Olav's Way Page 8.
We asked him how long he'd lived there, he told us his family had lived there for sixteen generations, since the 15th century, before that the farm had belonged to another family for two generations, but before that it had belonged to his family, going back he presumed to the migration period...
And that, we thought, is the difference between Norway and England. Only an aristocrat in England would have such a sense of his family history. The average Englishman was disposessed after the Norman conquest and we have been shoved about the country to suit the needs of our 'betters' ever since. In Norway it is common for the surnames on the post boxes to be the same as the name of the village, whereas few people know where they come from in England, the only clue as to where they belong being the street names on their ASBOs...
These beautiful sledges were laid up for the summer under the big Stabbur.
We had dinner and watched the clouds form over the valley.
The place had the stillness that comes with age, handmade furniture and natural materials, all weathered by time and use. Every chair and table a work of art.
We wouldn't have missed our stay for anything.
The next morning it was off up the steep mountainside, through juniper bushes.
There was an intense burst of 'Pilgrim Vibes' up on the hill. Someone had fixed a cockle (familiar symbol of the Santiago Pilgrimage) to a post. When you have walked the Camino the sight of a yellow arrow or a cockle when you are not expecting it gives a great sense of nostalgia and a sense of being at home. It might sound funny to some, but every pilgrim will know exactly what I mean.
We passed this old farm, abandoned for many years.
More pilgrim energy next to the old farm, signposts to each of the main pilgrim destinations. Reminded us of a similar signpost we saw near the Cruz de Fer in Spain.
Inside the old farmhouse there were still bottles and a biscuit box on the shelf. The floor didn't look safe enough to see if it still had biscuits in...Kate spent hours wondering how they got the stoves so high up such steep mountains...
The view from up here was quite astounding.
You find these old railway carriages in the most unlikely places.
As we came down off the mountain we passed this lovely caravan. By now dear reader you will have sussed all the weird things we are into by the photos we chose to take. Caravans and Pylons and Old Wooden Buildings, Housetrucks and Birchbark and Strange Pilgrim Thingies, Churches and Barrows, Megaliths and Kings, these are a few of our favourite things...
This life size 'Root over Rock' style bonsai tree was on the road to Kvam. A lady's dog followed us for miles down this road. For a long way she followed behind on foot trying to call it, and we kept trying to shoo it away, but it could sense we were on a Big Adventure and it wanted to come. Eventually she caught up with us in her car, bundled the dog in, apologised profusely in flawless English and drove away. We missed him for a while, I must confess we had contemplated taking him with us the rest of the way, he was very cute.
Late in the day we arrived at Kvam, the only truly ugly place we found in Norway. It's mostly a big timber mill. A lot of Norwegian towns have one ugly building, a sawmill or a grain silo, but Kvam was ugly to the core. We had a nasty burger in a nasty convenience store, found the ugly campsite (which was closed, but we camped there anyway) and went to bed.
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