We got off the boat yesterday and went with our somewhat too many bags to the isle of Gallno, the island is green and wooded with wildflowers, and we walked up the path through the village feeling like a 100 years ago. We passed via the tiny youth hostel with the closed office, but it also had a kitchen , so we went in and cooked a bag of pasta we have been carrying for several days, we made sure to clean and tidy up (we are not rude thieves, but polite burglars). We continued on dragging our trolley behind for 3k to the camp site. We pitched the tent and went for an island stroll through the woods. We spotted blueberries and alla began a picking operation (which included me), and for close to an hour we picked the tiny blue\purple berries to a bag. Than we strolled for an hour or two more while alla ate the berries and then we passed by a boat, so we took it (it’s permitted to take this boat) to a nearby island (50 meters away), it took us a while to get there, since the boat did not respond well to our amateur attempts of rowing. We hiked a bit on the other island than rowed back poorly as well, went back to camp and went to sleep early on the Baltic coast.
We woke up early at 5:30 , packed up and walked the 3k back carrying the trolley and backpacks to the boat and took a short ride to Grinda island. We walked about on the island (we left our bags at the harbor) and Alla picked wild flowers and had a Samarkand which is a Swedish sandwich with some cream, crab meat, shrimp, lettuce and caviar. Now we wait for the boat back to Stockholm.
Back in time, a week ago we left Oslo and headed north through the pretty country side passing amazing lake that we would consider lame to what comes up next, but in the beginning they were impressively blue and calm with nice green surrounding. We passed a bear park and didn’t stop, but we did stop at a little crater (500 meters diameter meteor) and got a nice meteor lecture with a short crater hike. We continued north and reach Flam which would be our fjord base came for the next few days. We built our tent and figured out our plans.
In the morning we went on the famous fjord cruise to Aurland, Undrehal and Gudanven, all cute towns on the fjord with the tall cliffy mountains next to them. I developed a seagull frenzy and took many shots of them and the amazing views.
At gudenvagen a special treat waited for us, a Viking camp. This is a real movement, people returning to nature, live like Viking (minus the raiding), dress like Viking, eat home grown food, live in tents, make they own tools and you can join them and live for a week or a month and learn Viking games, various Viking trade etc.. we just did the Viking sneak peak, and watched the various crafts. They also made tools in ancient smithy ways including the hammer and rock underneath , did things with Yarn, leather and cloth, and also made bows and arrows, and authentic looking armor and shields. They played games, one was to stick a knife on a poll, place a rod between your legs, while grabbing it from behind your back underneath your **, jump up and known the knife off, the game was accompanied with wisecrack comments. Another game was a race where you have to run with the next leg behind the other, very uncoordinated sort of race, they also displayed some sword play and archery. I tried some honey dipped Viking bread and we continued walking the ground, tents and Vikings. They also had a Viking ship which you could sail on (we did not). A tooth less Viking was a juggler, juggling swords, lit torches , apples and was also spitting fires with a very cool display. We finished our Viking tour and returned to Flam only to find out that one of the credit cards is lost, so we went back to Gudanven, by car this time through the 11k tunnel and tried to find it, it wasn’t there, since it was in a pocket in a vest belonging to Lost who forgot it on the bus. So we tried heading back, but the 11k tunnel was closed(not sure why) so we went the other way to find something to do and found a camp. We pulled over and met bjorn (or whatever his name was). Bjorn worked with disabled kids during the year and shows them horses and all sort of cool natural things and in the summer he hikes a lot, winter ski’s and misses his daughter, in this month he works at this camp, and now waits for parts to fix a water problem (no water currently), so we sit and talk to Ulaf (a.k.a bjorn) who tells about his life and all the Fantastik things he does, and everything thing with him is Fantastik, and he says it in a funny way, so gustav is known as Mr Fantastik. He tried to light a fire with wet wood and is unable, but he speaks with glee about Norway and its nature and we eat our evening meal of bread and cheese. After a while his friends comes back with part and odin runs away to help only to return 3 minutes later and sit back with us, he has time, not many people right now in the camp. We sit on and gundar tells us about this unique crevice. This hole is full of icicle, even if it’s warm outside, this long tunnel goes all the way to the glacier and continuously blows freezing cold air, nonstop all throughout the year, Gunderson says there is no scientific explanation to this hole, and he shows it to us and its indeed freezing, like an air conditioner, he says he camps here on warmer days.
We say goodbye to Osmond who goes back to fix the water and we head back to the tunnel which opened by now, return to flam and find the missing vest and credit card. After that we head by car to undrehal, a remote goat cheese making village for a shirt tour on the smallest still in use church in Europe and more views, then head back to Flam to drive up to amazing view point over the fjord.
Right now we are heading back to Stockholm on the boat (and I still have few more days to catch up, but closing in)
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