The flight attendant shakes her head and smiles “you look like a person who places a value on quality of life rather than money, so I won’t charge you!” I look at her with surprise. “I hope I haven’t insulted you? It is a quality i admire!”
“No I am not insulted, thank you Very Much!” I exclaim in surprise.
Kerry and IBarely able to dry my paddling gear off(lots of help thanks to the drier), I awake the day after the Punt ledge paddle fest to pack my bags, load my gear into Kerry’s purple VW van and head for the Comox airport. I have my wonderful encounter with baggage check, say good bye to Kerry and board a plane for Calgary. After a 2 hour layover in Calgary I board a plane to Frankfurt Germany. What a wonderful flight it was. We were chasing the sun and I got to see the arctic sea frozen solid stretching out to the horizon. This sight had me in awe of its vast emptiness; I longed to experience walking on that landscape, to feel the bone biting cold, to hear the crisp crunch as I stepped upon the frozen sea. Pieces of land in the form of jagged mountain ranges appeared here and there as we zoomed over Greenland, other than that you couldn’t tell where the sea ended or the landed started (or vice versa). I could imagine seeing polar bears and dogsled teams as tiny specs on the desolate white sheet that lay out around me thousands of feet down.
Glimpsing out every now and again form my movie, I got to see the sea change back to liquid and then be interrupted by the less frozen island of Iceland. Little villages tucked into remote bays on the northern coast sparked my imagination and desire to explore. What is life like in that town? How do they get there? What do the people do for work? What is that beautiful big surf beach like to camp on? What would it be like to kayak into the many coves and explore the exaggerated and stark shoreline? I wish to return to these places I have now flown over, to explore them on the ground and by water, to meet the people and experience the culture. However until then I have my adventure, I am on my way to Norway.
Trak in the Luggage RackAfter a slight miss hap in Frankfurt, where I left my 4 piece kayak paddle shaft on the plane, I got to my connecting flight to Oslo Norway just in time as they where closing the doors. A wonderful lady Michal helped me contact security who found the Paddle pieces I left and got them on a transport bus right to my terminal, with Michal’s help I got through the big line up for security check quick smart. However security wasn’t too happy about the two carbon fibre poles I was carrying and Michal had a big discussion with them in German explaining that I had flown through the USA and Canada with those pieces as carry on, so they eventually let the poles and I through. I hit the floor running on the other side of the X-ray machine, and squeezed through my gate. I am now only 30 minutes out from Oslo and arriving in the new country that will be my home for the next 3 or so months, I am super excited, and can’t wait to explore!
J