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.