Kate and Andrew and Ellen's Excellent Norwegian Adventure Part One (15 Aug - 18 Aug)

Ellen, Kate's friend from her first 6 months in South Africa, hosted and tour-guided us around Norway, or rather, parts of Norway, it's a big country. This is part one of a two part series documenting that adventure.

15 Aug - Sunday

On Sunday, we made the journey from Oslo to the farmhouse in Narbuvoll, in

the mountains near Os, where Ellen's family has been taking holiday twice per year her entire life. (Note: technically, a member of her family has been taking holiday at this farm since 1953.)

The drive to the farmhouse took us past lillehammer (Norwegian for: little hammer) and up through the mountains. The mountain roads are a little hair-raising, as the speed limit is the same as the E6, yet there really isn't enough room for two cars without one driver holding his/her breath. (Kate employed the clenching technique when she was the passenger, it worked quite well -- it is important, on the passenger side, to only clench rightwards). We picnicked in the mountains, next to a stream.

This was our first experience of: if there isn't a house within 300 meters, no matter whether the land is public or private, you can camp, picnic, forage for berries or mushrooms, etc. This land is heaven for outdoorsy folk.

We stayed in a 200 year old farm house, luckily with recently added running water. We had a late dinner of tomoto soup (with hard-boiled egg!) and sat up talking with Ellen's mom and dad. They welcomed us into their holiday with open arms.

16 Aug - Monday

The next morning we got to meet Tove and Vilda, Ellen's 10 and 6 year old nieces. Tove understands English, can explain the merits of cheeses to us, and can describe how much she loves milking cows. Vilda can smile and hide. They are adorable and they love their aunt very much. We felt guilty for taking up their aunt's time.

We packed up, put the canoe on top of the car and drove to a hidden dirt road (we drove past it a few times before a Danish dude that now lives in the middle of Norway helped us find it) that led us to a camping area with a piece of low land for dropping the canoe into the creek. We canoed, lunched, and kept canoeing. Eventually the trees and scrub gave way to reed, and eventually that gave way to the lake -- Femund the third largest lake in Norway. We paddled across the lake and set up camp on the shore, just outside the bounds of a nature preserve.

We made dinner (tomato soup with corn and egg), made a fire, drank a bunch of scandinavian beer, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Thanks to Ellen, Kate and I had warm enough clothes & sleeping bags. And also, thanks to Ellen, we were camping in the middle of nowhere after a wonderful 5ish km canoe trip.

17 Aug - Tuesday

Canoeing back was more difficult. The delta of reeds where the creek empties into the lake is really easy to navigate going to the lake... much more difficult when trying to find the actual mouth of the creek... we were lost, we were grounded... we discussed the eventual possibility of using Ellen's cell phone to call for help (interesting note for AT&T, if you're reading this: Norwegian cell phones work EVERYWHERE, oh, and stop reading this). We didn't get stranded in the reedy marsh, however, we got out of the canoe, pushed it over the shallow spots (getting a nice foot spa in the soft clay while we were at it), found the mouth of the creek, and canoed, lunched, and canoed back to the car. We hadn't seen a single person since that Danish dude.

We were very, very dirty. Back at the farm we showered and relaxed with books and beer while Ellen and her mom prepared dinner (despite numerous pleas to help, they wouldn't let us anywhere near the farm's kitchen, Ellen's flat's kitchen or Ellen's parents' kitchen except to bring in dishes). We met Frederick, Ellen's brother, the father of the adorable nieces. After dinner, Ellen's mom broke out the American Chocolate Cake. We think it is termed American because it is absolutely smothered in chocolate to excess.

18 Aug - Wednesday

The next day was PUPPIES. Between the farm and Os, is the Alaskan Husky Tours dog sledding facility. The guy who runs it is a professional dog sledder, he was in the BBC documentary about going to the south pole. He has a good gig going: when he isn't racing, he has folk come and pay him to help train his dogs. Kate and I both got set up in summer sleds: rugged, four-wheeled contraptions that can get dragged all over rural Norway.

3 hour schedule: (1) We get changed into clothes that can get absolutely filthy, (2) we pay him, (3) we play with the PUPPIES -- we get absolute, instant, unconditional love, they get socializing, it's a win-win situation, (4) we harness up 6 full grown dogs each for our sleds (note: when I first met Kate she was desperately afraid of dogs, this may have been the last piece of the desensitization program for her, she was all over those big dogs getting them into their harnesses all by herself) (5) we're off on a 1.5 hour tour being dragged by these gorgeous dogs, (6) we unharness the dogs, (7) we play with PUPPIES again, (8) we pull off the filthy clothes, use the WC to clean up, and get back in the car.

Things I learned: (1) I want to learn how to run and poop at the same time, seems useful. (2) There are gay dogs, in fact, my right wheel dog, whenever the speed was slow enough, would hop the main line, and hump the other wheel dog, also male. The other dog didn't like that so much, but seemed quite unable to do anything about it. (3) Dogs that are trained for running and pulling in the winter slobber a whole bunch when running in the summer. (4) Kate and I really really like PUPPIES and well trained dogs.

We then drove to Roros, a mounain situated old copper mining town. We walked its picturesque streets and ate Rommegrote, a porridge made from sour cream: it was absolutely delicious. We bought dried moose sausage from a dried sausage seller on the street to fill in for the dried reindeer sausage that we had finished earlier (they know how to do jerky in this country). (sidenote: lunches have been mainly on the side of the road: dried sausage, cheese and bread)

After Roros we did the first leg of our road trip, ending up in Dombas for the night.

To get to Dombas we passed the Hall of the Mountain King (from the Ibsen play; from the Grieg Peer Gynt suite -- watch out for trolls). We spent the night in the Dombas hotel which was clean, spartan, and had an amazing view of the moutains.