“That doesn’t stop me from dreaming.“

There’s an island on the outer side of Ålesund called Havsteinen where I go when I want to see no people, no boats, no nothing – except fish, kelp and… eagles. The island is uninhabited, and some farmers from – I suppose – Giske ferry their sheep in May to collect them, fatter, in September. 

The eagles are imposing animals, and when they nest I approach the place very carefully, constantly ready to flip myself into the water and use the kayak as a helmet against their attack. We have a friend whose cat barely survived one encounter, so I tend to be on the safer side.

That doesn’t stop me from dreaming, quite often, about how all these depths and shallows, islands and fjords, may look from up there where eagles roam. This is a photo of that – what eagles see when they look down on the Borgundfjord, in Ålesund, Norway.