Seal Safari
19 August 2014 | Uleholmen, South of Hvasser
Imelda NNW2
Tuesday 19 August 2014
This morning Ulric showed me a map of the Oslo Fjord and said: "Where do you think we should make our crossing?" So I pointed at two places and that "sealed our fate " (quite literally!!)
We could have made a smaller crossing deeper into the fjord, but that would have increased the sailing distance on both sides. So we didn't and ended up with a rather challenging crossing in the sense that both Quinn and Elliott fell seasick.
However, as we are passing one skerry I noticed a very odd "stone circle" on it. As if someone has positioned stones or rocks. All of a similar size and shape - and remarkably smooth... I was only as I zoomed in to take a photograph that I realised there were many pairs of eyes looking right back at me - that "rock formation" was a SEAL COLONY!!! Wow!!!
The camera went into overdrive and I insisted we turn back on ourselves and swing by a few more times. All that time Elliott was yelling: "Forget about those seals, I am SEASICK!!!" but neither parent paid him much attention, I am afraid to say.
There were many seal's faces bopping in the water as well. They seemed as intrigued by us as Queenie's crew was by them! What a treat! I wasn't expecting major photographic opportunities today. I thought Tanumshede and Blomsholm 'took the biscuit yesterday'.
It was a very magical day, despite the swell and dropping temperatures. Ulric says that we have 'inhabited the eye of a weather depression' ever since we arrived in Scandinavia.... After six weeks of tropical weather.... And last night was actually uncomfortable: thunder and lightning raged until deep into the night, in Stromstad.
The thunder storm cleared the sky and today we enjoyed a blue sky and the most magical cloud formations. Brendan saw a Viking Long Ship sailing in the sky. I saw a witch on her broomstick being chased by a crocodile...
Queen's Ransom rocked me into a mildly altered state of consciousness. Suddenly I saw Creation Myths playing out in the sky. The sky is our great free amphitheatre and the tickets are FREE!!
I saw an angel falling in love with a Crocodile God - and they had babies, that is how Dragons came into being.
The Sea was WILD: there were frequent wave towers rising from the deep - like a stallion rearing on his hind legs - and they were GREEN, a translucent, almost luminous, profoundly otherworldly green.... A whole city made of green glass, of sea glass.... A glimpse into worlds normally hidden from human view...
And between Sweden and Norway, where there is no land on the map, and no humans live, SEALS LIVE...
Seals
Selkies ("Seal Women")
The Swedish word SKAER (as in SKAERGARD - archipelago) is surely etymologically related to the word skerry)
Birth place of Selkies....
The clouds tell the story: One woman fell in love with a seal and on his back she rode to a married life in a watery world, where she gave birth to a daughter....
THE FIRST EVER SELKIE
They are more elusive even than mermaids...
The Inuit tell this story: Seal Skin, Soul Skin. It was an Inuit Woman...
On the edge between sea and sky and invitation simmers: for humans and animals to be equals again, with equal but different roles as caretakers of Mother Earth.... It's time to REMEMBER...
And the next cloud was a killer whale chasing a Trollmor (troll mother) on her broomstick...
Next appeared CLOUD DANCERS, dancing the world into being....
Dragonfly Beings
Pirouetting on their tails...
A crocodile-headed ballerina
Another daughter of the Angel and the Crocodile God...
Once we arrived in Tjomme, Elliott was hoisted up the mast to untangle the Swedish flag that had gotten stuck. We can't be seen in Norwegian waters with a flag up that claims we think we are in Sweden.... Not good.....
Another drama unfolded this evening: Elliott dropped a fender so Quinn and Ulric had to chase it by dinghy, go in hot pursuit with an oar and the boat hook....
Ulric and I had an evening walk ashore. I couldn't work out what the stone hut with the bucket on a pole is. Ulric explained that it is a (reconstructed version of) the most ancient light house: a hut with a bucket on a pole and the light house keeper would burn wood in that basket and hoist the fire high....
Wow!
Today definitely was a MAGICAL DAY! Maybe I am a Selkie at heart?!!
Imelda Almqvist