Monday, June 7, 2010

Linge to Trollstigen, to oops!!

After we got off the ferry at Linge, which by the way is a place which I must make a post about some day because there is a very obvious Shetland connection, we headed for Sylte at the bottom of Valdalen.
It's a fairly typical little settlement, with the usual mountains surrounding it.
That picture actually looks in the direction of Tafjord, a settlement which was wiped out by a Tsunami on the  7th April 1934 when  3 million cubic metres of rock fell from a mountain creating waves which were up to 64 metres high.
Here's a close up of the mountain in the previous picture. Can you see the snake?

When Saint Olav was fleeing from Knut the Great he found a sea snake and threw it away. It hit the mountain and stayed there to this day. God I love folklore... ;)
Here's a nice mountain scene again. These scenes are getting predictable, aren't they?
But I never cease to be amazed by the way that the housing in these settlements crawl ever higher up the hillsides. Folk must be glad that winter tyres are a legal requirement, considering how steep some of the access roads are.

We headed north up Vallldal, another valley which is filled with strawberry fields. On the way we came to one of the newest tourist attractions, Gudbrandsjuvet (Gudbrands Gorge). The story goes that Gudbrand, whilst running from the law, jumped the gorge at this point, and made a clean getaway. I presume that the lawmen in those days were, like now, too full of calories to attempt the jump themselves. ;)
It's been turned into a nice attraction, with a steel walkway, with wheelchair access, and further features are being added, including no doubt, souvenir shops.
Here's a view up the valley from there, in the direction we were headed.
We climbed up through Valldall, heading for Trollstigen, and at about 900 metres above sea level we stopped at Stigerøra to get a few pictures back down the valley.
This is a beauty, and shows Honey the Honda nicely parked at the side of the road.
But, at this point the whole journey took a little twist. Shortly after this picture was taken I was alerted to the fact that steam was rising from Honey, and as I ran to see what was happening,. it was obvious to see that she had suffered some sort of bladder failure. She was peeing herself.
Poor old girl. I don't think I've ever felt so sorry for a car in my life.
A quick inspection revealed that a radiator hose had burst. OK, not surprising for a 20 year old car, but damned annoying since there is no mobile phone signal at Stigerøra.

The next part of this story, once I dig out the pictures, will be a little bit about Trollstigen (the Troll Road), a little bit about a person scared of heights, and a few nice pictures. There will be no mention of any underwear changes which might, or might not have been needed.

Yun's aa fir enoo.

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