Cruising the fjords the slow way
- jasey5
- Jun 27
- 5 min read
I’m not sure how many massive bars of Norwegian chocolate our guides bribed the weather gods with, but we set out on an epic kayak trip from the port city of Ålesund to the small, highly visited fjord town of Geiranger under sunny skies. My family doesn’t frequently travel on guided trips so it’s always a treat when we do and this trip was no exception. Our main guide for the trip was Nathan, a super adventurous guy originally from Scotland who has been living in Norway for around 8 years and guiding this trip a few times a year for the last 6. Needless to say, the logistics were so smooth once we got on the water that you almost forgot they existed. We also had a second guide on the trip, a crazy adventurous mechanical engineer from Australia named Alex, who was training to lead the trip in the future. As for fellow guests on the trip, in addition to my parents, we were joined by one of my very close friends Cassie and Chen, a software engineer from California.
Our route took us a total of 72 paddling miles down through progressively smaller and more stunning fjords. Our destination, the town of Geiranger, which none of us has figured out how to pronounce correctly, is a highly popular cruise ship destination with docks for three massive ships. Shockingly, with all the thousands of people coming in on the ships, we saw practically no boat traffic and even fewer people on the water until the final days of the journey. The Geiranger fjord is a protected UNESCO world heritage site due both to its stunning natural beauty and the remnants of the unique lifestyle of fishing farms preserved high on its fjord walls.
We started paddling through a network of islands and fragmented coastline watching translucent, purple Moon jellyfish floating past our boats. Is it just me or are jellyfish not something you’d expect to see in chilly northern waters? Our first campsite featured a visiting group of goats who were quite curious about who was invading their island.
Leaving the Ålesund area, still under sunny skies, we entered the Storfjord (translation: the big fjord) paddling past a few fish farms consisting of huge ring cages going about 130 feet down into a ~2000 foot deep fjord. Each net contains up to 10,000 fish who often go blind due to stressful environmental conditions. Many of these fish farms make claims of sustainability and have made major progress in reducing their effect on the ecosystem, however due to the rise in demand for fish, the quantities in which they are farmed poses many problems. The largest effect is escaped farmed fish breeding with wild populations and infections of salmon lice which are dangerous to both farmed and wild fish. Also, the high concentration of fish waste and some leftover food causes high levels of nitrogen in the waters near the fish rings causing algae blooms, which in turn deprive the water of the oxygen needed by wild fish, though the degree of this effect seems to be debated.
The third night we stopped to camp in the fishing port of Stranda and after a quick dip in the fjord, a swim in the river and another wonderful veggie meal prepared by our guides - they really killed it with the veggie food :) - we settled down for a good night’s sleep. Or at least I did. When I woke up in the morning, I learned I had slept through a concert that started around midnight, drunk people throwing massive chess pieces near our tents and a drunkard jumping on one of our group’s tents. That’s one more for the list of strange things I’ve slept through.
As we paddled, we passed many old farm houses perched very high on the fjord walls with small patches of steeply slanted farmland. Paddling along, it is hard to imagine looking up at many of those sites and deciding that building a farm there was even possible. From the best we can put together of the history, many of these farms were inhabited since at least medieval times and they mainly supported themselves with fishing and a small number of sheep, cows and goats. Life on these farms was harsh and many are perched on tiny mountain ledges hundreds of feet above the fjord waters. Legend has it that parents would leash their children to the house to prevent them from falling off the mountain to their deaths.
Getting to these farms usually involves a tricky landing on a small dock or barely-there-beach as the fjord walls are super steep above and below the water. Then a very, very steep hike straight up the mountainside for about 20-30 minutes until some small, flatish piece of ground is found. We camped at two of these farms our second fourth nights and day hiked to a third on our last day. Many have zip lines or small powered cable lifts to haul things up the mountain and take hay back down. However, when the farms were originally built, most of it must have been hauled up by hand. In the 20th century, most of the farms were abandoned and there is now a volunteer organization trying to maintain many of them in the Geiranger Fjord area.
On our second to last day, we were visited by some more typical rainy weather and we found ourselves fighting a decent headwind for several hours. After tiring out our arms quite thoroughly, we turned a corner and found the wind at our backs. After trying to catch a few waves, we created a raft out of our kayaks and Nathan, our guide, pulled out a tarp. We proceeded to use it as a sail and it worked way better than expected. Using a kayak paddle as a mast, we filled our sail and took off down the fjord, likely creating a bit of a spectacle for the ferry and cruise boats passing by. Too bad the tarp didn’t have a pirate logo on it ;)
Thus with epic sailing, more spectacular waterfalls, 72.5 miles paddled, and accidentally becoming the target of some rare Norwegian fjord rage (the ferry captain was upset about our kayaks being in his way even though we had right of way), we concluded a trip that will be remembered for many many years. Boarding the ferry home, we were struck with a good deal of sadness at leaving our fellow travelers and guides with whom we had become very close in 6 days of paddling, talking and sitting around camp fires. What a blessing to have gotten to know such good people.
After a day of Airbnb regrouping, I said a tearful goodbye to my parents and Cassie as they returned home and I embarked on the next stage of my journey. Queue sunny German skies, cherries dripping off trees and a wonderful visit with family friends in the next update.
Thanks to Chen, Nathan and my dad for the photos