Hollendarheia and Falkhetta on Sauren island
Peaks visited:
| Peak | Height | PF | Municipality | Location |
| Hollendarheia | 73m | 73m | Brønnøy | GPX |
| Falkhetta | 71m | 13m | Brønnøy |
Summer vacation 2016 continued…
And to you Lord of the Rings fans; no – this is not about Sauron!
It was our last day in Brønnøysund and given all the traveling Anne and I had done in the last two weeks, we felt for doing something that was close to Brønnøysund and easy. After studying the map, I noticed the island Sauren. None of us had ever been to this island. The map said the high point (Hollenderheia) was 71m above sea level. Not really meeting my minimum 100m preference, but I still wanted to go there.
I checked the ferry timetable. On a normal day, we would have to take the 6:45am or 2pm ferry and return 2:30pm. But today was Friday, so we chose to take the 2pm ferry from Hestøya and return on the 4:30pm ferry which only runs on Fridays. That would give us 2 hours to visit the island high point, and given the distance, that would be plenty of time.
At 2pm, the ferry departed from Hestøya with mom, Anne, Karma and me onboard. There were also 7 cars onboard, and how they could fit 9 (like the signpost said) was a mystery. It was a beautiful day, and we felt we were going someplace very exotic, although Sauren is just outside Brønnøysund.
The ferry stopped in Brønnøysund to let one passenger go off and another get on. Then we sat course for Sauren.
Then we continued southeast towards Falkhetta (71m) – in case Wikipedia was wrong and this happened to be the island high point. There was an ugly crack that Anne, Karma and I had to jump across. Mom didn’t want to risk injuring her leg and we found an easier route.
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So, what is the island high point? The answer is found on the Økonomisk Kartverk map (5m contours). There is a mailbox on Hollenderheia at 72,6m. When there are decimals in play, I trust this map. This mailbox is NOT on the high point, so the high point must be 73 or 74m. My money would be on 74, but let’s say 73m. Falkhetta has a 70m contour, but there is just not room within that contour for more than 1-2 meters. Moreover, my GPS track and waypoints also suggests that Falkhetta is the lower of these two tops.
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Anyway, the time was now 3:30pm and we agreed to head back to the harbor. We took an off-trail route down to the forest road we were on earlier, then across a meadow and found the forest road from Rødhyllvågen, which we followed back to the main road. We arrived at the harbor 4pm and had half an hour to enjoy a nice lunch before the ferry came and brought us back to Hestøya. Mom wished that the stay could be longer, but now she knows how to get there and can take as many trips as she wants to.
Pictures from the hike:
