back. Fun running with a wornout knee. Thanks, Norwegian!
Got to Bodø, a few hours in a hotel, ( the excellent Thon Hotel) then in the early morning with Widerøe to Leknes. Milk visibility all the way, but it cleared up miraculously just when we aporoached Leknes airport.
A Hybrid rental car waited, plus a snowstorm.
It stormed on and off for the two weeks we were there, so I did not pick up my boat.
One storm was particularry bad, about 500km south of us there was an incident with a cruise ship. Lost all power, almost drifted on some cliffs.
Lots and lots of snow, close to 2 meters on our drive, so for the first time in 25 years I had to shovel!
As I could not fish, buy I had plenty of time to work on the house, service reels, sort out the other fishing equipment, and so on. House is close to being finished.
Did a new floor, new wall panels in the last bathroom, fitted shower cabinet, bathroom cabinets, and almost finished another bedrooms wall panelling.
Sort out some business with the council, enjoy time with friends.
Good stuff! Relaxation!
Being in winter and in the Northern Atlantic, this happens about once every three winters.
It is ok, I do not fish to make a living.
On the way home, when we checked ii for the Oslo to London flight in Oslo, we got the message that we had been bumped off on the London to Cayman.
World Traveller Plus, booked through BA, 4 months in advance, Silver membership, freqvent flyer, blah, blah, blah, nothing is worth anything.
Arriving at Heathrow, after a nervous sleep, we spent several hours at a desk dealing with this crap, we were 6 that were bumped off.
The two of us were first in queu ( stood there 5 AM when they opened) so we managed to get seats, furthest back in the cabin.
Hate those. Recline less, unless you book a Special Meal you get the food last, and usually the Cornish Ale they have ( few know this ale is on the flight) is finished.
But we got our Special Meals as ordered, very nice, loads of that gutrot wino so I was happy.
But at least we got around 2K back on the price difference, plus 300 as goodwill.
I have already booked for the next trip. Cayman Airways to Miami, Lufthansa to Frankfurt then Oslo, SAS to Bodø then Widerøe to Leknes.
Norwegian - never again, and if Lufthansa is nice, BA has lost three longtime customers.
Bushcrafting you ask?
Apart from a one hour snow wading ( one hour there, 15 minutes back in the same tracks, digging with bare hands and knife, cutting hard frozen wood) to get a specific piece of Arctic Birch I had scouted the previoys summer and working on it, nothing. Unless shovelling snow daily and fixing fishing equipment counts.
The heavily convoluted Birch trunk I took home to Cayman, will be the main part of a kitchen knife stand.
I must be redistered in the Security computers worldwide as the guy that transports the weirdest stuff around. Whalebone, wood, bits of old ship planks, bits of weird steel...
