Greetings from Kristiansund, Norway – where enormous snow-capped mountains hit the stormy sea and there’s only four hours of daylight. It’s very weird having a lie-in and there STILL being no daylight when you get up.
Why am I here? Well, it’s the main departure point for the oil platforms and rigs that lie a hundred miles off the coast. I had been filming an episode of a new Discovery Channel series. I say ‘had’ – one ruptured appendix later and our presenter had to be evacuated to hospital onshore. The rest of the crew spent a day mopping up the rest of the shots without him and are now back in England. I have been given the task of accompanying our host back to the UK, when he’s allowed out of hospital.
I asked one of the Shell PRs what Kristiansund has to offer. She replied ‘beer and shopping’, which didn’t really fill me with confidence for my time here. However I have done a harbour tour, walked to the top of a big hill and spent a lot of time eating and drinking in the most expensive nation on earth (£20 for a pizza, £6 for a coffee) Oh yes, and buying fruit, nuts and various magazines for The Patient. (Every shelf is a top shelf in Norwegian newsagents!)
So I thought I’d maybe use my time to think of a top five list of the best things about oil platforms.
1) They’re Small. Forgotten a piece of kit, need to run to change tape? No trouble, everything is close by. I’m fed up with filming in enormous facilities where it’s a 30 minute round trip to change lenses – here everything is easy.
2) The Food – seriously – a mammoth buffet three times a day – lobster, snow crab, full roasts – unbelievably good quality. I was worried about exceeding my weight allowance for the helicopter on the way back.
3) The Activities. They have it good there. When you’re not working you can go to the gym, play basketball, learn a musical instrument, go to the cinema, read a book in the large library, do a woodwork class and even write a blog.
4) The Sunrises. Greatest I’ve ever seen – from a very still platform across a massive expanse of water – just stunning.
5) The Fishing. yes – from 100 foot up you can cast your line in the best cod fishing waters in the world. The guys we were with said they had never not caught a fish.
Fingers crossed I’ll be back by the end of the week – and I will never complain again about London being cold or dark at this time of year!
Tom
