Day 4: Gardermeon to Haug Pilgrim Hostel

If this post appears without photos please accept my apologies.  I’m sitting outside in the bright sunshine and can barely see the screen.  I suppose I could use that, and my fat fingers as an excuse a reason for all the typos.  

Apparently it is high school graduation season.  The celebrations of which involve driving around the town, playing loud music and congregating at the 24hr McDonalds that happens to be about 50m from my bedroom window.  The party kept up all night, and the hardy survivors were demolishing their McBreakfast when I left the hotel at around 7am.  I’d made myself a pack lunch or two as, after tonight, there are no shops for a couple of days.  The breakfast buffet had whole avocados available, I’m just hoping the one I picked up ripens before I have to fly home.  I also made up a snack cup, filling a take away cup with seeds and raisins, before sealing it with KT tape.  

The first 10 or so k of today’s walk was mainly on roads or well maintained tracks.  It was gently undulating, an easy, relaxing time.  My walking poles were only used as my secret defence against oncoming vehicles.  I am convinced that vehicles give me more space if the poles are in the hand nearest tth.  At one point I passed a memorial to a young man who was executed by the Nazis during the occupation, and was very aware that, in the woods nearby, hundreds of Norwegian men had been murdered by the occupiers.  

At about 19k I stopped for coffee near Eidsvoll Mansion where the constitution of Norway was signed in 1814.  Lovely little cafe attached to a visitor centre.  As I walked in the waitress asked if I was a pilgrim.  I always feel a little self conscious as, for many, this is a serious religious undertaking, whereas I’m just here to get ouf chores that need doing at home.  Anyway, I said yes, and she said that meant I could have a free hot drink!  Yay!

After that there was a lovely section along the riverside, lots of information about the paper, iron and tile industries that flourished in the past were displayed.  Then the terrain changed! I could barely see the path! In the fields the crops were waist high and in the woods the nettles and brake  threatened to take me prisoner.  

 Eidsvol is a small town that seems to span three time zones!  I passed my first ‘welcome to Eidsvol’ type sign well before I stopped for coffee and the hostel I’m staying in is just on the outskirts of the town.

I was a little nervous about tonight’s accommodation.  I thought I was booked in the ‘main house’ but my reservation had been changed to ‘the greenhouse.’  The reason being is, I assume that there is only one bed in the greenhouse house and two bunks in the house and there are two Norwegian girls staying there.  In the ‘annex’ there is a couple from Australia.  I’d had a message from the lady from Oz via Facebook discussing issues with booking, and when I walked in here today she said ‘Are you Toria?’  So, on day 4, I finally meet some other pilgrims.  

Day 3: Fjellheim Gard to Gardermeon

Three days to get back to the airport! Three days!  And I’ll tell you a secret, I wondered early on today if I would make it at all.  After a great sleep (I woke up with a body battery at 100 for the first time in months), I swept the upstairs of my little cabin, took out the rubbish and set the robot vacuum cleaner to work.  What a brilliant invention! It swept, washed and dried the floor all by itself.  I closed the door, said goodbye to the horses and rejoined the trail.

It took me 30 minutes to cover the first 1.4km! I didn’t mind stopping for the moose and calf that ran across the path about 5m in front of me - they were huge!  And I added several new bird species to my Merlin ‘life list’ but the going was TOUGH.  Up and down steep rocky sections, boggy bits and paths so narrow and overgrown I wasn’t sure they actually were paths. It was great fun, but slow going.   No confidently striding out, with my hat at a jaunty angle.  Every step was carefully considered.  A thought did flit through my mind about what would happen if I fell and broke something, but I thought it best to ignore that one!

I took a short diversion off the path to see St Olav’s Gang.  This is the cleft in the rock where St Olav’s ship, that could sail through air and water (obviously- what use is a ship that only sails through one medium?) was made.  

After a ‘tricky’ couple of miles the path got more straightforward, paths through woodland, farmland and tiny villages.  I stopped for breakfast at a convenient picnic table before carrying on.  Ullensaker Church dominated the landscape.  It was visible for miles around, and when the bells began to ring at 10.30am I heard them from about 5km away.

Lunch was a sandwich and coffee in Jessheim, a pretty little town with a good selection of shops and restaurants.  I had a WhatsApp conversation with my older daughter while eating, I told her I felt like a student as I am constantly choosing the cheapest option from the menu.  That said the sandwich was delicious.

From there is was only about 8km to today’s destination.  I passed a small lake, on the opposite side of the path was an ancient burial mound.  I couldn’t help wondering whether, if it was possible to fold that bit of land in half along the path, the mound would fill the lake.  I tell you, the sun must have been getting to me.

A little later, after more fields and farms, I looked at the map and clocked that I needed to go round a lake, so keeping the lake to my left was the plan.  That was great, but on the ‘phone screen I didn’t spot the narrow bit of land between two lakes and suddenly realised I had water on both sides of me.  Still, who doesn’t love a walk by a lake (or two)?  

I’m at an airport hotel tonight.  Which is exactly how one would imagine it to be!  I’ll be sure to make myself a packed lunch when I go to breakfast in the morning as I have my longest day so far tomorrow.

Day 2: Olavsgaard to Fjellheim Gard

The Sun is shinning and my wet clothes have dried out, all is right with the world.  A hearty hotel breakfast set me up for the day.  I followed the lead of the locals and made my self a packed lunch.  This was always my intention but I thought I would have to be quite discreet.  No one else had such qualms, plonking their Tupperware sandwich boxes on the serving counter and making mountains of sandwiches to take with them.  I contented myself with a cheese roll and a banana!

The hotel was about a mile from the trail, as I set out I spotted a couple of e-scooters near an underpass and considered hiring one to get me back on track.  Then I remembered how useless I am on wheeled things that require balance and decided that the ignominy of having to come home because I’d fallen off a scooter was too much of a risk to take. 

Today’s walk was a combination of fields, forests and small towns.  The fields and forests would have been a nightmare in yesterday’s downpours and the hilly bits were still a bit challenging today.  It was a fun walk, and I was grateful for my walking poles on several occasions when the ground beneath me proved unreliable.  

The scenery is stunning. So many vivid greens, punctuated with red and white buildings and churches that have been silhouetted against the sky. 

I wrote to a friend yesterday that I hadn’t had a conversation all day, given my failure to learn any useful Norwegian that is hardly surprising. I can recognise the sign for a dentist’s office (thanks Duolingo) but I’m hoping I won’t need one.  Today I stopped for coffee and had a chat with the waiter but I am mainly on my own.  A guest book at Frogner shows how uncrowded this trail is.  Just three people yesterday! And none for a couple of days before that.

Towards the end of today’s walk my phone started making a hell of a racket.  At first I thought it was an alarm in a nearby building.  I looked and saw this screen:

I’m grateful for Google translate for helping me work out what was going on! And for a bit of shade so that I could read the screen. Today was a relatively short day, only about 18km.  Accommodation is not as easy to find as on the Spanish Caminos so that dictates the length of my ‘working day.’  Today was a short one, which means I arrived at my destination just after noon.  It is a working farm, and it appears everyone is off working.  I’ve emailed my host and a happily sitting in the sunshine, eating my lunch and enjoying the view. We are in the middle of nowhere, which is ideal as I don’t feel compelled to rush around and do anything!

Lunch view

Day 1: Oslo to Olavsgaard

My previous adventures always seemed to involve  me leaving before dawn.  I doubt that will happen this trip! There will be no sunrise photographs, nor would I hold up much hope for any sunset ones either.  

I left Oslo at about 7.30am, having taken a photo by the kilometre marker at the site of St Halvard’s Cathedral.  The eagle eyed among you will spot that I am wearing a waterproof jacket. I hate waterproof jackets so you’d be correct that to draw the conclusion that the rain was ‘persistent!’ 

The route was not too tricky to find, an advantage of leaving in daylight, and I easily identified the point where the route split into the East and West routes and picked the correct one.  For a long time it was a pretty uninspiring walk.  I was comparing it with walking out of London via the Purley Way and then turned a corner to see Ikea!  On the official pilgrim map Ikea is listed a a possible restaurant stop.  Can you imaging the extra miles that would be involved in finding the meatballs?  And you’d end up having to find space in your back pack for the inevitable pack of tea lights you’d have managed to buy.

I stopped at a couple of churches along the way, mainly because I was intrigued by the idea of the stamps being in a lock box that could be opened with a code that had been shared in a Facebook.  It worked.  Although, given the weather, I’d much rather have been able to duck into a nice dry church.  

In homage to the Purley Way vibe of this part of the morning and because there was little other choice, I stopped at a petrol station for ‘breakfast.’  An indifferent black coffee and a cereal bar from my stash. Tomorrow I will have breakfast before I leave.

Suddenly, about 11km into the walk, I was on rocky trails surrounded by trees.  The walking was far more challenging, smooth rocks are slippery in the rain, but it was much more rewarding.  I came face to face with a roe deer.  

The weather took a turn for the worse.  The rain was torrential but I knew that the end, for today, was near.  It is a bit of a soulless, chain hotel as the nearby hostel seems to be closed this year.  On the plus side, I have a nice warm room with a lovely power shower.  Hopefully my stuff will be dry by the morning.

Hello darkness my old friend!

These really long days are weird!  According to my clever app, dusk is after midnight and dawn is before 2.30am.  I can’t quite ever be sure what time it is.  It is 5.30pm right now, but if I didn’t look at my watch I’d think it was more like 2.30pm because of the light.  Anyway, I’ve caved in and bought an eye mask in the hope of not waking up several times a night convinced it is time to get up! 

Today has been a lazy-ish day.  I made my way up to the Pilgrim Centre at the start of the trail.  I got my pilgrim passport stamp and worked out what direction I would need to set off in.  I’ll probably get a bus to the start in the morning rather than walking a mile and a half in the opposite direction just to get to the start.  

After that I played tourist. I’ll be honest and admit that I’d done very little research about Oslo and forgotten that Mumch was a long time resident, so it was a pleasant surprise to find the excellent Munch museum on my doorstep.  On my way there I found the Oslo Opera House - an amazing building where you can walk up onto the roof.  It was charming to walk past, and peep into, the windows of the costume, hair and make up departments.  

After lunch I continued my meandering, taking in the Nobel Peace Centre and the Arkershus Fortress.  My military ID got me free entry to the Resistance Museum.

I’m excited to get started tomorrow.  I think it will take me about two and a half days to walk back to where the path, sort of, draws level with the airport.  The train in last night took 20min!  

Almost at the start.

After a fun few days in Finland with friends, which included a cheeky half marathon in Helsinki yesterday morning, I made my way to Oslo.  

If I’m honest I cannot remember what planted the seed of inspiration for this jaunt.  I suspect someone sent me a link about it after reading about my Spanish Caminos.  I spent a while trying to work out how I could free up enough time in June and July to take on this trip.  At one point it seemed impossible to put rearrange everything but, as Husbando pointed out, we have no idea what lies in the future and we need to take our chances when we can.  Either that or he’s fed up of having me at home so much!  

So, what am I doing?  I’m walking the Gudbrandsdalsleden, which is one several pilgrims’ paths in Norway.  This one goes from Oslo to Trondheim.  My bag is packed.  I’m sure that I am going to get used to full daylight when I want to sleep at night.  Tomorrow is an admin day.  I will spend it visiting the Pilgrim Office here in Oslo, working out where the route starts and doing some tourist stuff.  

It would be lovely if you joined me for the journey!

Camino Inglés day 5: Sigueiro to Santiago de Compostela

 On the Camino Inglés I have not met anyone from England (or Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland).  Most of the pilgrims I have met have been Spanish and my ability to communicate in Spanish is still limited to ordering beer, asking where the loos are and asking for directions.  Most of the time I can’t understand the reply but I think I am now able to follow what is being said I little more easily.  But free flowing conversation has been a little lacking over the last few days.  It was a joy therefore to discover that Courtney was in the same dorm as me. 

We went out for a beer, which quickly became three beers, or in my case two beers and a gin and tonic, all served with delicious tapas and a salad each.  It was fascinating to learn about her work in Algiers and her plans to move to Poland. A very pleasant evening! And we were tucked up in bed by 8.30pm.  

It seems that I maligned our Spanish dorm mates yesterday.  They left for dinner just before 9pm, promising us that they would be as quiet as possible on their return.  They were as good as their word!  I hope we didn’t walk them this morning.

I didn’t sleep well.  I was awake from about 4am.  I considered just getting up and going but, with only 16km to go, if I left then it would still be dark when I arrived.  And nowhere would be open for coffee.  I eventually got up and left just before

It was a mainly flat, mostly road walk.  I saw my best sunrise of the whole trip but I was mostly focused on getting to the end.  By the time I found an open cafe/bar I was only 5km from the cathedral so I decided not to stop.  I arrived before 9am and before the Pilgrims’ Office opened. The Plaza do Obradoiro was almost completely deserted and after the obligatory selfie in front of the cathedral I went to wait for my compostela and mileage certificates. 

So, that’s another Camino in the bag. The Camino Inglés is an odd one.  I didn’t love it, and it it’s s not one that I would do again. And I’d think twice before suggesting it to other people.  I guess, if you’d not walked any other route it would be perfectly lovely but it lacks the awe inspiring views and leg challenging climbs of the Primitivo and  the beauty, variety and the camaraderie of the Frances.  For me there was just too much time spent walking on, or right next to, roads.  If you are considering the Inglés I would suggest going with a friend.  You don’t have to walk with them, but on such a short Camino you are not guaranteed to meet kindred spirits and it is nice to have someone to chat to in the evening.  Sharing a private room often costs the same as )or a couple of euros more than) two bunks in a shared dorm. 

Home now beckons.  A cup of tea sounds quite wonderful. Looking forward to seeing what comes next.  I  will spend some time helping my oldest set up his new shop, I’ve got my middle child’s graduation to attend - life with five children  (even if they are all grown up)  is never boring!  I do now that I will be back in Spain  thou walk another Camino soon.