Vega (off-grid living)

It was pouring with rain on Friday morning, so we decided to take it easy and stay indoors until after lunch with the plan to go out for a walk in the afternoon whatever the weather.  As it turned out the rain eased and then finally stopped as we set off for Vegdalen, a settlement of four houses that can only be reached by foot or from the sea.

The walk took us along the western shore of Vega, the island Matt lives on, beneath the hills that line the beach on that part of the island.  The rain clouds loomed threateningly behind the hills all the way but never made it over the top (luckily!).

Black clouds looming menacingly beside us

It was very windy and maybe that was the reason we didn’t see much birdlife; mainly gulls that I was unable to identify with any certainty.  Every so often we could see waterfalls which appeared to disappear – the wind was so strong that as the water fell it was blown away before reaching the bottom of its descent.

One of the disappearing waterfalls

We walked passed Søla, a now uninhabited island that rises abruptly from the sea.  It looks so inhospitable (and is only about a mile square) that I was surprised that Neolithic remains have been discovered there.  It was inhabited until 1350 when the inhabitants were wiped out by the Black Death.  It was then repopulated in the 1500s and since then its handful of houses were lived in until the last family left the island in 1970.  Amazingly, the main produce was potatoes that were sold/traded to the other islands in the area.  There are now just five summer cabins which many Norwegians we have met further south seem to have in the north of the country.

Cloud topped Søla

All public footpaths in Norway are signposted with red pointers.  In rocky areas, like here, stones are painted red to show the way.

Matthew with more waterfalls, black skies and a couple of cairns topped by red stones

Still following the red stones

Visitor books are also found along the footpaths in Norway.  These are placed in watertight containers every mile or so along the route.  We found one attached to a tree and also this one in a Tupperware box in a container under a picnic table.

Tupperware box with a visitor book inside

Vegdalen is set at the end of a valley where there is an inlet from the sea and a few streams running through it.

Looking down on three of the four houses at Vegdalen

Wouldn’t it be brilliant to be able to live off-grid like this?  I would have to learn to fish though – something I have never really fancied doing but, if it was for food, then I would have different feelings about it.  We were fortunate to see a white tailed eagle soaring above the valley.

Every so often the path crossed streams which, with the recent rain, were often tricky to cross.  Matthew and I spent some time at one trying to put rocks in to create stepping stones, but the force was too strong for them to remain in place.  We ended up walking upstream to find a safe place to cross.

Trying to give Karen a helping hand across one of the streams

We had set out in wet weather gear but halfway into our walk the skies cleared, and the sun came out. 

Clouds rolling away and the sun coming out

Passing Søla on our way back, this time in the sun

Matthew’s home on Vega…

  

…and one of his wood stores

Vega is the main island in the Vega archipeigo of 6,500 island and, with Søla, is the only mountainous one.  It is just south of the Artic circle which is the furthest north Karen and I have ever been.

If the weather sets fair on Saturday we will probably climb the highest mountain, Gullsvåg, which is equivalent to the highest peaks in Yorkshire.