Pre pre course:

Thursday 8 February 2024 - Up at the crack of dawn after staying overnight with friends in London. This enabled me to get to Heathrow in plenty of time. Alas the plane was 65 minutes late taking off which could have had a knock on effect with my next flight. Fortunately it didn't! My last flight in a prop plane got me to Leknes airport on time. A taxi was waiting for me to take me on a scary 30 minute drive through the snow to my accommodation at Ramberg (really cosy cabins with a restaurant on site). The fish soup was divine and the Stockfish was superb too.

*Stockfish is unsalted fish, especially cod, dried by cold air and wind on wooden racks (which are called "hjell" in Norway) on the foreshore. The drying of food is the world's oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage life of several years. The method is cheap and effective in suitable climates; the work can be done by the fisherman and family, and the resulting product is easily transported to market.

I'm so pleased I will be taking all my meals here for the next 7 days. I may be tempted by the cod tongues tomorrow!

it"s blowing a gale outside and snowing like mad and it's so cosy in my cabin that I've had to turn the fire off.

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