Ski and Paddle Norway 2009

Distance 16km | Time 4.5hrs | Ascent 220m | Descent 110m

There was no great hurry today. I had to walk the 16 km to Aseral to catch the post office. If there was one I guess it shut at 1700. So I had a late start enjoying the rustic cabin before I set off at 0930.

It was bitterly cold as I walked along the road with the barely up sun not penetrating the avenue of trees yet. The river was cascading over the odd waterfall and these were plastered with huge globules of ice.

I reached the sleepy hamlet of Kylland quite quickly. It was nestled in the spruce forest where fields had been cleared. While it was basking in the sun the bare birch trees were still thick with days of white haar frost.

Just beyond was a turning up to a ski centre. Judging by the number of cars returning from the New Year break with skis on the roof it bode well that there was snow in them hills.

Then I arrived at the lake, white and frozen to a depth of 10 cm. It stretched away to the north and at the far end basking in the sun was the village of Aseral. With the craggy pine covered slopes on each side it looked very picturesque.

It was a good hours walk beside the lake to the village. En route Erik, who was also doing the trip stopped. I met him on Day 1 also. He was in a car returning to Vigeland to start walking having dumped his sledge in Ljosland The trolley he was pulling his sledge on broke. He was a young happy good natured chap.

Aseral more than made up for the disappointment of Steindal. It had a shop with post office and a nice kro, or upmarket café. The very nice lady who ran the café had a small cabin on the forest fringe on the outskirts of the village. And she would let me stay for a song.

I walked to the cabin. It was idyllic but very cold. I soon got a fire going and lit some candles. Within an hour it was cosy.

I sorted my stuff out and ditched a good half kilo of rucksack irrelevance and my indoor shoes. Then I separated the kilo of maps into two piles one to keep and one to post to Finse, about 3 weeks ahead. Then I bundled all the laptop and accessories and headed off to the post office. I must have burnt or posted a good 4 kilos. Hopefully these 4 kilos would be the proverbial straw.

After posting I returned to the kro to gorge myself on fried meat before returning to the cabin. It was cold as I walked home, about minus 13. The cabin was warm and welcoming.

It had been another good day. The weather was crisp and cold, the views improving and to top the lot a night in a lovely log cabin. I retired early looking forward to my lighter rucksack for the last of the icy asphalt to Ljosland.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 7:14 pm and is filed under Update. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.