Back to some scenery and a blogathon.
..................Sunday...................
The campsite at Lit was lovely, it had a huge big area the boys could play about on their bikes, a couple of trampolines, a play park, and had the weather been better in the morning we would probably have stayed and hired a canoe for the day and taken a paddle out to one of the islands, but it wasn't so after a leisurely start we got on the road and headed south towards Ostersund, just a few km's away. I was undecided about which road to take back into Norway, the 84 over to Roros, or the E14 and 322 over to Levanter-Just north of Trondheim, I had read about Swedens biggest waterfall and it was on this route so at the very last minute we chose this road.
We stopped at a really bizarre looking church at Mattmar, and had lunch and a look around, unfortunately the Swedish are no where near as good as the Norwegians in writing a English translation and I am struggling to find out much about it, there was young lad in the information centre near by but didn't know anything about its history and just went back to listening to music from his phone through his earphones. It was worth the stop however just for a look.
The scenery was improving now and becoming more mountainous again thankfully, so we carried on along the E14 through a town called Are (with a wee o above the A).......it is one of Swedens bigger ski and mountain bike area's and looked nice, a lot of the lifts were working and plenty people were taking advantage of them getting their bikes up to the top of the trails. We soon turned onto the 322 road which took us to the Tannfosrsen, one of Swedens largest waterfalls. It was quite a short walk to the falls but got the legs moving a wee bit. The falls are quite spectacular, not in the same league as the larger Norwegian Foss but still worth the (small) effort.
After this we carried on along the 322 across a high plateau which was clearly very sparsely populated and across the border into Norway at Sandvika (this is a very common place name in Norway). The border was almost non existent, and there was no one there, there was a sign a little further down the road saying customs, but again the buildings were empty. Cheap Swedish beer now being consumed in Norway, happy days. We had a quick check on Park for Night App and found a place at the coast which was nice and flat and had a big area for the boys to play. Soon after another van arrived, a German family from Leipzig in a VW T5.....from which emerged Mum, Dad and 3 children. All sorts of camping and activity stuffs were unloaded from this small van and soon they had kit everywhere, it must be a serious stress trying to pack it all in, and unload it every time you need to find something or cook a meal, however, they were very well versed at it.
Their children who were aged, 7, 5 and 2 played well with Callum and Logan.....and very soon after their Mum was making tea on a very small table, dad had a fishing rod out trying to catch a fish, he also had a fire going in the fire pit and not too long after eating his dinner was out on the open sea on an inflatable paddle board........fishing. He confidently paddled away out, sat down on his board and started casting away with a little telescopic rod he had inside his jacket. He didn't catch anything but it was a valiant effort. We later chatted and he was a canoe water polo player so very confident on the water, clearly he had done this many times before. A fine and quiet night was had by all.
.............Monday.............
It was a fine morning but this was forecast not to last. The boys had a great play with Emma, Ina and Svenson (I think that was his name) in the big parking area. It was hard to get them to part but eventually and without too. much ado we said goodbye to our new friends from Germany. We got on the road and headed towards Trondheim, we emptied waste at a motorhome service point, the same one in fact where many weeks ago some motorhome antagoniser decided to play his music at full volume at 3am....strangely there was a black Passat estate with a huge boom box in the boot parked at the lay-by, in a way which prevented vans from getting close to the taps and dumping point-I wonder if it was the same person/vehicle, lol. Van sorted and the rain came on, we refuelled at Trondheim and passed through and south on the E6, heading for Opdall. We stopped for lunch at a lay-by and then carried on south, this road, and a main Norwegian artery is quiete spectacular as it winds its way south, up and through gorges and climbs up to a very high plateau. Opdall looked lovely and we stopped for supplies and did consider stopping for the night, but it was a bit early. Its a big ski town and I am sure would be fun (although that fun would be expensive) in the winter time.The weather improved and we eventually levelled off at about 1000 meters and turned left onto the E29 and found a parking place for the night, large, flat and plenty of room for all. Joyce cooked tea and the boys watched a wee bit DVD before a game of domino's and bedtime. Not the most exciting day for them unfortunately but good distance was covered and we can relax a bit now I think. We went on line to book a ferry from Kristiansand back over to Hirstals in Denmark, after a fair bit chatting about our options we decided to spend the rest of our time in Norway rather than cutting back into Sweden, we can do that another time-maybe.
..............Tuesday..............
It wasn't a bad morning today when we woke up, but we had no real plan. I think we were all needing a day of not too much driving and the Rondane area was one which I had hoped to explore a little. So after breakfast and and a kick about with the ball for the boys, and a bit of schooling for Callum we got on the road with no agenda, but we hoped to find somewhere to pick up a map and do a walk.
The first little town of consequence that we came across was Folldal and we had a drive about looking for the tourist information and failed to find it, however we did come across an interesting looking mining museum, called Folldal Gruver. There was also a reasonable looking walk we could do here too. I popped in to see if they maybe had a map, but soon realised this was a good place to visit with plenty for the boys to look at. There was a guided tour and train ride into the mountain and the next one was leaving in 10 minutes, so we quickly got some layers on as mines are cold and we went in a paid our money for both the train and museum. Shortly after our driver arrived and we hoped onto a tiny train with 4 carriages and got our safety briefs, which was basically not to stick any body part out of the train till it stopped. We were off, and the trained rattled its way about 600 meters inside the mountain, it was sort of like a a cross between a ghost train as it was pitch dark and the bumpiest roller coaster ride ever, lol. It was pitch dark except for the little torches dangling from the carriages and Logan for once was definitely not sure, it was however very noisy also so the driver was not going to hear anything if there was a problem.
Soon however we came to a halt and all got off and walked along a passageway towards a nicely coloured chamber, where there were nice comfy bench seats and candles, and our guide started telling us all about the mine and its history. The mine came into being around 1748 a couple of years after a farmer discovered ore whilst out on a walk. The mine operated for about 130 years but then closed when demand for copper and hence its value dropped and transport difficulties left the mine unviable. It lay dormant from 1878 until 1906 when it re-opened as the Folldal copper and sulphur company. It was brought up to date with the introduction of electricity so proper machinery could be used in the ore extraction. The conditions in the mines were terrible and workers lived only to about the age of 40 due to lung disease caused by the dust, miners grew long moustaches to try and prevent dust entering their bodies. Worm Lund the company director was a skilled engineer but as a leader lacked managerial skills and the mine was plagued by strikes, in fact it started what would become on of Norways longest ever strikes lasting nearly 2 years. In 1938 the company went bankrupt, and for a few years was government run but eventually its resources ran dry. There was no train line to Folldal so a cable car system took the ore up and over the mountains to Alvdal where it could be taken by train for smelting. The tour was interesting and soon we were back on the little train shaking our way back out the cold mountain and into lovely warm sunshine again. We had a wander around the museum and then had lunch.
There were 4 walks from the same start point and we hoped to do walk 4, they all started the same so would change our mind at any point if we chose, but the tracks and paths were easy and led up into the hills above the mine. The boys jumped and moaned a bit but the lure of a 2nd lunch somewhere along the way and an ice cream at the end kept them going. There was no
summit to reach, just a nice 13k walk in lovely scenery. The views over to the Rondane national park and its 2000 meter tall mountains was stunning. maybe tomorrow we will explore there. We came across some more Golden Plover's up here, and also some large tent caterpillar homes, I think these are built by the caterpillars after they hatch and provide a home for them. The were about the size of a clenched fist and quite strong and well anchored structures.. I had never seen this before. The high mountain area's are very dry indeed, again this area (strangely enough) has a very low annual rainfall level. The path is very narrow, clearly it doesn't get boggy up here so there is no need for walkers to try and find a dry route. It's probably either always very dry in the summer or covered in snow in the winter. The ground is also covered in beautiful light yellow coloured lichens which don't stand up well to be doing stood on, they just all crumble so we stayed on the path as much as possible.
Soon we were heading down and back to the van, it had a been a good day, and welcome change to driving. We drove a few miles and found a lovely place by a river for the night, tomorrow it will need to be a campsite. I will have to say, that all the places we have parked up, and it is perfectly acceptable in Norway have been spotless, there has been no rubbish at all. No beer cans or bottles, no toilet waste, and no unruly campers. The only thing that is visible are fire rings, but they do like a fire here, in fact in some places the picnic table have a fire pit in the middle so if you want a fire you can light it. At home, the neds would just break up and burn the whole table sadly.......
Scotland needs to wise up, with the boom in motorhomes and camper vans in our own country we need to provide facilities for motorhomes and camper vans to properly dispose of their waste, and also cheap places to park up with or without electric/facilities as required, there is room for everyone. Norway is far bigger than Scotland but is still swarming with motorhomes, as well as all the other different people wanting to enjoy the outdoors and the sights the country has to offer. They are streets ahead of us in how they manage this. It is unfair to say that motorhomer's bring nothing to an economy, we do. We could not afford to park in a campsite every night, and also we do not need a campsite every night. However, the money we have "saved" from our "free" night's in the van has been spent else where, ie. in a museum, a boat trip, or in a cafe, a restaurant or in a souvenir shop or some other attraction, so someone has benefited, the campsites here (like at home) simply do not provide enough for the amount they charge. We have spent a considerable amount of money that has gone into our "others" column (on Joyce's spreadsheet). We have also got out the van to check things out, do walks and cycles and a whole host of other things....for anyone to tar everyone with the same brush whether here in Norway or in Scotland is totally wrong. Oooops, I digress, rant over, lol.
The Rondane is a beautiful area, we will spend a few days here before we head further south, our ferry is booked to leave Norway a week on Friday so 10 more days to enjoy this stunning country.
The campsite at Lit was lovely, it had a huge big area the boys could play about on their bikes, a couple of trampolines, a play park, and had the weather been better in the morning we would probably have stayed and hired a canoe for the day and taken a paddle out to one of the islands, but it wasn't so after a leisurely start we got on the road and headed south towards Ostersund, just a few km's away. I was undecided about which road to take back into Norway, the 84 over to Roros, or the E14 and 322 over to Levanter-Just north of Trondheim, I had read about Swedens biggest waterfall and it was on this route so at the very last minute we chose this road.
We stopped at a really bizarre looking church at Mattmar, and had lunch and a look around, unfortunately the Swedish are no where near as good as the Norwegians in writing a English translation and I am struggling to find out much about it, there was young lad in the information centre near by but didn't know anything about its history and just went back to listening to music from his phone through his earphones. It was worth the stop however just for a look.
The scenery was improving now and becoming more mountainous again thankfully, so we carried on along the E14 through a town called Are (with a wee o above the A).......it is one of Swedens bigger ski and mountain bike area's and looked nice, a lot of the lifts were working and plenty people were taking advantage of them getting their bikes up to the top of the trails. We soon turned onto the 322 road which took us to the Tannfosrsen, one of Swedens largest waterfalls. It was quite a short walk to the falls but got the legs moving a wee bit. The falls are quite spectacular, not in the same league as the larger Norwegian Foss but still worth the (small) effort.After this we carried on along the 322 across a high plateau which was clearly very sparsely populated and across the border into Norway at Sandvika (this is a very common place name in Norway). The border was almost non existent, and there was no one there, there was a sign a little further down the road saying customs, but again the buildings were empty. Cheap Swedish beer now being consumed in Norway, happy days. We had a quick check on Park for Night App and found a place at the coast which was nice and flat and had a big area for the boys to play. Soon after another van arrived, a German family from Leipzig in a VW T5.....from which emerged Mum, Dad and 3 children. All sorts of camping and activity stuffs were unloaded from this small van and soon they had kit everywhere, it must be a serious stress trying to pack it all in, and unload it every time you need to find something or cook a meal, however, they were very well versed at it.
Their children who were aged, 7, 5 and 2 played well with Callum and Logan.....and very soon after their Mum was making tea on a very small table, dad had a fishing rod out trying to catch a fish, he also had a fire going in the fire pit and not too long after eating his dinner was out on the open sea on an inflatable paddle board........fishing. He confidently paddled away out, sat down on his board and started casting away with a little telescopic rod he had inside his jacket. He didn't catch anything but it was a valiant effort. We later chatted and he was a canoe water polo player so very confident on the water, clearly he had done this many times before. A fine and quiet night was had by all..............Monday.............
It was a fine morning but this was forecast not to last. The boys had a great play with Emma, Ina and Svenson (I think that was his name) in the big parking area. It was hard to get them to part but eventually and without too. much ado we said goodbye to our new friends from Germany. We got on the road and headed towards Trondheim, we emptied waste at a motorhome service point, the same one in fact where many weeks ago some motorhome antagoniser decided to play his music at full volume at 3am....strangely there was a black Passat estate with a huge boom box in the boot parked at the lay-by, in a way which prevented vans from getting close to the taps and dumping point-I wonder if it was the same person/vehicle, lol. Van sorted and the rain came on, we refuelled at Trondheim and passed through and south on the E6, heading for Opdall. We stopped for lunch at a lay-by and then carried on south, this road, and a main Norwegian artery is quiete spectacular as it winds its way south, up and through gorges and climbs up to a very high plateau. Opdall looked lovely and we stopped for supplies and did consider stopping for the night, but it was a bit early. Its a big ski town and I am sure would be fun (although that fun would be expensive) in the winter time.The weather improved and we eventually levelled off at about 1000 meters and turned left onto the E29 and found a parking place for the night, large, flat and plenty of room for all. Joyce cooked tea and the boys watched a wee bit DVD before a game of domino's and bedtime. Not the most exciting day for them unfortunately but good distance was covered and we can relax a bit now I think. We went on line to book a ferry from Kristiansand back over to Hirstals in Denmark, after a fair bit chatting about our options we decided to spend the rest of our time in Norway rather than cutting back into Sweden, we can do that another time-maybe...............Tuesday..............
It wasn't a bad morning today when we woke up, but we had no real plan. I think we were all needing a day of not too much driving and the Rondane area was one which I had hoped to explore a little. So after breakfast and and a kick about with the ball for the boys, and a bit of schooling for Callum we got on the road with no agenda, but we hoped to find somewhere to pick up a map and do a walk.
The first little town of consequence that we came across was Folldal and we had a drive about looking for the tourist information and failed to find it, however we did come across an interesting looking mining museum, called Folldal Gruver. There was also a reasonable looking walk we could do here too. I popped in to see if they maybe had a map, but soon realised this was a good place to visit with plenty for the boys to look at. There was a guided tour and train ride into the mountain and the next one was leaving in 10 minutes, so we quickly got some layers on as mines are cold and we went in a paid our money for both the train and museum. Shortly after our driver arrived and we hoped onto a tiny train with 4 carriages and got our safety briefs, which was basically not to stick any body part out of the train till it stopped. We were off, and the trained rattled its way about 600 meters inside the mountain, it was sort of like a a cross between a ghost train as it was pitch dark and the bumpiest roller coaster ride ever, lol. It was pitch dark except for the little torches dangling from the carriages and Logan for once was definitely not sure, it was however very noisy also so the driver was not going to hear anything if there was a problem.
Soon however we came to a halt and all got off and walked along a passageway towards a nicely coloured chamber, where there were nice comfy bench seats and candles, and our guide started telling us all about the mine and its history. The mine came into being around 1748 a couple of years after a farmer discovered ore whilst out on a walk. The mine operated for about 130 years but then closed when demand for copper and hence its value dropped and transport difficulties left the mine unviable. It lay dormant from 1878 until 1906 when it re-opened as the Folldal copper and sulphur company. It was brought up to date with the introduction of electricity so proper machinery could be used in the ore extraction. The conditions in the mines were terrible and workers lived only to about the age of 40 due to lung disease caused by the dust, miners grew long moustaches to try and prevent dust entering their bodies. Worm Lund the company director was a skilled engineer but as a leader lacked managerial skills and the mine was plagued by strikes, in fact it started what would become on of Norways longest ever strikes lasting nearly 2 years. In 1938 the company went bankrupt, and for a few years was government run but eventually its resources ran dry. There was no train line to Folldal so a cable car system took the ore up and over the mountains to Alvdal where it could be taken by train for smelting. The tour was interesting and soon we were back on the little train shaking our way back out the cold mountain and into lovely warm sunshine again. We had a wander around the museum and then had lunch.
There were 4 walks from the same start point and we hoped to do walk 4, they all started the same so would change our mind at any point if we chose, but the tracks and paths were easy and led up into the hills above the mine. The boys jumped and moaned a bit but the lure of a 2nd lunch somewhere along the way and an ice cream at the end kept them going. There was no 
summit to reach, just a nice 13k walk in lovely scenery. The views over to the Rondane national park and its 2000 meter tall mountains was stunning. maybe tomorrow we will explore there. We came across some more Golden Plover's up here, and also some large tent caterpillar homes, I think these are built by the caterpillars after they hatch and provide a home for them. The were about the size of a clenched fist and quite strong and well anchored structures.. I had never seen this before. The high mountain area's are very dry indeed, again this area (strangely enough) has a very low annual rainfall level. The path is very narrow, clearly it doesn't get boggy up here so there is no need for walkers to try and find a dry route. It's probably either always very dry in the summer or covered in snow in the winter. The ground is also covered in beautiful light yellow coloured lichens which don't stand up well to be doing stood on, they just all crumble so we stayed on the path as much as possible.Soon we were heading down and back to the van, it had a been a good day, and welcome change to driving. We drove a few miles and found a lovely place by a river for the night, tomorrow it will need to be a campsite. I will have to say, that all the places we have parked up, and it is perfectly acceptable in Norway have been spotless, there has been no rubbish at all. No beer cans or bottles, no toilet waste, and no unruly campers. The only thing that is visible are fire rings, but they do like a fire here, in fact in some places the picnic table have a fire pit in the middle so if you want a fire you can light it. At home, the neds would just break up and burn the whole table sadly.......
Scotland needs to wise up, with the boom in motorhomes and camper vans in our own country we need to provide facilities for motorhomes and camper vans to properly dispose of their waste, and also cheap places to park up with or without electric/facilities as required, there is room for everyone. Norway is far bigger than Scotland but is still swarming with motorhomes, as well as all the other different people wanting to enjoy the outdoors and the sights the country has to offer. They are streets ahead of us in how they manage this. It is unfair to say that motorhomer's bring nothing to an economy, we do. We could not afford to park in a campsite every night, and also we do not need a campsite every night. However, the money we have "saved" from our "free" night's in the van has been spent else where, ie. in a museum, a boat trip, or in a cafe, a restaurant or in a souvenir shop or some other attraction, so someone has benefited, the campsites here (like at home) simply do not provide enough for the amount they charge. We have spent a considerable amount of money that has gone into our "others" column (on Joyce's spreadsheet). We have also got out the van to check things out, do walks and cycles and a whole host of other things....for anyone to tar everyone with the same brush whether here in Norway or in Scotland is totally wrong. Oooops, I digress, rant over, lol.
The Rondane is a beautiful area, we will spend a few days here before we head further south, our ferry is booked to leave Norway a week on Friday so 10 more days to enjoy this stunning country.
Yet another fantastic blog entry taking the boys on the underground train sounds a bit of a exciting journey to the centre of the earth 😊 I was looking at those blow up paddle boards recently they definitely appeal to me, I must agree with you as regards the litter and vandalism in Scotland it's a damm disgrace we should be ashamed 😔 And the roads and parking there should be a massive investment in road improvements throughout the whole Highlands and Islands instead of high speed trains and new runways for London! Rant over lol
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