Norway

I’m currently tripping around Scandinavia, starting with Norway (after about 48 hours of horrendous connections from Brisbane). The first ten days involved a mammoth 5000km road trip from Førde to up around Alta along the slow and expensive coastal route and then back down again quick way via Finland and Sweden. Four of us met at Bergen, including one local gal, “Mother Hen” whom hails from Førde. After packing up the small VW campervan to the gills we tripped up to Ålesund to pick up another local, “Berry Mad” and kept on truckin’. A good tip to win over Norwegians is to bring cheap import liquor – it is priced like liquid gold here.

A Mother Hen’s cabin in the mountains near Førde, with a feature wall titled “23 Ways to Skin a Cat”

Saltstraumen, home of the strongest tidal current in the world ^{(Strongest tidal current in the world not pictured)}

Fishing village

Breakfast

Along the ponderous coastal road we saw some amazing scenery; soaring mountains, surging rivers and rolling paddocks, all nicely blanketed in rain, fog and mist. Admittedly we weren’t travelling in the best time of the year, although our Norwegian hosts assured us that the small glimpses of sun we were experiencing were nothing short of miraculous. Coming however from drought-stricken Brisbane it was quite the sight to see, and even cloudsun and rain did not dampen spirits too much. I think the Australian government should mandate that all travellers coming to Australia should bring a 4 litre bottle of fresh water with them in order to top up dams. Just an idea.

Picking blueberries and ligonberries for “trölcreme”, jam, and pancakes

Even in cloudsun, it is a incredibly beautiful country with lots of cute little villages all resplendent in Norwegian Standard Maroon #31. Norwegians, while not munching on lutefisk or clubbing seals, like to invent fantastical stories like they invented the paper clip or cheese knife.

The pre-hunting cabin cabin way up north

Autumn foliage whizzing past

We were lucky enough visit a Sami hunting cabin up in Lapland. After bounding along a rough track in our campervan following the hot trail of Mother Hen’s BMW 4WD, we came across the Sami family’s farm. Then began our three hour trek to the cabin in drizzle, which tested our patience and proved that Goretex is the king of waterproofing. Nonetheless, once arriving at the cabin rather wet and cold Berry Mad decided that our stockpile of berries wasn’t big enough, and we needed to fill every container or keep picking until our hands were completely numb, whichever came last. So, cold, wet and shivering after a three hour trek, we started our assault on the berry bushes as the sun set and the cabin warmed up. Berry Mad maintained this behaviour throughout most of the trip, and when berries were sighted one quickly had to perform a diversionary manoeuvre to keep her off the scent. Sorry Berry, all those conversations were a rouse ;)

The icy cold Sami hunting cabin before the fire got going. It was about 30 minutes before the camera was usable from all the fogging

Daybreak over the lake at the hunting cabin

Brown cheese and freshly made ligonberry jam

Mother Hen’s mum in Sami clothing after a few early morning lemonades. We left very shortly after this picture was taken.

Track for the three hour trek to the hunting cabin

Fairytale toadstool, definately not staged.

In ice-cold waters, north of the Arctic circle, a moose spies a nymph

Back in civilisation in Trondheim, Norway’s second largest city, with a friend of Mother Hen’s who looks and behaves unnervingly like a particular someone.