Short good sleep. Last night’s trip has left a deep impression. Feel happy. Extremely connected to a loved one. – The two seas (if that even exists) visibly intertwine here at the northern end near Skagen, also in colour, and also in a figurative sense! This image fascinates me, and continues to accompany me.

On my tours yesterday I met several Swiss; I am now visiting one on his sailing boat in a harbour next door. By the way, I stopped into two bakeries and picked out a delicious piece of ‘jewellery’ each time. Everything feels so light. Sweet joy.

But then the journey continues. Winds and consequently unnecessary waves are announced, I want to head off. As luck would have it, I have to keep exactly northwards in order to pass between the fronts, and so I end up in the fjord of Larvik. On entering the fjord, I turn immediately left (because I spot a petrol station) and decide to stay here, in the harbour of this suburb called Stavern. – Another coincidence is that I am observed by an inflatable boat enthusiast as I enter the harbour… Without hesitation, he steers towards me and we quickly begin to talk. Björn, the name of the dear colleague, even takes me for a ride to one of his favourite places, a small archipelago just outside this fjord. A cosy island world.

Then back and a boat change, now he steers the ArgoFram (he likes it). And when asked about the name of my expedition RIB, he tells me where the original Fram was built: in Rekkevik, just opposite, on the other side of this fjord! – Today everything falls into place for me.

The next day I ride my folding bike around the entire fjord, through Larvik, to take a look at the place in Rekkevik where the Fram was built 130 years ago. Just imagine: at a suitable location (from where a ship can easily be launched), a hangar is built around the ship to be built, in order to have all the freedom to actually build the most specific of all the ships designed so far – a ship for the northernmost latitudes that is not crushed in the pack ice, but can be enclosed by the pack ice and drift with it. With the aim of enabling several years of scientific work, including protection of the crew. – Today we know that the mission was not only successfully accomplished, but even exceeded in several ways (see https://circumnavigate.blog/en/argofram/). Unfortunately, apart from a few plaques and stones embedded in the ground, nothing reminds us of this work site; the earth continues to turn… Today, in this sleepy suburb of Larvik, there is a simple, ‘renaturalised’ play and leisure park.

Surprise: Lois gets in touch. She’s been following my Instagram posts and asks how I’m doing – and if she can accompany me on the further journey around Norway… I say that the weather doesn’t promise anything summer-like, that it will determine our timetable, so I can’t specify where or when we’ll be, and yes, that I’d be happy if she accompanied me. – She looks at the flight schedules and decides to fly to Oslo the next day (return uncertain). OK. I stay an extra day, which gives me the opportunity to take another look at Oslo after many years.

I take the train into the nerve centre of Norway, and am amazed at how this city has developed and is still in the process of breaking away from its image as a sleepy capital with striking buildings, and becoming a pulsating city bursting with joie de vivre. – And Lois is already in front of me; we drive back to Larvik, where I have parked my ArgoFram in a somewhat sterile harbour pier, and continue with it to Stavern, where we prepare to continue our journey.

Norway is expensive, at the petrol station I pay almost three euros for a litre of petrol, more than three francs! – Everything is expensive here, even more expensive than in Switzerland. (But, from what I’ve seen so far, not necessarily better.) The country has energy in plenty, oil and hydropower/electricity, plus (farmed) fish, that swimming gold – and space, peace and tranquillity. So welfare might cost a little…

Now I am curious to see how my image of Norway develops. My goal is to drive around the whole long coastline, from Larvik to Kirkenes, from the south to the far north-east, so around the North Cape, about 2’700 km. My wish is to enter Russia from there, which is not possible right now (because the Russian border is still closed, supposedly because of Covid). But I don’t want to think that far ahead, want to drive on it first. I want to see what is going on.