Polmak, Norway

Thursday 26th August 1999

We awoke to a wonderful breakfast of smoked salmon, local cheese, cloudberries, and homemade bread. After breakfast we all hopped in to Andreas' car and drove the short distance to the Polmak river, where he'd arranged for us to borrow a neighbour's boat. Sitting on warm reindeer skins we headed upstream, around the many tight bends of the small river. Halfway along Andreas noticed an unusual bird sitting on the bank. We swung the boat around to take a closer look and it let us beach the front of the boat, where I was sitting with my camera, right next to it, before waddling a couple of metres away. A couple of photos later we headed further upriver until we reached the lake. The water was a little rougher here so we turned around and worked our way back to our starting point.

On our way back to the house we stopped for a short while to pick some mushrooms for dinner. We arrived back at the house and Andreas took charge of the preparations for dinner. They have their dinner early in this area, around 4pm, then a late supper sometime around 10.

Salmon was the main item on the menu and Andreas disappeared outside for a few moments to begin preparations. He returned with a handful of long thin birch branches and set to cutting them into Sami grilling sticks, one end sharp for sticking in the ground and the other end flat for skewering the salmon. After a couple of examples Anita and I were set to making the full set. Meanwhile a fire outside had been set and burnt down to hot coals. Our grilling sticks prepared we went outside to cook the fish, Andreas expertly moving the sticks around the fire.

That done we all went in to enjoy the salmon, mushrooms, vegetables from their garden, and fresh-baked bread. Delicious.

We relaxed as the evening approached and spent the night talking about our different homes. Geographically they couldn't be further apart.