It was time for the annual trip to the island Smøla! Smøla, "flat as a pancake" sits a few hours' drive southwest of the city of Trondheim. For me, that involves a whole day of travelling. First, several hours on a plane, followed by a rental VW ID.4 from Trondheim airport. Ole and OJ live closer, but this time it was impossible for them to join. So, it was just me, along with the host and radio amateur Rolf. I arrived at his property just before 20 local on Thursday. I had brought with me some sushi I bought on the way.
 |
| Pancake Island, aka Smøla |
Winter at Smøla is challenging, and our beverages were in a sorry state. The 315 beverage had been cut almost at the starting point, while the 290 beverage was broken after around 200 metres of its 700-metre run. Antenna supports were broken or missing. Most of Friday was spent outdoor, repairing and tensioning wires, inspecting the full length of the antennas including the far ends - which are on the other side of a narrow tidal channel!
 |
| Pancake pt. II. The mainland mountain range in the background. |
A test after the repairs had been done confirmed that performance is good. We had good luck with the weather - 16-17 Celsius, calm, but very humid. I was drenched in sweat when I had finished..
 |
| Smøla HQ |
Dinner! Yes, we have great dinners at the Smøla HQ too. Two 180-gram burgers each, with salad and a bottle of Alleanza Wongraven red wine. Wongraven is actually a Norwegian label on this excellent Italian wine with a drawing of the Norwegian folklore devil Fanden. After dinner we checked out a couple of high-octane beers before calling it a day.
 |
| The Devil is in the .... bottle! |
Saturday was rainy parts of the day, but with most of the outdoor work already done, that was fine. OJ's dismantled and disassembled 14-element FM antenna was put together again and set up in a north-westerly direction, hoping again for signals from North America. One fine day....!
 |
| FM antenna pointing to the northwest |
Cooler, but quite calm most of the day. 13-14 Celsius. Increasing wind towards the evening.
Dinner! Bacalao! Smøla is in the middle of Klippfisk country, salted and dried codfish, the core element in Bacalao. Main markets for klippfisk are Portugal, Brasil, Italy and Spain. Rolf prepared an excellent version of this famous dish for us. We had a Sauvignon Blanc with the Bacalao, fittingly named Croisée de la Mer. We finished off with a taste of exquisite Scotch whisky.
Sunday was departure day, and almost all of it was spent travelling. After leaving Smøla on the car ferry at 09.15, I had a brief charging and coffee stop underway, and arrived at OJ's place at around 13. Two hours later it was off to the airport, and the rest of the afternoon and evening was spent airborne, including three different aircraft and seven stops underway until I landed in Vadsø just before midnight.
 |
| Leaving Smøla "....on a Ferry Cross the Edøyfjorden" |
No comments:
Post a Comment