主播大秀

I think I've at last recovered from spending 12 days on board a 67 foot long boat with 9 teenagers. At least, sufficiently recovered to do a blog about it! The full recouperation may take some time.
The trip was organised for young folk in our local school, Baltasound Junior High School. The nine pupils and two staff (myself and Ian) chartered the Shetland sail training vessel Swan for 12 days and we sailed across the North Sea to Norway.
The 26 hour crossing was the smoothest of my experience, and no one was sea sick. Sea sickness, however, is not the only form of sickness on the planet, and by the time we'd arrived in the Sogne fjord 2 of our young crew had come down with an Unst-originated sick bug. Murphy's law I suppose. Before we'd got rid of the bug (Dettol is a marvellous thing) another 2 had come down with it, including the skipper.
So, with the skipper safely stowed in her bunk, spewy bucket at hand, the mate took charge of the Swan and we left our first stop of Leirvik and headed to Vaerlandet and Bulandet, two islands that had invited us to their festival. We had a warm welcome and a very enjoyable two days there before we sailed south (recovered skipper at the wheel) in the direction of Bergen, stopping off in Alverstraumen, a beautiful place, to spend the night. There we tied up at a tiny island, not much bigger than our games hall, but it had a diving board and barbeque facilities! The bairns even had a chance to do some water skiiing.
In Bergen the young folk did all the touristy things - cable car, funicular railway, fish market etc etc, and also had a bash at ten pin bowling.
The only complaints so far were that the 'wedder's too dam hot' - we clapped on plenty of factor 30.
Leaving Bergen we visitied Bunty, a friend in Baldersheim. She welcomed us all with true Norwegian hospitality, feeding us till we couldn't eat any more.
Next stop was a brief visit to Haugesund where we had intended to go to Lazer Quest, but discovered it had closed 3 weeks previously! So we carried on and spent the night in Skudneshavn, which is a couple of hours sail from Stavanger, where we went the following morning.
From there we took a train (big novelty) to Sandnes and visited the leisure pool, which was a huge success. Swimming was not the thing to do in that pool, just sliding down flumes, sitting in bubble pools, going down shutes in big rings, and descending extra-wide slides in as many different positions as possible. Norwegians know how to have fun - they just have less rules than we do, and allow for common sense to prevail! (Having said that, I still bear the remains of a bruise on my forehead after descending on my belly and whacking my head off the side of the pool!)
The last day in Norway was spent climbing the 604 meter high Preikestolen. It was well worth the 2 hour treck up for the stunning views across Lyse fjord.
Our 32 hour return journey was made in fair weather, but we had a lumpy bit in the middle, causing a bit of sea sickness.
All in all, an experience the young folk will never forget. And neither will I.
Most of these pics are mine, though some are Christian Reuter's and some Ian McConnells.