Walking the Gudbrandsdalsleden from Oslo to Nidaros

[dougfitz]

It is now 10 days since I started walking the St Olav Way in Oslo. With the help of my daughter, I am trying to keep my blog entries up to date. You can find them at the link in my tagline below.

So far it has been such a completely different experience to the Camino Frances; sometimes in ways I had expected, and at other times in ways that I didn't.

It has been a lonely journey, but I had expected that. I knew there was another pilgrim a couple of days ahead of me from hyttelog entries, and a couple more two days ahead of her. I have caught up with her, but she was only planning to walk to Lillehammer this year, and if I hadn't (stupidly) put in a long day, our paths might never have crossed.
In the meantime I passed another pilgrim camping by a mountain lake. We continued to see each other for three days, but I last saw him in Hamar a few days ago.

I have found one can expect to have limited contact with others after walking in most places, whether it is a herberge, B&B, hostel or hotel. I had been so used to this that it was a complete shock at Veldre when a member of the local kirke came by to make sure that I had everything that I needed.

It has been physically demanding, more in the magnitude of the accumulated ascent and descent than the fact that this climbing would be required. In addition, there is a wider variety of track to negotiate than I had expected - if it could be called track! In some places it follows the edges of ploughed fields, and in another it cut straight across. In that case, I had stopped and put gaiters on as it had rained the previous night and all the grass was still wet. The crop quickly went from calf to thigh high, and I was drenched from the waist down.

What one does get is a wonderful walk and the chance to stay in some quite different and delightful places. So far I have stayed in a stabburet - a traditional storehouse on a gard (farm), in a now abandoned mountain holiday centre, in a beautiful holiday cottage on the shores of Lake Mjosa, and a retreat centre that keeps a bed spare for pilgrims.

And as you would expect, the way passes by every kirke in sight (almost) and a lot of historically or archeologically significant places.

If all goes broadly to plan, I will spend the next 10 days walking up the Gudbrandsdal to the town of Dovre, take a break and then head across the Dovrefjell and into Trondheim in the final 10 days.

Regards

 

[dougfitz]

Update: Walking day 20 and I am now at Hjerkinn.
Walking the Gudbrandsdal (roughly, Gudbrands Valley) took eight days, and I took a rest day at Budsjord gard, where pilgrims have been hosted for centuries. Slept one night in the former bakery, one of the more modern buildings, and the other in the stables, which had originally been build to shelter travellers.
Now two days into the Dovrefjell mountains, and they have both been full of natural, cultural and geological wonders - too many to do justice to on a pilgrimage.
Being Australian is sometimes commented on, but lovingkindness' pilgrimage is remembered and even though not the first from the antipodes, she is certainly the best known.