Olav's Way
Introduction
This is our website for sharing our experience of walking Olav's Way in Norway, in July/August 2006. It is in the main a narrative account of the trip, so if you are planning to do the walk you might decide not to read it as it may spoil the suprise! However we have also written a page about kit, for those thinking of undertaking the journey themselves, and another of useful tips and weblinks .
We are happy to answer any questions prospective pilgrims have about the walk, and we can also give an illustrated talk/lecture/workshop about pilgrimage in general and our pilgrimages in particular to interested groups. See our Pilgrim Workshops Pages , for more information on the talks and workshops we offer on the theme of Pilgrimage.
Overview
Olav's Way is an ancient route from Oslo in the south of Norway to Trondheim in the North. It was used in Medieval times as a pilgrimage route (Trondheim cathedral is the burial place of Saint Olav) and by Norwegian Kings who went to Trondheim to be crowned.
Pilgrimage was banned in Norway during the Reformation, but has been revived by enthusiasts, who lobbied to have Olav's way re-instated. Initially the route was waymarked in the 90s, leaving Oslo to the west, but was waymarked again following a northerly course closer to the ancient route a few years later. These two routes are both still in use, they meet up a little way into the journey. We followed the Northerly route, known as the Historical Route.
Our route started by going up and over the ridge above Oslo, then alongside lake Mjosa until it came to the centre of Norway where we crossed the watershed, passing over the wild Dovre Fjell, then descending followed the Oppdal valley to Trondheim. This path does not follow the old route exactly, having to avoid major roads, but does however follow the itinerary of the old route, and has much to recommend it both as a Pilgrimage and as a long distance walk. The route is 640 km long (around 400 miles).
Our Journey
We both feel that if you are undertaking a pilgrimage it is important to travel at a human speed and in a way that will not unduly damage the environment. With this in mind Kate and I travelled by train to Newcastle and then took the ferry to Stavanger. Check out Seat61 for information on surface travel around Europe.
It was a very windy crossing.
The ferry crossing was calm and sunny, though a bit breezy. We saw birds swimming in the sea far out, and then Norway emerged from the mist. We arrived in Stavanger in the afternoon.
A Spanish couple took our photo in the park. It was just like being on the Camino! It was Monday and so the museum was shut so we killed time in the station until the night train to Oslo came.
We had to wait a few hours for the train. The night train was very comfortable (railways are a wider guage in Norway so the seats are bigger) and the ticket was very cheap. They also gave you a blanket and ear plugs. It was busy with mostly Eastern Europeans and youngsters on military service, so we didn't get much sleep till the early hours when the stops get few and far between. If we did the trip again we'd definitely upgrade to a private sleeping compartment. However in the dawn light the landscape was terrific! Every cloud has a silver lining.
This photo was taken on the night train. Kate's eyes really are that colour, its the lack of sleep. Soon it was morning and we arrived in Oslo.
We had breakfast in the station and then headed off in search of the Pilgrim Office. This is manned by a friendly guy called Eivind Luthen.
Eivind is a great guy. He has more or less single handed designed the route and is largely responsible for the revival of pilgrimage in Norway. Luckily for us he had just refreshed the waymarking out of town. He also gave us a guide to overnight accommodation which was very useful, and a map which covered the first couple of days walking. Dropping in on him is ESSENTIAL before you start to get the latest news about the route and accommodation.
For a civilised country Norway is not well mapped, and what mapping there is is not well organised. Maps are available in different scales, none of which are hugley useful! The sketch maps in the guide book we used are not adequate either, we found that the best maps are in Eivindl's series of books on the pilgrimage, but these are not widely available even in Norway, and the text is in Norsk. If you can get hold of his books and cut the maps out of them it would help you a lot, in combination with the Cicerone guide book's English text.
The waymarking is patchy too, so getting lost is quite a frequent occurence. Eivind gave us some waymarks to put up when we thought it would help, and I would recommend kind hearted pilgrims carry a spool of red or yellow ribbon to add waymarks. When you have been lost and find your way back to the path its often no trouble to walk back 50 yards and add a waymark that would prevent the next pilgrim from making the same mistake.
After seeing Eivind we set off across town to the starting point, a ruined medieval hospital. We couldn't follow the route in the guide book (an ominous start) but found our way there somehow. It was about 11 o'clock on the 3rd day of our journey and we were about to start walking. Only 643 km to go... We hunted around until we saw the first yellow arrow, on the end of a footbridge. I can't tell you how welcome that was! In a strange new country finding the familiar yellow arrow we remembered so well from the Spanish Camino was like meeting an old friend! We felt like a pilgims again.
Eivind's new painted markings and the wooden posts that dot the whole length of the route made it easy to find our way out of Oslo, but the heat was tremendous and we weren't used to walking yet. We found it very hard going, the route constantly uphill and the sun baking. Kate especially became exhausted, she doesn't deal too well with extreme heat.
The wooden posts are quite obvious, but often aren't where you'd logically put them to show the way. They seem positioned more for the benefit of the locals who can say, 'Oh look, we live on a Pilgrim route'.
Kate was Bushed...
We found a bench just like the one by the firepit in our garden. Eventually after 7 or 8 hours walking we left the built up area and entered some forest. Eivind had told us we could find somewhere to camp here and we did, on a big flat rock, next to a burial mound. It was good to sleep somewhere horizontal that wasn't moving.
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