Across the sea to Norway

Zoonie
Wed 24 Apr 2019 08:26

Across the Sea to Norway

In particular to southern Norway and the areas of Kristiansand north to Larvik and Stavanger. The purpose of our trip being threefold; to explore the lives of a well renowned Norwegian sailor and his wife, Erling and Julie Tambs, secondly to re-kindle old friendships dating from Rob’s Boy Scout days over 40 years ago and thirdly to visit our cruising friends, Svein and Irene from their yacht Lovinda Too whom you may remember were moored alongside us in Whangarei back in 2017 and with whom we visited the Kauri Museum.

Leif and Marianne, who you see in the photo where we are having dinner with them in a converted theatre, The Teateret, were scout leaders at the time, four decades ago and we stayed with their daughter Hanne who spent a year in England and was nanny for a time to Rob and Christine’s children, Richard, Charly and Jonty. Hanne is married to Henning and they have two daughters, Tuva and Ingri and a six month old Australian Cobber (friendship) Dog, Calle who is a welcome and loving addition to their family.

They live high up on a hill in a row of wooden homes overlooking some of the many picturesque lakes and waterways around Kristiansand and the wooded hills opposite. Hanne met us at the airport and we collected some food for supper before arriving at their home where Rob and I were staying in Tuva’s room.

Erling (the original Erling’s grandson) arrived to collect us bright and early and we drove south to start with to Ulversund, the pretty little waterway you see in the photos with Rob and Erling and where Erling and Julie spent their last night in Norwegian waters before the start of their mammoth voyage back in the declining summer of 1928. I hope in showing you the photos on this blog to convey the coastline of southern and south eastern Norway as it is, both rugged and picturesque.

We then sped north for a few hours to Larvik to visit Erling’s daughter Tui who was born in New Zealand and named after the delightful native NZ bird I have described to you before that has a unique and complex song. Tui is 88 now and remembers nothing as she was only a few months old when the family lost Teddy on rocks to the south of Kawau Island outside Auckland and Tui was held secure on a rock by her brother Tony before both were rescued. But she does have an apartment full with boxes of photos, newspaper cuttings and articles about Erling’s adult life subsequent to the voyage in question and her daughter Karin was there and told us lots about her grandparents. My aims of the visit were all achieved and exceeded so I was very satisfied as we made our way in the brilliant sunshine to the pretty little fishing port called Nevlunghavn where the Tambs settled after their return from New Zealand. This was a nostalgia trip for our Erling who spent summer holidays playing in the garden at their home and remembers the little boat-shaped castle his grandfather (who died just before he was born) built in the garden, which is still there.

Hanne was making home-made pizzas with salad when we got back for a family supper.

The next day after a tour around Tuva’s international school with the Cornish headmaster Erling collected us for a visit to his home to meet his family, wife Ann Margaret and their son Ulrik. After tea we looked through his grandfather’s original manuscript of the book he wrote about the voyage and his scrapbook of an extraordinary sailing career.

It was that evening that we had supper with Marianne and Leif and I tried the waiter’s recommendation which as you can see is full with delicious vegetables but what you cannot see is that it was glazed with a hot clear chilli sauce which meant I was struggling determinedly on long after the others had finished! At the top of the Radisson Hotel building opposite the cold beer was very welcome I can tell you. Eilif and Evelyn and their mutual friend Tojo arrived on his bike without lights and the group reminisced about days gone by until midnight when we descended to the old Scottish style pub next door for a final hour before Hanne, bless her, collected us at 1.00am.

Grey skies and a chilly wind accompanied us on a look around the Kristiansand waterfront, past the brave young sailors in their Optimists, a pretty nordik double-ender (a spitzgatter in Norwegian), Maja and on to the fish market where Calle’s olfactory organs were working overtime and Hanne bought a big bag of prawns in their shells which lasted for a number of meals and sandwiches. We explored the clean and mainly pedestrianised streets of Kristiansand centre before having a welcome coffee in a warm café.

Fortunately for our last day with the family the sun once more made an appearance as we wandered down through the troll wood at Hesnestanger, an area of countryside set aside and enhanced by a development company in return for the permit to build houses. Ingri liked the trolls and walking with Calle and we loved their company.

Again in the afternoon we visited Erling at home, this time to meet his mother Solveig who had celebrated her 70th birthday the evening before and his sister Camilla. We listened to lots more family anecdotes and discussed how to take all we had learned forward into our shared literary projects. A constructive and enjoyable teatime.

It was Hanne’s birthday the next day as she drove us to the station to catch our long anticipated three hour journey to Stavanger. We had been looking forward to more pristine Norwegian scenery and weren’t disappointed as we viewed frozen lakes, wide blue rivers and numerous long tunnels while munching our prawn sandwiches.

 


Virus-free. www.avast.com

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image

JPEG image