12 September 2011
Although I took my computer to Sylt, we didn’t have much access to the internet or, of course, power from our campsite. Since we’ve been back, I’ve been busy at work, so I have only just now had a chance to write up our log.
After an early start, Tom and I arrived at Westerland at 10.35 on the morning of 1 September. We ate breakfast in the station cafe and then spent a little time wandering. We managed to buy a gas stove in the local department store and stocked up on food in a supermarket. Eventually we got a bus to Hörnum and found our campsite.
It was late afternoon by the time we had lugged our things on to the dune, put up our tent and had a beer. We went on to the beach for a walk.
Hörnum is at the very southern tip of Sylt. As I understand it, the village had not been inhabited until relatively recently because it is at a position so vulnerable to erosion. From the beach, it was clear to see that erosion was a problem as the dunes seemed to have been very systematically planted with marram grass.
We strolled south and came across a number concrete tetrapods forming a revetment at the bottom of the dune along the west-facing beach, and a groyne at its southern end. I read that they were installed during the 1960s to manage erosion, but they haven’t been terribly effective, owing to the island’s geology.
Returning to the tent, we made some tea and prepared a simple pasta dish for our dinner. We were tired and took an early night.
Posted in Perambulations | Tagged dunes, Frisia, grass, tetrapods |
7 July 2011
I left Stavanger this morning from Sola airport. I arrived with time to kill so decided to wander over to the helicopter terminal and watch as the helicopters took off for the oil rigs.
Posted in Perambulations | Tagged airports, oil platforms |
6 July 2011
I spent the afternoon on a tourist cruise of the Lysefjord.
As I am leaving tomorrow, I thought I should sample some Norwegian food. I have been cooking for myself all week, as I can’t afford the restaurants. I bought elgkarbonader (which are patties made from moose meat) and some ready-made beetroot salad in the supermarket. While I was eating them upstairs, I noticed that the Normand Prosper had moored on the seafront outside.
I had seen the Normand Prosper in Stavanger a number of times since I had been here. I’ve become fascinated with how available information about ships is on the internet, and how easy it is to track their movements. I worked out that it had been at the Yme oil field last week.
Posted in Perambulations | Tagged oil platforms, Rogaland, ships |
5 July 2011
I’ve been at a loss at what I should do in Stavanger. Everything seems so expensive and I don’t really want to part with the little bit of money I have budgeted for the trip. Yesterday I decided simply to wander along the waterfront.
As a typical landlubber tourist, I felt compelled to photograph practically every ship I came across. What was interesting about this was that when I downloaded the images on to my computer and googled the names of the ships, nearly all of them had something to do with the construction of oil platforms.
I walked on to get a good view of the Rosenberg Mekaniske Verksted, the shipyard, which was across the water on the island of Buøy. This has been here since the late 19th century and today manufactures (and repairs) predominantly oil tankers, as well as oil platforms.
I kept going past the Stavanger offshore tekniske skole, what I later found out to be a technical college aiming to be “a leading national centre of education for offshore related education”. As far as I can work out, this means they prepare students for work in the oil industry. Continuing, I passed numerous office blocks, all of which seemed to house oil companies.
Although it is light until gone eleven, I decided to head back around eight o’clock. The memory card of the camera Elena had lent me was full and my legs were starting to get tired.
Posted in Perambulations | Tagged oil platforms, ships |
