I park the car in the center of the small town, and a woman that was tending to the flowers and plants in the park puts down her tools and comes over to talk to me. “You English?” “American?!?”
“Welcome!” She then goes right into a tirade about her town being a whaling village, how they are not savages, even though the blood soaked waves that hit the beach following a whale being killed may indicate otherwise, and that without this practice their entire town would starve….
It wasn’t my place to judge. I just wanted to find the trailhead. So I listen politely to her story, then ask for directions, and before long we part ways and I make my way through town to the trail….
Climbing an almost straight vertical line at the beginning, the sweat starts pouring off my forehead. However, the dark clouds start coming in from the fjord behind me, as well as off the mountains tips ahead of me, signal trouble ahead. I will most likely reach the summit as the two storms meet.
The wind is strong as I reach the divide, and see that the trail continues on downward to another small village. The clouds are swirling in a vicious manner though, and so I decide that I will hopefully find the small village tomorrow and try to climb up that side of the mountain to further explore this entire area. Through the mist I see the outline of a figure above me, looking down on me. For what purpose though, I’ve no idea.
I take it as a sign to turn around and end this hiking exploration for today. When I reach the village again, the storms have left, leaving a spectacular sunset to be enjoyed over beers and food at the local tavern in town. Plenty of quiet time to plan out tomorrow.
