Days 14-19 - Rain stops play
Well, 6 days with no blog. How am I going to compress that into a single blog?
Hmmmm. Only 1 way to find out, start scribbling.
Between Tuesday 22nd February and today, Sunday 27th, we have stayed at 5 DNT huts;
Sauvasshytta
Kvitsteindalstunet
Virvasshytta
Bolnstua
Lønsstua
And we have had a real mix of weather…
If you want to see a video, or 2, of the high winds, click on the Instagram link.
We even spotted some reindeer (our first). They stopped a while to stare at us, then ran off. From the photo below, they look like they are used to pulling something like a sleigh. That’s my theory anyway.
“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!
We have, in the last 6 days, covered 114.9km and been on the move for 37 hrs and 30 mins. Predominantly navigated by the inimitable David.
Left hand down a bit!
It doesn’t always go to plan, as is evidenced by the drawing I made in the hut book at Sauvasshytta…
Not one of my best, but occasionally accurate.
Thankfully there have been few disagreements…
David finally snaps under the strain
I love that photo. It absolutely tells the wrong story. David isn’t really about to take on Trond in a reenactment of David vs Goliath. He’s actually going to help pull the pulk. Well, at least that’s what David said.
I’m going to go into a bit more detail for Friday 25th February, as I awoke at 4.50am feeling nauseous and headachy. These are not very pleasant legacy symptoms of long covid. I dozed until the alarm at 5.30am. Still not feeling great. The nausea really didn’t last long after I got up, but unfortunately the “headache” lasted pretty much all day. A real shame, because the morning was glorious. +2 degrees in the sun and with pretty good snow conditions.
Make the most of the sunshine, cos it ain’t gonna last!
My weird covid head bugged me all day. By about 2.30-3pm I was really not feeling great. The weird head was not affecting my physical capability too much, but my thinking was definitely being affected. I was happy to just follow along.
After 9 hrs we dropped steeply down to the valley floor and the road. When I say steeply, I mean so steep that Trond adopted an as yet unseen method of getting Pulky down.
He couldn’t simply let Pulky go, too many trees, so he just aimed for a straight part with no trees, lay on the pulk and… weeeee! Such style and the good news is that they both survived.
We stop for the night at the Bolnastua DNT hut. Two young hunters, Richard & Sigurd, and their 5 beautiful dogs, share the hut with us.
A very sociable evening was had by all. Richard and Sigurd provided us with beer and, joy of joys, waffles, cream and jam. A great couple of guys. A great couple of waffles. An even better couple of beers.
Richard and Sigurd and the fine brace of waffles they had shot.
Well, maybe they weren’t waffle hunters, pitting their wits against packs of ferocious Northern Norwegian hairy waffles, but the image (like Scottish haggis hunters) amuses me.
Saturday 26th February was a pretty exciting day for me. About 9 km after leaving the Bolnastua cabin we cross the Arctic Circle! Admittedly I have been further north than I have ever been for about the last 100km, but crossing the actual Arctic Circle is very exciting. There is a visitor centre, café, gift shop and… oh, hang on… “in the summer,” there is a visitor centre, café, gift shop etc. In the winter there is a half buried building and a sign with the word, ‘OPEN’ carefully crossed out. No surprises though, so a quick photo of David and I by the sign and we move on.
For around 10 km we followed the road, either at the edge, or beside it where we could. Eventually we picked a nice route alongside the railway line.
We didn’t see one train during the 3 hours we skied beside the lines
The weather was pretty good up until about mid-day, then, in keeping with the weather forecast, the wind picked up and the snow started. By the time we left the railway and returned to the road, conditions were pretty grim. High winds and blowing snow made visibility pretty awful. Unfortunately, we were forced back to skiing on the side of the road by 2 metre snow banks and very deep snow, trees and the pesky railway line. It is a main road. Read: Big trucks and regular snow ploughs.
Staying well away from the snow ploughs.
Until, that is, the high snow banks meant we couldn’t simply step out of the way.
The next few kilometres were a bit tense, but fortunately uneventful. We were constantly on the lookout for a way off the road, but none existed.
We were very glad to arrive at the Lønasstua DNT hut.
Sunday 27th February will be a rest day. A storm is due to arrive accompanied by temperatures above freezing. This is not sensible weather to negotiate the mountain we must cross.
I’m kind of pleased as I have been having some serious difficulties with my boots the last couple of days. Very painful big toes and the left boot seems to have suddenly decided to be too narrow. A painful bruise has developed on the side of my foot near the little toe.
I spoke at length with one time counsellor and now foot specialist, Mrs P on the phone on the subject of sore toes, but I’m not sure what the answer is at the moment.
Rest day!? It took me almost an hour to dig a path to the woodshed/toilet!
So, a rest day. After 18 straight days of skiing and 385 km we probably deserve a rest day. Chance to write the blog and maybe, just maybe, wash.
For those of you who read this blog in the UK, you can also listen to my audio diaries on both BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester and BBC Berkshire.
Thanks for following my ramblings, do feel free to make comments, ask questions etc. and don’t forget to tell your friends.
