21 June: The Pathfinder of Lista
Regina at Farsund, Norway
Suddenly, she just stood there next to the boat. We had merely arrived in Farsund, Norway, after a 29 hours and 177 miles long leg from Nibe inside the Limfjord over the North Sea to Norway. She was smiling wearing a bright orange T-shirt with the words “Lista Guide” in large letters. She welcomed us to Farsund and talked about the beauty and exciting surrounding we had come to: the Lista area. All nice and well, but we were currently quit tired after our long leg from Denmark.

We had the day before sailed into the Limfjord from Kattegatt, passed Aalborg and motored through the crooked channel inside the Limfjord, which leads through the entire Denmark from east to west. Limfjord is very shallow and, I must confess, three times we actually ran aground. The first time, we did not even notice it. Looking at the log, we suddenly just made 1 knot of speed while the engine was still turning as if nothing had happened. We had left the fairway a bit too far out and were currently ploughing a lonely furrow making our own channel, as so often in our lives. Luckily, mistakes can sometimes be corrected easily and so just a little turn back into the right track and we were out in the safe mainstream channel again.

The second time I had turned in, sleeping deeply after my just finished watch. I didn’t notice anything this time either, which could have a correlation with the fact that I was sleeping. In any case, my sweet sleep came to a sudden end with Jonathan proclaiming: “Daddy, now we have run aground AGAIN!”. Karolina had noticed immediately and tried to steer out as before, but this time we were stuck a bit harder. Obviously, it is not a matter of just steering from one buoy to the next on a direct course, but having to take out the curve enough to stay inside the fairway, also in a curve. Thanks to our bow propeller, we could dig us out again, so to speak, and soon we were afloat, which was a good feeling.

You might ask yourself why we couldn’t learn better, since I mentioned we run aground a third time. I promise, we did all our best and kept a sharp look-out for any changes in colour of the already very brown water we went through.
It really wasn’t our fault, that the harbour, proudly announcing a depth of 5m in the chart, did not even have enough water for us in its centre of the basin. A well-proven trick did it this time: some more revs on the engine and we could dig our way though to a spot resembling more to a parking space than a berth. Having parked the boat we were standing in the mud. Luckily there is no tide to speak of here, so we trusted the fact that if we got here all right, we would get out the same way the following day, which we, at that time, anyway considered as a problem of an uncertain future.
The well-marked dredged fairway into Nibe harbour
The bespoke port was Nibe, where Karolina’s uncle Björn lives with his Danish wife Anette. They own a picturesque house, which previous was a farm. With the house, they have the most beautiful 4000 m2 garden giving out this Danish atmosphere we appreciate so much. It all looks as if nature alone had painted this garden just according to God’s hand. I thought of the typical fact that some always seem to do so well without any effort, they are lucky enough to obtain everything with ease. I said something about the “wild” and “untouched” beautiful garden to Björn, who politely explained that a lot of effort lies behind to reach this appearance and that gardening is a hobby of Anette. Oh, well, again this showed my limited understanding to the subject and I can just hope that he did not take my comment about the “wild” and “untouched” too literally….

After a wonderful meal in the bespoke garden on this first real (and so far only) summer day, we asked to be driven back to the boat quite early, since we all were quite exhausted after our first leg at sea. On our way back, Björn told us tales about the Vikings having had settlements very close to their home. It was not until recently that these were excavated and they had built a copy of an old Viking house on the place in question.

- “That’s interesting!”, said Jessica, “But how could they know where to find the old settlement?”
- “Do you see that hill over there?” Björn asked, pointing with one hand at a mound while driving with the other. “From up there, some people saw that the grain grew differently, forming sorts of shapes. It grew better at some places than at others and so they believed that the soil must differ due to underlying human construction. Do you want to see it?
Jessica and Jonathan in front of a rebuilt Viking housing (photo taken with my Sony Ericsson K700i cellphone (!))
And before we even had answered, he turned into a small side road and took us to the Viking housing. It was a magic feeling, and especially for Jessica and Jonathan the Viking age suddenly became very realistic.

Björn, who could read our enthusiasm, continued:

- “Not far from here, the Vikings had a huge fortification, built under the famous Viking Harald Blåtand. There are four of these known here in Denmark and they are called Trelleborgs”.
- “Trelleborg?!” asked Jessica, “But that is what the city in Skåne is called! I have been there many times taking the ferry boat to Travemünde in Germany! Maybe there has been a Viking fort as well in Trelleborg!”
- “I guess so. This one is called Aggersborg. Overseeing the Limfjord, it is the biggest one with a diameter of 240m. Do you want to see it as well?”

Of course we did! And so Björn drove an extra detour further west to Aggersborg, despite that it already got late. Björn explained that the archeologists were not sure what this fort was for. Or better: whom it was against. Either it was against the enemies, which, at first thought, seemed to be the most obvious reason to build a castle, isn’t it? But there was also another possible motivation to build this huge circle of walls, namely to protect the authority against their own people! Why? Well, Vikings did not pay taxes with the same enthusiasm as today’s good citizens and were said to protest wildly when the king’s soldier came to collect taxes. A rolling head was certainly a normal result as an answer, instead of paying the duty imposed on these free men of Vikings. Raids were hence organised with military force to provoke the necessary respect for the authority. Off duty, these tax collectors needed to find shelter somewhere against the revenge of their own inhabitants, hence the Trelleborgs!

I liked this idea of the Trelleborgs being the tax authorities of the Vikings, had it a similarity of today’s huge apparatus to administrate and find yet new ways to get hard working entrepreneurs onto their knees. Methods are also similar, even though battle axes have been exchanged by equally poisonous written correspondence.

But what did the Vikings do in case they did not see any chance in sending these tax collectors to Valhalla and paying tax looked as the only solution if not their own head should be in danger? They fled from them, sailing away on their Viking ships joining other settlements far away from the long arms of Harald Blåtand’s men.

Are we possibly doing the same?! In any case, we follow in their wakes, leaving our “Trelleborg” behind, at least. May Harald Blåtand of today never follow in our wakes!
The shallow coasts along the Limfjord, here where the old Trelleborg once stood
After a wonderful full night’s sleep, we continued through the Limfjord westbound. No, we did not go aground this day, but were stopped by a bridge over to the island of Mors in the middle of the Limfjord. Contrary to all other bridges we had passed in the Limfjord, this one was fixed and thus unable to be opened. No clearance was revealed in our charts, which I did not consider as any problem, since there must be a sign on the bridge. This sign was, of course, lacking. Bridges have a tendency to look as if clearance is hard value, especially if the only knowledge you have is what the pillars tell. Again, the invaluable VHF helped us quickly out with a short chat with Lyngby Radio, who did not only confirm that the clearance was 26 m but also thanked us to point out that the sign was missing on the bridge. Thank you, Lyngby Radio!

The gray weather with drizzle was the perfect accompaniment to our feeling about leaving the safe and beautiful Limfjord to the harsh North Sea. Thyborøn, forming the exit into the North Sea, has not the best reputation, to say the least. The lee shore, which Denmark becomes in a westerly gale at the bitter end of the North Sea, has become many seamen’s last berth. The shallow sandbanks give a steep and dangerous sea, the ports that could have served as shelter are scarce and when a westerly gale is blowing, the way out from this rat-trap off the coast can become very difficult. An easy way to find Thyborøn, so they say, is to just follow all the wrecks along the way, and then to keep in the middle.
Jessica on watch on the North sea heading towards Farsund (please observe the blue sky that followed the wet and foggy night!)
At 21.30, when others went into a cozy harbour, we continued out into the North Sea. This was a totally new water to us, called Fisker, which we until then only had heard of on the weather forecast and never really cared about where it was. To our surprise, it did not feel much different then any other water we had sailed on. The wind was light, although a distinct swell could be felt, just as we are used to from Skagerack. But we knew we were lucky with these relatively weak winds that day, which we wanted to take advantage from to cross over to Farsund, where we arrived in the afternoon of the 17 June 2005.

The mooring lines went ashore and we sat down in the cockpit, tired and happy enjoying the beautiful scenery around Farsund. We had crossed both Fisker and South Utsira to Norway and felt that we now were definitely underway.

And there she stood, this nice lady in the orange T-shirt welcoming us to Farsund, asking if we possibly were interested in a guided tour around Lista. Her name was Marita Mohr and ran a small touring operation called Lista Guide, guiding smaller or larger groups into the secretes and nature of Lista. Flexibility is her key feature, and so we considered to go on tour with Marita as our private guide the following day.

After another wonderful long night’s sleep we still had breakfast when Marita arrived on the Saturday morning, as agreed. We discussed the options taking into account our interests and then decided to go for historically interesting spots, which especially could be of interest for Jessica and Jonathan, since they collected material for their school work onboard.

Half an hour later we all sat in her red Renault Mégane driving off into the places you normally can’t reach when coming by boat.

Constantly laughing, she drove us to fantastic places, so picturesque, so exciting for the children and so beautiful for us adults! A private guide taking her time letting us explore nature and historic places in our own pace is a luxury you seldom find. The fact that she had been pre-school teacher before, immediately meant a natural and direct contact to Jessica and Jonathan, who really liked her.

We drove past six Viking graves to arrive at our first destination: a number of ancient and perfectly preserved water mills. For Jonathan it was most interesting to learn and see how the water was directed to flow under the house turning a wheel which, in turns, was rotating the heavy millstone a floor above.

No other soul was around and we could freely investigate the mechanical wonder turning seeds into flour and eventually bread.
The lonely water-mills
Marita explaining how the water mills worked
Jessica making notes on the mills
From there, Marita took us on a hiking tour up a mountain. Through a beautiful landscape we learnt how to cook marmalade from pine-needles and why chickweed wintergreen was called “skogsstjärna” in Norwegian. The kids learnt how to look out for poisonous snakes and I learnt that when you have turned 40, it becomes difficult to balance over a tiny log to pass over a swamp.

High up on the Norwegian “Fjäll”, we did not only have a tremendous view over the high mountains of Norway as well as the flat landscape of Lista with the Lista lighthouse as the most distinct landmark. We also learnt the important historic aspect of this top: Since the Viking age until the Napolean wars in the early19th century, this place had been used for communications. This was one of the very important fireplaces to pass along important messages all along the Norwegian coast. Jessica thought this was fantastic, had she not learnt about that in the Viking museum of Roskilde, where these fires were used to warn that enemies were approaching? At that time, Jonathan had listened carefully about the communication system of the Vikings and finally asked: “But Dad, why didn’t they use their mobile phones….?!”
What this picture does not reveal: how Leon made the crossing over the swamp.
Learning about the Norwegian woolds
On the top of the hill overseeing the Norwegian mountains as well as the sea all around Lista
Back on ground level after the hike, Marita drove us to an even more fantastic place. She told that after the ice age, Lista was the very first place for humans to settle in Norway and we were shown fantastic rock carvings from the Bronze Age. Again, Jessica was excited, since she had just learnt about them at school. Seeing them in reality gave an extra scent of reality.
Jessica studying rock carvings from the Bronze Age
The next stop was one of the most mystique places I have ever been at. Marita led us into a forest, so dark, thick and black that one’s imaginations started to set off. This path was as if taken directly from a fairy tale, with the Little Red Riding Hood expected around every corner, if not the Wolf himself! At the other end of the dark, dark wood, just when the eyes had become used to the non-existent light, we came out again into the bright sunshine and stood suddenly on an ancient mystique burial ground for Viking chiefs and other important Norwegians of the past. I thought of all the fantastic moments in life when a dark path through a difficult period suddenly leads to a totally unknown situation. The brightest moments in life have often followed after the darkest periods of life.

A huge bauta was placed in the middle of this grass-covered plateau with a magnificent view over the sea. Knowing that we were walking on buried chiefs of the past made us devouted. What a fantastic place!
Who dares to go in first?!
The ancient place where the Valkyries met the heros bringing them to Valhalla in the days of Thor and Woden
Back through the mystic forest we found our vehicle of the 21st century still where we left it and used it to come to our final destination, the lighthouse of Lista. Several times we had passed this sign of safety and shelter from the sea-side and it was interesting to also investigate it from close by. A small museum talked about the hundreds and hundreds of wrecked ships which were lost around this dangerous corner of Norway.

Four hours later we were back to Regina in the harbour of Farsund after an exciting day at Lista. If you ever come to Farsund, do not hesitate to contact Marita Mohr for a personal tour to the secrets of Lista (www.listaguide.blogspot.com, tel +47-907 96 558, e-mail: listaguide@gmail.com).
Our position on 17 June 2005 showing our way to Farsund