Mountainous Norway
Dovre - 19th June
We went into Kristiansund first thing this morning to take some photos of all three islands while there were no cruise ships obstructing our view. We knew there were none because at 9.00pm last night the luxury cruise ship Seven Seas Navigator with its 490 passengers and 340 crew sailed past our apartment window.
Our first stop after leaving Kristiansund was Torjulvagen, a little village off the beaten track that has a dairy factory specialising in the production of blue cheese. We were their only customers so we got an explanation of the cheese making process by the cheese maker herself, in English, while watching the cheese vat and slicer and then bought some their fine products.
The closest town to the cheese factory is Tingvoll so we went there to get some accompaniments for our cheese and ate them by the 12th century Tingvoll church and lake.
The church was open so we could have a look inside and see the old wood features.
The cache nearby was not as interesting, but it did help us discover this place.
Parking for lunch was in the church carpark – pictured
As we travel though the mountains we mainly saw four things: sheer rock faced mountains, waterfalls coming straight from the top of the mountain, ski fields and the Statens Vegvesen = State Road Traffic Patrol. They seemed to have a big presence in the mountains, rather than show a picture of them I have chosen the photo above which amuses me that they build houses and farms on a mountainside with no obvious access point, no fear of avalanches and cows with dodgy knees (the photo doesn’t show the true slope of the land).
There are numerous ski fields and resorts in the mountains, unlike NZ where you drive up the mountain to the ski field, here the ski fields start close to the main road and the chalets. The photos above are the summer version of the Oppdal skifield that is at a latitude equivalent to being 1,500kms south of Dunedin. The runs shown are generally ungroomed Black to Brown and Blue. There are many, many dozens of these grass covered chalets in clusters close by. No doubt the free-heelers are catered for as well.
This is the beautiful old church at Oppdal right at the bottom of the ski field, the cemetery was very large for a village of ski chalets, so Roger decided it was full of the people who didn’t stop at the base of the chairlift.
When in the partially snowed capped mountains you should always stop at a Sampi trading store and buy an ice cream.
They are obviously used to temperatures being colder as the ice cream melted before we got to the car.
The photo on the left is a monument near the highest point on the E6 road at Dovre Mountain. It is 1,000 metres above sea level and has views of Snohetta, which was covered in snow and cloud today. The photo on the right is where the GPS took us, 6kms down the road and by a little knoll with sheep wearing bells, and not fenced from the road.
Today’s ABBA tribute is ‘Bang a Boomerang’ (1975) for the waitress at the Kafe and Spiseri (eatery, not pissery) who ignored us at the door and when we asked how the ordering worked, because there was a set menu at the door, cabinet food and another blackboard menu, she replied “we have pictures up on the wall for people who can’t read” and then she walked off. We then stopped her and asked whether we sit down and someone takes our order and was told “there”, she pointed to a counter with no till. She stormed off, we promptly left and they lost the sale of two hungry diners.
Making somebody happy is a question of give and take
You can learn how to show it so come on, give yourself a break
Every smile and every little touch
Don’t you know that they mean so much?