NPL Day 69 & GB Day 45

Day 69: Thursday 24 August 2023

Røvollen-Storøvlingen via Tydal

We woke up by several trucks driving by in the morning. Yesterday the road road had been almost empty...

This morning there was a lot of fog, and the tent was really wet, but no rain and no wind. So we tried to dry the tent as best we could with our Wettex rag.

After starting to hike again, we only hiked for like 100-200 m until we saw the perfect tent spot by a small creek, with a table and a shelter. Wth!

We continued, and we passed a sign with interesting history about the region. Kim stopped to read the sign, and suddenly Lukas was gone. After walking for a bit, he could only have continued down the road, right? She didn't see him at first, but then he appeared, standing in the fog. He had stopped by a MG stone crusher and was just staring as if mesmerised on it. Kim wrinkled her nose from the noise. Apparently it was the same kind of stone crusher as Lukas previous workplace had.

We continued in the fog, and reached a pasture with some fjällkor (a breed of Scandinavian mountain cows). Lukas tried to give them some grass from the other side of the fence, but they were really sceptical and would not go anywhere near him. So in the end we continued down the road.

Eventually we arrived at Coop and did some shopping. Tried not to shop too much since we would reach a store soon again. Lukas also received a call from an employer.

After the call we went to the gas station to sit down and eat the breakfast we had bought at the store. Lukas also ate a burger and then we had soft ice cream 😍

A few hours later we really had to continue. It was a lot of road walking today. We talked mostly about what Kim's parents needed to pack for their upcoming days hiking hut-to-hut with us, after Grövelsjön. But then, in the middle of the conversation, Lukas stopped talking. He had seen a familiar car and it looked exactly like Lukas and Kim's good friend Simon's. Kim almost got a little bit annoyed because Lukas always sees cars everywhere that are special for some reason that he needs to photograph or something like that.

The car drove in on the street in front of us and parked. Lukas saw that the registration plate was Swedish. He was so confused and needed to see who was the owner. Out steps SIMON!!!??? Surreal feeling to meet him here. Simon knew that we were close. But at the moment he was traveling in his campervan to have some alone time and he didn't even plan to go to Norway today. So he was as shocked as we were, to see us too. His plan had been to reach out to us later and maybe meet us. But now he met us HERE!?

We decided that we would camp together tonight and we shared our planned camping spot, that should also work for a car since it was by a dirt road.

After talking for some time we needed to continue our walk, so we would get there in time. We walked a long way on the big road, with apparently, according to a local we met and talked to, much more traffic than usual. She said that due to all the bad weather lately, another road to Røros was blocked and a lot of traffic needed to go this route instead. But after some time we left it, and hiked on a dirt road. It felt like an eternity, but finally we were close to the camping spot.

We met Simon walking on the road, just a few hundred metres from the camp spot. He got another hug, and we talked a bit, and then we got to see the place and found a spot to pitch our tent. Then all of us took a swim in the sunset, ate food and then finished off with mudcake and beer 😍 We talked soooo much and laughed and had a good time. It was very humid and cold this evening, but the sky was clear. So the beautiful orange and pink sunset soon turned into a beautiful starry sky. That was when we realised that this was pretty much the first time we saw the stars this hike.

Today's

Distance: 30.11 km

Start time: 08:53

End time: 20:03

Ascent: 598 m

Descent: 279 m

Tent: 47/70