Grytøya, Harstad – Day 2
| Date | Peak/Place | Height | PF | Location |
| 04.09.22 | Sandsøy Kystfort | – | – | Harstad, Norway |
| 04.09.22 | Veten | 212m | 212m | Harstad, Norway |
| 04.09.22 | Falkeberget | 248m | 248m | Harstad, Norway |
| 04.09.22 | Going home | – | – | Harstad, Norway |
Continued from day 2…
Sandsøy Kystfort
This coastal fortress was built in the 60’s and decommissioned in ’98. It is now on private hands, but through his contacts, Morten was able to get us in for a tour through the tunnels.
The history is too long to get into here, but it was interesting to walk through this complex below the ground.
Pictures (Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the fortress:
Veten (212m)
More of interest to me, was that there is a pf100 top (Veten) close by and Bent and I decided that we wanted to visit this top. Lars and Morten were happy about staying by the fortress.
The normal route to the top runs from Altvika, and up the southwest ridge. But there was also a route from Sandsøy Kystfort.
We followed a gravel road up Mellanddalen valley, and it eventually turned into a dirt road, running almost all the way to the top.
We passed the antenna on Slakstadfjellet before reaching the top of Veten after a 2,3km hike.
I like to visit island high points. There are 400 island high points with a primary factor >= 100m (mainland Norway), and whenever I get a chance, I try to get another one. So, I was very happy with getting my island high point top #124.
On top, we met the same girl that took a group picture of us on Nona the day before.
After a short stay, we jogged down and joined the others.
Trip statistics: 4,5km, 210 vertical meters, 1 hour
Pictures (Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Falkeberget (248m)
We found that we had time to visit Bjarkøy and hike Falkeberget before setting the course back to the airport.
Again, Bent and I had to represent the team and we were dropped off near Øvergårdsvika bay. We followed a gravel road that seemed to lead up to a dam.
But just before the dam, we got tempted by a forest path that we assumed was a short-cut.
However, this path seemed to be going in a different direction, so we had to go off-trail to join the path from the dam.
The day was beautiful, and the terrain was gorgeous. I really enjoyed being out.
After a short hike through the forest, Falkeberget was ahead of us. As the path seemed to continue to the north, we went off-trail – straight west towards the top.
And then, island high point #125 was in the bag. I got 3 of those this weekend, in addition one more on the 1000m pf list (Nona, the day before). Combined with good friends and stunning weather, it hardly gets any better…
We jogged down and joined the others before one hour had passed.
Trip statistics: 4,3km, 250 vertical meters, 56 mins
Pictures (Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Going home
Morten had offered to drive us to the Evenes airport, but he had miscalculated the ferry capacity and number of cars already in line by the time we got there. I told the others that once the ferry was full, it would leave. Hence, we had to get our bags from Morten’s car in advance. And sure enough, Morten didn’t make it onboard and we had seconds to get on the ferry before they closed the gate.
According to the others, there was no panic if we missed the ferry, but it would be a two hour wait until the next one and I really didn’t want to risk my flight.
OK, now what? There was no airport shuttle bus on the Harstad side and so I had to call for a taxi.
The taxi picked us up and when the driver asked where we were heading, I said “Harstad”. I then said “actually, we’re going to the airport, but we assume the fare is too high. Just for amusement, what is the fare?”
When the driver told us that he could take us there for a fixed fare, we looked at each other – as that fare was the exact sum we had talked about on beforehand. Split 3 ways, it wasn’t too bad for being taken directly to the airport, compared to waiting in town for the shuttle bus.
We got to Evenes a couple of hours before departure and had plenty of time to grab a bite and wind down before the flight.
Lars was tired and didn’t look forward to the drive from Oslo Gardermoen to Tønsberg. Bent and I had booked rooms at Radisson Blu. Bent was going to Switzerland the next morning, while I would catch the morning flight to Sogndal.
It had been a long day when I checked into my hotel room at 11pm. I had 7 hours of potential sleep ahead of me and I planned to make most of them count…
