Mosquito hill !!
It was another nice morning when we woke, there had been a lovely sunset last night, probably the nicest one we had seen since leaving Hull. It is also nice to have darker nights, though I did enjoy the novelty of midnight suns and light nights, we didn't really feel that it had messed up our body clock's at all. But things are almost back to normal.
We had a lazy morning and no real plan and this annoys me a bit as you then waste a bit of time deciding what to do, but we thought we would just take a drive a wee bit further down the valley and see what was there, soon we found a big parking area and information centre, there were loads of cars there so something had to start from here. I had a rudimentary map for the area but I really miss a proper OS style map, so it was for me a relief to find a good map of the whole Rondane National Park, it wasn't too cheap but I now have it and all the paths and huts and activities are marked on it so I was happy. This carpark at Straumbu is one of the access points into the main Rondane mountain masiff. Most of the big mountains are too far from the road to be climbed in a day so a night in a mountain hut or hotel is the only way, a bit like the Alps. Our walk options for the day was a 2 hour each way walk into the Bjørnhollia (DNT) hotel or a walk on the other side of the road to a summit which would offer good views and probably be a bit shorter.
DNT stands for Der Norske Touristforening- the Norwegian Treking Association which is Norways biggest outer activities organisations, the huts are run by the 57 local member organisations across the whole country. There are around 260,000 DNT members and they receive preferential rates on accommodation and food at the huts and hotels. There are 3 different levels of hut, fully staffed and catered lodges/hotels (like the Bjornhollia), this has a solid red hut symbol on the maps, it is fully manned and they serve breakfast and dinner and may also have showering facilities etc, they are only manned at certain times of the year. The 2nd type are Self service cabins, this has the same red symbol on the map but is only half coloured red, these cabins have all facilities for cooking, sleeping, firewood and some food also but you cook and look after yourself, the only thing you really need to take is a sleeping bag liner. The 3rd type are No Service Cabins, these have the same red symbol on the map but it is not coloured in at all, these are pretty much the same as self service cabins but have no provisions for food and you may also need to carry in a sleeping bag as well as a liner.
We elected for the shorter but steeper walk and not the Lodge option, 2 hours each way is an adult time and I think for the boys that may equate to 5 hours or more so something shorter suited us better, I would however like to visit the lodge to see how it compares to a hut in the Alps. maybe another day. Joyce rattled up some lunch for us and we packed our rucksacks and headed off, the path was clearly marked but seriously steep right from the kick off, this was fine and the boys were romping up it no problem, what was an issue however were the mosquito's-they were out in force and hungry for our blood!! It was impossible to move fast enough as the hill was so steep, so a very liberal application of Jungle formula was quickly smothered all over our skin and also sprayed onto clothing as a little insect that can penetrate a reindeer or musk ox skin can easily get its needle through a thin layer of clothing. It was a pity as the steep forest was beautiful with big ant hills and birds fling about. We just had to press on uphill and hope the mozzies thinned out as we climbed and fortunately they did.
We were finally able to stop and eat our lunch once out of then tree's and catch our breathes and cool off. We were now in a shallow Coire leading up to a col and then branched off the main path unfortunately crunching the lovely lichens as we headed to the main summit of Indre Kampen at 1243 meters, The views to the 2000 plus meter peaks to the west were superb, they look well worth investigating and weather permitting this may happen. The highest is called Rondslottet and is 2178 meter high. We took in the views and Joyce who is not too keen on hillwalking, particularly when beasts are biting even managed to admit that the views were good and (almost) worth the effort, all we had to do was contend with the mosquito's on the way back down again-a lovely thought!! The lichens again today were beautiful, we think it is called Reindeer Lichen, its odd as it seems almost bone dry and just crumbles when you squash a bit between fingers, so its hard to tell if its dead or alive, I think its alive but its almost like its eating on rain or snow to rehydrate it, I don't know anything about lichens.
Callum and I went over to the lower Straumbu Kampen which really just a viewpoint and then headed down to catch up with Mum and Logan. We then took a direct route off the mountain and this was rewarded with a luck find, a cracking set of antlers which were lashed to my rucksack and are now a dangerous obstacle in our bathroom until we find a better place to store them, I think I will need to try and attach them to the cycle carrier for our onward journey. Their identity has still to be confirmed, I am pretty sure they are reindeer due to the small light coloured tufts of fur still attached to them, they are however very uniform in shape, not like some real weird shaped reindeer antlers we have seen before. The decent went without hitch and fortunately the mozzies seemed to have dissipated, there were a few but nothing compared to earlier. The boys enjoyed investigating the big ant hills and looking at what the busy ants were doing and carrying. We have also been seeing and hearing a little bird in the conifer tree's quite a lot and as yet we cannot identify it, perhaps someone can help and let me know. I also finally managed to get a semi-in focus shot of a Fieldfare, all the way from Stavanger to the north and back we have seen hundreds of these birds but they always fly away when the camera comes out.
Back at the van we had an ice cream, the boys deserved it. around 550 meters of ascent and about 8k again and no problem. We carried on down the 27 road, this is a Norwegian scenic Route and found a nice and very reasonably priced campsite at Atnbrua. We are parked right next to the river and the boys had a wee cycle about and a play on the trampoline before dinner. After a bit DVD, the boys were soon bedded and as I type we have thunderstorm rumbling away above us, nothing too major but its has potential.
We had a lazy morning and no real plan and this annoys me a bit as you then waste a bit of time deciding what to do, but we thought we would just take a drive a wee bit further down the valley and see what was there, soon we found a big parking area and information centre, there were loads of cars there so something had to start from here. I had a rudimentary map for the area but I really miss a proper OS style map, so it was for me a relief to find a good map of the whole Rondane National Park, it wasn't too cheap but I now have it and all the paths and huts and activities are marked on it so I was happy. This carpark at Straumbu is one of the access points into the main Rondane mountain masiff. Most of the big mountains are too far from the road to be climbed in a day so a night in a mountain hut or hotel is the only way, a bit like the Alps. Our walk options for the day was a 2 hour each way walk into the Bjørnhollia (DNT) hotel or a walk on the other side of the road to a summit which would offer good views and probably be a bit shorter.
DNT stands for Der Norske Touristforening- the Norwegian Treking Association which is Norways biggest outer activities organisations, the huts are run by the 57 local member organisations across the whole country. There are around 260,000 DNT members and they receive preferential rates on accommodation and food at the huts and hotels. There are 3 different levels of hut, fully staffed and catered lodges/hotels (like the Bjornhollia), this has a solid red hut symbol on the maps, it is fully manned and they serve breakfast and dinner and may also have showering facilities etc, they are only manned at certain times of the year. The 2nd type are Self service cabins, this has the same red symbol on the map but is only half coloured red, these cabins have all facilities for cooking, sleeping, firewood and some food also but you cook and look after yourself, the only thing you really need to take is a sleeping bag liner. The 3rd type are No Service Cabins, these have the same red symbol on the map but it is not coloured in at all, these are pretty much the same as self service cabins but have no provisions for food and you may also need to carry in a sleeping bag as well as a liner.
We elected for the shorter but steeper walk and not the Lodge option, 2 hours each way is an adult time and I think for the boys that may equate to 5 hours or more so something shorter suited us better, I would however like to visit the lodge to see how it compares to a hut in the Alps. maybe another day. Joyce rattled up some lunch for us and we packed our rucksacks and headed off, the path was clearly marked but seriously steep right from the kick off, this was fine and the boys were romping up it no problem, what was an issue however were the mosquito's-they were out in force and hungry for our blood!! It was impossible to move fast enough as the hill was so steep, so a very liberal application of Jungle formula was quickly smothered all over our skin and also sprayed onto clothing as a little insect that can penetrate a reindeer or musk ox skin can easily get its needle through a thin layer of clothing. It was a pity as the steep forest was beautiful with big ant hills and birds fling about. We just had to press on uphill and hope the mozzies thinned out as we climbed and fortunately they did.
We were finally able to stop and eat our lunch once out of then tree's and catch our breathes and cool off. We were now in a shallow Coire leading up to a col and then branched off the main path unfortunately crunching the lovely lichens as we headed to the main summit of Indre Kampen at 1243 meters, The views to the 2000 plus meter peaks to the west were superb, they look well worth investigating and weather permitting this may happen. The highest is called Rondslottet and is 2178 meter high. We took in the views and Joyce who is not too keen on hillwalking, particularly when beasts are biting even managed to admit that the views were good and (almost) worth the effort, all we had to do was contend with the mosquito's on the way back down again-a lovely thought!! The lichens again today were beautiful, we think it is called Reindeer Lichen, its odd as it seems almost bone dry and just crumbles when you squash a bit between fingers, so its hard to tell if its dead or alive, I think its alive but its almost like its eating on rain or snow to rehydrate it, I don't know anything about lichens.
Callum and I went over to the lower Straumbu Kampen which really just a viewpoint and then headed down to catch up with Mum and Logan. We then took a direct route off the mountain and this was rewarded with a luck find, a cracking set of antlers which were lashed to my rucksack and are now a dangerous obstacle in our bathroom until we find a better place to store them, I think I will need to try and attach them to the cycle carrier for our onward journey. Their identity has still to be confirmed, I am pretty sure they are reindeer due to the small light coloured tufts of fur still attached to them, they are however very uniform in shape, not like some real weird shaped reindeer antlers we have seen before. The decent went without hitch and fortunately the mozzies seemed to have dissipated, there were a few but nothing compared to earlier. The boys enjoyed investigating the big ant hills and looking at what the busy ants were doing and carrying. We have also been seeing and hearing a little bird in the conifer tree's quite a lot and as yet we cannot identify it, perhaps someone can help and let me know. I also finally managed to get a semi-in focus shot of a Fieldfare, all the way from Stavanger to the north and back we have seen hundreds of these birds but they always fly away when the camera comes out.
Back at the van we had an ice cream, the boys deserved it. around 550 meters of ascent and about 8k again and no problem. We carried on down the 27 road, this is a Norwegian scenic Route and found a nice and very reasonably priced campsite at Atnbrua. We are parked right next to the river and the boys had a wee cycle about and a play on the trampoline before dinner. After a bit DVD, the boys were soon bedded and as I type we have thunderstorm rumbling away above us, nothing too major but its has potential.
I wonder if you were to be cycling the lengh of norway if it would be worth while joining the DNT to recieve preferential rates! Im not seeing any mozzie nets in the photos did you pack them?
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