Lokken Verk was Norway’s biggest mining industry. Closed in 1987.
Since 1652 mining industry
Nidaros is the historical pilgrim’s name of Trondheim
Enough possibilities for restoration for a handy man
Fish soup half the price. Still expensive 9 E
My tatoued, brown eyed, heavy benefactor girl
Tosca gets a piece of tompouce and cake. Next I do.
Tosca pulling me uphill
Come on Tosca, keep on going
Tosca loves it
Where is the track, here in the moors?
The worst seems over. Now still a sleeping place
Snow. It isn’t that warm here
All the way over there is Skaun. I get nobody on line. 8 o’clock pm already
30 km. Back the distance to Trondheim was the same!
The parish house of Skaun where I have been waiting outside till 9 pm
Put up your tent here. At 11 pm some one will open the house so you can shower. Do they think I’m mad?
The cleaning maid of the parochial house and her son
The son gets a bed for me from the basement
Yesterday, the distance was all together still 40 km, because when the landlady drove me back 15 km. to look for Tosca’s lost teletact I wasn’t yet at the beginning of yesterday’s trip. That would have been fatal to my Singapore boyfriend , Reave. Today the walking distance will be 50 km according to my guide, but will rather be a small 40 I assume.
The sun was shining and at last most of the day last I could walk without a coat again. Hey, hey!
At restaurant / tavern in Bergmanssskroa Melda on km.point 18 today, I thought it was time for my first stop. It was 1.30 pm: lunch time. In between, no opportunity to steal any snack. A very nice lady served me. Are you a pilgrim? Yes. You can get fish soup. There is a remnant left, for you half price: still 9 E. A là (O.K.) then, if you can add some bread. Because since I had breakfast I hadn’t had anything yet. I invite her to come outside and to take a seat for a moment. Arms covered with tatoes, a rather heavy sized lady, 32 y. old, and very kind and helpful. And brown eyes, which is special here. She talks about her cats. Hey idea! In a month I want to fly up and down to my country, to take our then newly born grandchild in my arms, as well as her mother, our daughter Lilian. But where do I leave Tosca that week? I will then fly from Trondheim, so my question to the most charming waitress is whether she knows a dogs aylum in Trondheim. Within five minutes she comes up with a list of dogshelters in and around Trondheim. You have to be fast, she says, because around that time holidays will start here. In case you really can not accommodate the dog, then you need to call me again. Maybe she can also stay with us, but we have cats, so it is somewhat difficult. Europeans not kind?, the Canadian said. Who dares to say so? I only met nice people, even from Asia! Tosca gets a tip of a Tompouce from her and then I get fed the rest. Woof woof. Next she brings some pieces of cake for Tosca.
The route: beautiful, forested, snow on the mountains in the distance, nice weather, again certain parts on cliff goat paths in the woods.
But the real cross today was the plateau. Juzzus, Mária, Joezef! The road climbed higher and higher through the forest. Getting more wet and less clear. Tree roots, shelves here and there over the water, more here than there. Yeah, hey, I’m not a homing pigeon. How do I find the road here? This is a bog, one and all swamp. After a while I made no effort to keep my feet dry. My Goretex Meindles were soaked. The path split into various animals paths. Some pieces were churned up by a tree harvester machine and definately no official route was visible more. It was getting later: after six and the two addresses in about 10 km. where I could stay did not respond, despite calling five times and five times recording the voice mail. It slowly became a bit uncanny. In the evening it gets cold and getting lost in the “High Fens” You may have the honor to serve the scientific world in 2000 years, if you happen to be found as interesting bog body, but that was not the purpose of this trip. It kept going on. After several hours, I was a bit descending from the high bog planes, I met a lady jogging with her dog. Oh, fortunately dwellings in the area, I think. She probably had come by car because the next hour I didn’t see any home. Still no response to the recorded voicemails. Seven thirty, eight o’clock. Tosca had a ball. Everything splashed delighfully. She ran like a puppy! From left to right, dragged muddy branches up and down against my pants. Jumping around me when I bent over to drink water, so I was soaking wet and dirty and the water too muddy to drink. As I walked on a shelf I had to release her, because chances were she would pull me over. Very difficult. She barked a while uncontrollably far away from me. Chasing a traced moose? If I can not find a shelter in the hamlet Skaun around 9 pm. I’ll have to continue another 13 km., or put up the tent. Tent? At a few degrees above zero degrees C? And rain predicted and a dirty dog? I call daughter Marieke here in Norway, if she understands what the voice mails of my night shelters say. But Marieke doesn’t get more information than I do. Finally I descend from the marsh on the plateau and finally I reach the outskirt of the village. Let’s ask the farmer there, who has a few nice stubbors (originally granaries on legs). Perhaps I may sleep there. No that does not work. A story about his new chicken farm, partly made possible by a Dutchman. Some Jansen. Whether I know him? He’s calling and calling and finally he says, just go to the pilgrim shelter in the parish house down here in the village and there will be someone in a moment. I am sitting there waiting for half an hour, eating my last sandwiches, I feed Tosca, but nobody shows up. Suddenly the chicken farmer passes on his tractor. Another long story about his heart attack on his 42th and that he worked too hard etc. etc. Again he called with his handy a lot. Result: but put your tent up here next to the parish house and kindergarten. The caretaker comes tonight between 10 and 11 pm. to open the parish house, so you can shower and pay 7 E. And you can go back back into your tent clean. Do I have to sleep in a tent here on this little elevated terras, right at a crossroads, where everybody can see me, to be awakened at 11 pm for a shower and tomorrow at 8 am. kindergarten, waking me up with a lot of yelling and noice? Very nice. But yes, it is the way it is. Hey, there in the parish house is someone inside. The working maid? I knock on the window., Tell her my story. She begins to call again. O.K., you may enter. We put on a stretcher, but first I want to finish cleaning before I let you in. But the sweety puts a can of coffee in front of me. Very possibly I will not catch sleep, but a thermos of coffee, though it isn’t strong coffee, is not to be despised. I was far from finishing my meal and my coffee, when at around 10 p.m. a nice gentleman of about 70, enters the building. I’m the head administrator. Would you like to see the church across the street? To be decent I said yes, but in fact I am still really hungry, have not updated my blog yet, didn’t yet respond to my SMS’s. So this will be another short night, with coffee in my blood, and tomorrow will be another long day and today was more than 40km.
Now I must say that his story was very interesting. It started when the ice age 100,000 years ago and the influence of the ice ages on the surrounding landscape. And then King Olav, who brought Christianity here in 1035 ??? The Vikings, the first archbishop of Trondheim, the architectural styles of churches etc. At the end I was glad I had gone with him, though tired and busy because of all the work I still had to do (blog, text messages, tomorrow’s route). I’ll be back in my parish house . Now it is 11:40 pm. and it is twilight time. UI finished another good day again. Bedtime.
Geef uw mening