One theme that unites all of today's objectives is that they are both nautical adventures/adventurers! And that their aims albeit shorter than mine are true adventures with the hardships and risks to life that modern travel has taken from this and will likely not be written into my travelog, who knows tho perhaps they will?
A quick breakfast on the run, I'm out the hostel and catching a bus from Hausmanns bru just around the corner to Bigdøynes! An easy trip out, going over ground I've travelled before through this I'm now pleased to say pleasant city, never trust first impressions!
Onto the Peninsular through Bigdøy,I go past the Viking ship museum that's currently undergoing building work until 2026.... A return visit perhaps?
The first visit is to the Kontiki museum, telling the stories of the many voyages of Thor Heyerdahl as he built and tested the seaworthiness of ancient designs of ship to understand the spread of humanity through the Pacific, the first was in the balsa wood raft back in the 1940's called the Kontiki after a South American chieftain who sailed east to escape capture after defeats in war ... Who knows if he made it!
But this boat was design to see if could have survived
this is the actual raft Thor Heyerdahl used! Proving it's capability travelling from Lima to Tahiti.... Just... It wasn't in the best condition when it arrived, but it arrived... Pure adventure with all the risk!
The next two adventures sailing the Ra which failed quickly sailing from Northern Africa due to poor construction and the Ra2 which sailed from
Morocco to Barbados using mostly the trade winds to blow them along!
this is one adventure that I remember from my childhood! As a kids we used to make models of this ship from dried grass and sailed them to destruction in local streams! Happy simple times 🥰.
Thor Heyerdahl himself really pushed his boundaries being a poor swimmer and actually scared of the sea!! It takes a special kind of person to pursue his understanding of past technology/history with these constraints!
But pushing to the extent of your ability and succeeding or failing is the theme of the second museum named after the ship The Fram used for many explorations by Roald Amundsen
a ship designed for travel through Antarctic ice and even becoming icebound... It has a short curved hull designed if stuck in the ice to not be crushed but pushed up out of the ice until it's either possible to free the boat or a melt allows escape!
Making this the perfect ship for his most famous adventure to the south pole!
Where on the 15th of December 1911 he beat Scott leading the British endeavour by nearly a month!
And got his team home.
The ship did eventually become unseaworthy and after a period of decay was restored to the current state, and becomes the fascinating museum piece it is!
You can explore the interior looking over the engines
electrics
and even Amundsens living quarters!
space was indeed precious!
Taking a few minutes to look over the fyord before heading back to pack for leaving Norway tomorrow!
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