NPL Day 83
Day 83: Thursday 7 September 2023
Southwest of Spranghaugen-Otta
This morning we were woken up by the alarm signal we had recorded the day before, that screamed to us to WAKE UP! đ And some rock song intro and nice words telling us to wake up and hurry to the train... Well, at least it worked!
The tent was wet from condensation today again, so we dried it as best as we could, then separated it. But as we worked on taking it down, the morning mist started moving and came our way, making our tent wetter as we tried to dry it. Oh well đ€·đŒââïž
The huts close by that had been visible the day before was completely shrouded now in the fog. Everything felt quiet and almost spooky.
We followed the dirt road down the mountain and through several areas with huts. Then, down, down, down a long lonely path. Only a few cars passed us as we continued down while listening to the podcast "FrÄga Anders och MÄns".
Finally we arrived at a place where there existed some stone formations called "Kvitskriuprestin". These formations are very unusual in Northern Europe, and according to the sign there, only exists in two places. It's more common in the Alps. Kim wanted to check them out, mainly because two geocaches were hidden there. Lukas didn't, and waited down by the road while Kim climbed a steep hill, and several stairs to get there. Unfortunately they had been destroyed - probably by bad weather. Maybe previous years, or this year by Hans. The phenomenon is quite cool and requires a certain type of sand, and also quite dry weather with a smaller amount of rain. That rain will slowly "dig out" the sand around some bigger stones, until pillars are former with really big stones on the top.
After the pause it was time to continue. Once we started to get closer to Otta some discussions started... One was what and where to eat, and one was which train to take today. Because today, we were going all the way to Oslo!
After many discussions back and forth we realised that we had to compromise one way or another. Lukas wanted to take and earlier train but he also wanted to eat at McDonald's. Kim wanted to geocache and take the later train. We realised quite quickly though, that if we wanted to catch the earlier train we would have to hurry. So much in fact that we wouldn't have time for McDonald's. So we decided to take it easy, satisfy Lukas McDonald's cravings, let Kim geocache, and take the late train (or rather bus + train). By doing this, we even had time to go past ElkjĂžp and buy another memory card for our GoPro, and also a new screen protector for Kim's phone. Nice! We also passed the grocery store before going to the station to wait for the bus.
Lukas was happy because the bus was quite big and he actually fitted in the seat for once. But it didn't last long because almost immediately he felt nauseous. Maybe because he wasn't used to moving so fast...
The bus was also about half an hour late, and the entire bus ride Lukas couldn't look at his phone and barely talk because he felt ill. In Lillehammer we changed from bus to train. Normally it's a direct train to Oslo, but the storm Hans had ruined a bridge in Ringebu, so all train traffic between Trondheim and Lillehammer was closed (if we have understood it correctly).
The train was also about half an hour late, because of some accent, we heard. Lukas was still ill. But other than that the train ride was nice. Until Oslo Lufthavn (the Airport) because then a crazy amount of people stepped on and now there were literally people standing everywhere.
This amount of people already made us stressed, and we started to discuss whether we should walk, take the bus/Metro or Uber to our friends Dag and Roy in another part of Oslo.
In the end, we decided to go from Jernbanetorget. We followed the signs and ended up outside on the street... We didn't think about it at first because of all the people and the stress to get away from everyone... But when we arrived we realised that there is no Metro here. From here you could only take bus or trikk (tram). So we took what came first - trikken.
We had our tickets ready and jumped on, thinking it wouldn't take so long because the distance was so short (3 km). Well, how wrong we were... The trikk was really slow, and then close to the National Theatre the trikk stopped because of roadwork. We waited for a while but then decided we could just walk the last km. It wouldn't take very long and after the trikk we still would have to walk a bit.
We didn't even get a half km away before the trikk passed us đ
If we had just walked all the way from the beginning we would already be at Dag and Roys house, and we would have saved 80 NOK.
When we arrived, Dag and Roy was not home. But they had left the keys and made food for us that was ready to heat up when we arrived. Soooo nice of them đ We washed our clothes and showered, had dinner and breathed out.
Some time before midnight they came and we sat down together, ate some chips and drank some beer and wine in front of the TV for a while. Then we were all tired, and it was time to go to bed.
Today's
Distance: 16.05 km
Start time: 09:54
End time: 15:00
Ascent: 35 m
Descent: 757 m
Tent: 55/84
Total distance from the North Cape: 2075.26 km
