When both Molly and Zoe had weekend-long engagements in June, we (Nancy and Rick) saw a window of opportunity and decided to dive through it. We loaded our kayaks on top of the car and made the long drive to Hellesylt in Sunnmøre, near where Geirangerfjord branches off from the Storfjorden system. Geirangerfjord is a World Heritage Site, visited once daily by the Hurtigrute boats and pretty much every cruise ship that plies the coast of Norway. And for good reasons: its steep walls and waterfalls are stunning, and if you scan the tops of the cliffs at various places along the fjord, you may be surprised when old farm buildings come into focus, perched hundreds of meters above the fjord. We wanted to both paddle the fjord and hike up to visit some of these old “vertical farms”.

It was blowing and a bit rough when we set out, but we were able to make headway through the chop and slowly work our way to about midway up the fjord. Campsites are far and few between in this vertical landscape, but we found good ground at Syltevik, an old fjordside farm with few hard-won terraces and a little micro-harbor with a rickety little dock, a hand-piled breakwater, and a boathouse. The farmhouse still stands proud at the top of the slope, having been restored and kept with the help Storfjordens Venner. We borrowed the table and chairs on a little patio for a comfy kitchen and dining room.

Good weather rolled in the next day. We paddled up the fjord, past the Seven Sisters waterfalls, then crossed back over to the south side to the boat “landing” for the trail to Skageflå -- a narrow rock ledge that took some figuring and effort to safely get out of our kayaks and then get them hauled up. Skageflå is a collection of rough log buildings in the little pasture-green triangle on top of the cliff in the picture below left. There is a trail up through the patch of trees and then along a barely discernible diagonal ledge leading to the trees on the left hand side of the cliff. Not for the faint of heart, at least before hand rails and fences were installed along the airiest parts.

As we neared the top we passed a temporary sign announcing an exhibition of paintings by a local artist at the farmhouse. Normally it would be closed up, but we were able to go inside and look not only at the paintings but the interiors of the buildings. The woman who greeted us had spent her summers at the farm as a young girl, and she showed us around.

From Skageflå we could look across the fjord at the nearest neighbor, Knivsflå, next to the Seven Sisters. (I suppose they might have conversed via a string across the fjord with a tin can on either end!) We left Skageflå just as a large group of people arrived, hiked back down, paddled across the fjord and hiked up to Knivsflå in the afternoon.

People lived in these farms year-round. One famous photo shows a couple of kids in the farmyard anchored by stout ropes to make sure they don’t fall off! It’s only natural to ask what drove people to live in such extreme circumstances. Talk bout stubborn independence! One theory: “To get away from the tax collectors, of course”. You can see them coming from a long way off!

We got the one good day we needed. The next day the wind and rain were back. We broke camp and had an exhilarating paddle back to Hellesylt and a leisurely drive home.

Our next adventure took us north of the arctic circle, to Helgeland.