Tracklog and elevation, day 1
I decided to get away from the city for some days. Two-three or perhaps even more. Away from Oslo. Away from population, cars, public transport, noise, asphalt and everything. My backpack was stuffed with the most essential gear and then some more. A sleeping bag, my newly bought Hammock, a camping mattress, some clothes for colder evenings, food, cameras and a towel. Never leave home without your towel! It is Friday, the 29th of July. It is a quite hot day. Sunny and no mentions of rain for several days on the weather forecast.
I give the cats an additional large bowl of cat food, and a big bowl of fresh water. Make sure that someone will check on them while I am gone. I lock the door and go down to the subway station. The subway to Østerås is only 2 minutes away. Perfect! At Røa I notice it is thirty minutes to the next bus to Sørkedalen. No worries. The bench is occupied by an elderly woman, and I choose down on the pavement. The bright sun is irritating my eyes a bit. I find my sunglasses and some sunscreen. As I sit there on the ground, listening to Hoven Droven, a friend calls. I told her about my plans, and she says ” I hope you’ve got a tent.” I should not need a tent. My newly bought hammock should be more than sufficient – I hope. The hammock is a Hennesy Hammock Expedition Asym Zip, with both a snakeskin and a rainfly, which I got at Nomaden for a 20% discount! (Thank you!) And most of the stuff in the backpack is either waterproof or put inside waterproof stuff sacks.
Strange bug
I fear no rain. What I fear though, is that I will meet someone in the forest who has spent more than a week in the forest away from people and radio, who still are unaware of the tragic events that changed the whole nation. Should I meet such a person, it would be impolite not to mention the events, but the magnitude are so enormous that it is really hard to believe. Hopefully I will not meet such a person during my trip.
As I sit there, I try to figure out for how long I can stay in the forest. I have food for at least 5-6 days. I have walked the same route from Sørkedalen to Hønefoss in 20 hours, including sleep before, so I have no worries. This time though, I am going at a much slower pace. At 16:12 the bus arrives. The ride to Sandbråten is 16 minutes. As I sit on the bus, I notice something crawling on my hand. I see a small strange bug. After taking a few photos of it, I gently put it down on the seat next to me.
Sign
Mmmm! Raspberries!
The bus arrives at Sandbråtan. I get out and start walking. There is a sign which tells me it is 4 kilometres to Lysedammen and 11 to Oppkuven. I walk past the bridge at Heggelielva. On gravel roads surrounded by lovely grain fields. Lovely golden fields. Soon I get away from the farms and to the edge of the forest. I stop to eat raspberries. A lovely snack and energy boost. I see a woman picking berries and speaking on the phone. Picking a few more berries before I continue north.
After a while, I find a few chantarelles. I put them into my backpack rain cover – it will be a good snack later.
Grain field in Sørkedalen
Further into the forest I notice it is wet. Very wet. At one place, there is what seem to be a rather new stream. About three metres wide, 40-50 centimetres deep, and at the bottom I see fresh green grass. To deep for my boots. I change to my sandals, pull up my pants, and wade across. It probably saved me for a lot of time and from having to walk with soaked boots.
I walk past fields of blueberries. Tempting. Got to stop. Soon my hands are purple. Same with my tongue and mouth. It takes so much longer to walk in the forest when there are blueberries everywhere.
Nedre Lysedammen
Close to Nedre Lysedammen I see a cottage with an open window shutter. The window is smashed. The cottage seems abandoned and unused though. Minutes after I met a biker. He nodded and said “Hi”. This is the last person I see this day. Continuing down a cart road to Nedre Lysdammen to log a geocache. Hopefully. The hint says “The small baby spruce hide me”. I check all the spruces, small and large ones, but fail to find the cache. Under stones, inside a heap of dead trees laying on the ground. Give up for a few minutes, and takes some photos instead. The forces of the water pushing the metal plates at the dam are impressive. Check the last logs for this cache, notice someone saying that the hint is now cut down and is leaned towards the dam. That might be something. I see a small withered spruce laying on the south side of the dam. Check the cracks in the dam for smaller loose rocks. And there it is! A nice challenge.
Lysegrana
Hornet
The second cache I pick up is at Midre Lysedammen – a rather easy to spot cache hanging on a branch. The third and last cache for today is Lysegrana. One would have to be blind not to spot this spruce. It is nothing but massive, and it supposedly the one of the largest trees in all of Krokskogen.
I log the cache and walk back. Lysegrana was a 200 meter detour from my planned route. I walk past the cottage Smedmyrkoia, a cottage owned by the Norwegian Trekking Association. Shortly after I leave the boundary of Oslo county and enter Buskerud county. The GPS tells me there is another cache nearby, at Hornet. Actually on top of Hornet. Temping, but I am not going to try to get up there tonight. I will save it for some other time.
I continue further. Notice a flock of sheeps somewhere on the road. The elevation for the next three kilometres brings me about 200 metres further up. A sign in the middle of the forest tells me I am now entering Oppkuven-Smeddalen nature reserve.
Cloudberry
At a bog I notice some cloudberries. Nature’s finest luxury, small yellow ripe tasty berries. I eat quite a few as I walk over the bog, trying not to get wet. The forest is soaked today. It is getting noticeably darker. I manage to fumble and step into a wet spot. My right shoe quickly gets filled with bog water. And as I quickly try to reposition myself, my left shoe gets soaked too. Oh well. I am about 180 metres from Store Oppkuvvannn. With wet shoes and being this close to what might be a good camp site, I turn on the light on one of my mobile phones instead of getting the headlight from the backpack. I navigate in the dark while hold the phone in my mouth.
Cooking in the forest
I go off-trial the last metres to the water edge. In front of me what appears to be a perfect camp site appears. Dry terrain, benches and a small fireplace, next to the lake. I put up the hammock, throw in the camping mattress and sleeping back. Then boil some water and eat a late dinner called Rice in basil, and some dried apricots. At 23:55 I turn on the radio on my cell phone. Listen to the news at 24. Notice the hammock is somewhat unlevelled. Not the most ideal, but I am to tired to adjust it by now. I quickly fall asleep.
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- Backpack at Nedre Lysedammen
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- Bridge over Heggelielva
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- Self-portrait
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- Beautiful bog
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- Chantarelles
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- Cart road
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- Geocache at Midtre Lysedammen
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- Lysegrana
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- Boots
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- Smedmyrkoia
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- Dripping water
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- Flock of sheep
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- Oppkuven-Smeddalen nature reserve
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- A woodpecker’s dinner table
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- Oppkuven-Smeddalen nature reserve
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- Sunset in Krokskogen
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- Moths on my shirt
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- Knee deep in a stream
The last days have been unbelievable. I have expected some kind of attack to happen sometime in Oslo. Not particularly because of extremists, operations in Afghanistan, immigration et cetera – but just the simple fact that it seems to happen everywhere else. Some weeks ago, when serious of loud explosions could be heard all over the city centre. I quickly pulled up a TV, plugged in the cables and turned it on. Waited. Waited a minute more. Shortly after people said on IRC that it was fireworks at the Opera. Most certainly very loud fireworks though.
Yet that was nothing compared to the roaring explosion and tremble on Friday the 22nd of July. Earlier that day, I had been at an office, discussing plans for an Asylum March, a cooperative project between a group of Iranian and Ethiopian refugees which originated from Refugees Without Protection. There was lots of last minute preparations to be done, and the march was scheduled to start from the Parliament at 11 AM the following day.
PolarCamp 2011
After the meeting there, I went to another office to finish the making of a large flag. Me and friends from Polar Interesseorganisasjon had planned to go to a cabin this weekend, and we were in need of a flag, to continue our yearly tradition of making a new flag. Earlier I had sewn a large blue flag and painted it with a United Nation look-a-like emblem, where the Earth in the centre was replaced by a logo resembling the planet Saturn. This day I just had to iron the whole thing to make the paint permanent. After finishing up the flag, I went to the city centre to check a couple of stores. While I was in the first store, I suddenly noticed that it was getting noticeably darker outside, it looked like stormy weather was incoming. Finishing up my business in the first store, I quickly headed to Stormberg‘s outlet, where I bought a yellow southwester. The last store on my list was the state owned liquor store at the central station. Three bottles of wine and I was finished there. According to the receipt, I left that store at 14:27. I had planned to use one of those city bikes to get home, but due to the weather I chose to get home quickly by subway.
Few minutes later, I was home, and started packing for a weekend trip. I had to add some cord to the flag and sew one more seam. As I was sitting at my living room table, sewing the last seam on the flag, I heard a roaring explosion and could feel a strange tremble. I jumped up from the sofa and ran towards the window, but I could not see anything from my viewpoint. It was all followed by a uncomfortable silence. I turned on the TV and started refreshing the front pages of the newspapers to check for updates. A minute later a friend called. She was in a building in the city centre, which we later learned was about 200 metres from the explosion. The state owned TV station was still airing some German crime show, but the online newspapers reported that there had been a large explosion in the area where the Norwegian Government have their offices. At that time I hoped that it was some sort of accident, e.g. a gas explosion of some sort.
Photo from TV2
Photos soon followed, and I remember one of them showing a governmental building totally destroyed. The building was still standing, but it looked like every single window was shattered, large parts of the building structure destroyed and debris everywhere. I then realised that this was most likely not some accident. I called a few friends and told them to get away from the city centre, and avoid the subway at any costs. One friend was out of town, and when I told her that there had been an explosion and the government quarter in Oslo was totally destroyed, her response was “What are you saying?” – I think I had to repeat it a couple of times before she understood what I was saying, and even then she did not seem to realize until she went online to check the photos.
I was thinking it was a good thing that I was going out of town anyway that day. A friend called and said we should try to get away quickly, in case of heavy traffic and road blocks. I had cup cakes in the oven. I still had to pack some gear. In case of another explosion, I quickly put up large strips of duct tape on all the windows, to (hopefully) add some inertia if the window was shattered. I continued alternating between browsing online news, phone calls, packing my backpack, checking on the cup cakes and just trying to focus. A series of questions rushed through my head: “Has this really happened?” “Who did this?” “Will there be more explosions?”
After I had finished packing, I was picked up by friends, and we started driving towards Vestfold. While driving, we listened to the radio, and heard about the attacks on Utøya. It all seemed like a bad joke.
When we got to our destination, everyone was watching TV, trying to get updates on the situation. Media reported of at least 10 people shot and killed on Utøya, though footage showed different. What was planned to be a happy weekend trip to a cottage had turned into something very serious. Several of us knew people present at Utøya. It was hard to sleep that night. Somewhat after 4 AM I woke up, hearing someone saying to another person that the death toll was now over 80. Unbelievable. Was this something I heard in a dream? I immediately fetched my phone and checked the news. The numbers were there.
Ethiopian dinner
On Sunday, after I got home, I was invited to eat at an Ethiopian restaurant. The food was lovely. Rye pancakes, some mashed beans and a really hot salad. I am so grateful for getting this invitation. We spoke about the attacks, about the future and everything. Later I took a walk in the city centre. Several blocks were sealed off and guarded by The King’s Guard. Soldiers in the streets of Oslo, wearing full army outfit, with assault rifles and everything. Many of them seemed anxious. Many had a finger resting a centimetre away from the trigger. What had become of the town I live in? It was a scary sight.
Soldiers outside McDonalds
Soldiers from The King's Guard
Soldiers from The King's Guard
Soldiers from The King's Guard
But armed soldiers was not the only newly introduced thing to the cityscape. There were flowers scattered around the city, and in front of the Oslo Cathedral there was a huge sea of floral tributes to the victims. And by huge, I mean really huge. Thousands of flowers and candles.
Love
Pressure bandage wrapping
In the Krist Park at Hammersborg I saw the wrapping of a pressure bandage laying on the ground. A silent testimonial of one human helping another.
Already late on Friday evening King Harald addressed the people. It was a clearly perplexed and affected king who spoke to the people. The following day King Harald and the royal family, along with Prime minister Stoltenberg and his wife Ingrid visited survivors and their next of kin at Sundvollen. The visit was followed by a speech from King Harald, where he addressed the whole nation. I general terms I dislike royalism, yet in times like these, it seems very nice to have an open-minded, loving and caring King to aid the nation through difficult times. I have been moved to tears several times. The same can be said for the Prime minister. The last days, he has shown true leadership.
The Prime minister Jens Stoltenberg addressed the nation late Friday evening: “No one shall bomb us to silence. No one shall shoot us to silence. No one shall ever scare us from being Norway.” “We must never give up our values. To show that our open society will pass this trial. That the answer to violence is even more democracy. Even more humanity.”
In my opinion this is the only appropriate answer. If we answer this tragic event with hatred, lynch law and vindictiveness, we will already have lost. Not only to the terrorist, but to humanity as well. On Facebook people have made groups. Victims of the attacks have gotten support groups. Thousands of people have addressed a mother and a family who no longer will have the same view of their son and brother, to show their support. Even the lawyer whose job is to defend the terrorist has been shown massive support. The Royal Family, the government, people all over the country, everyone is taking part in the mourning process and rebuilding of hope. What people now are showing is a sign of a healthy, well-established democratic society.
OsLove
And more even more humanity and compassion have been the result so far. On Monday the 25th, there was planned a “rose march” from the City Hall to Youngstorvet, but due to the amount of people attending, it was impossible to march in the streets. Over 200 000 people attended in this memorial event. It has been the largest gathering in Norway since WW2. Two hundred thousand people raised their hands. Not with their hands clenched to a fist, but rather gently presenting flowers. A symbol of unity, dignity and solidarity – in respect of the victims and ourselves.
Similar events took place in all over the country. Shopping centres and stores closed early. Stores were emptied of flowers. Several hundred thousand, perhaps millions gathered in the streets at the same time.
The last few days there has been so many lovely things being done and said. One woman said: “If one man can could show so much hate, imagine how much love we can show together.”
After the event on Monday, the city was full of flowers. The sea of flowers at Oslo Cathedral was huge on Sunday, but after Monday, it was several times larger – and it is still growing. NRK has sent a live stream 24/7, and people have laid down flowers at all times. But there was a request presented at the memorial Monday evening: “Speak with each other and put the flowers everywhere, so we will colour Oslo with goodness and love.” And the people did. Police cars, ambulances, manhole covers, trams, fountains, French fences – the whole city is currently full of flowers.
Cheburashka
Rose in a rain gutter
A girl putting down roses
Yesterday media came up with a new word, which can be translated to “rose-locked“. A tram was stuck close to Oslo Cathedral, as the streets were full of people and flowers. The tram conductor changed the sign to “not in service” and stepped out. It is nice to finally see one of these new “media-words” which is not distasteful.
Despite the tragic events last week, life continues. An event like this will naturally have consequences for the whole nation. But the nation’s response has not been fear, hatred and vindictiveness. To the contrary, the nation has refused to let the attacks ruin the openness and the humbleness in society, and rather responded with love. Life continues, but strangers are now hugging each other in the streets.
I hope this change will be permanent. I hope the people of Norway, and all visitors, foreign state officials, tourists and everyone will continue to decorate the cities with flowers. Everywhere. I hope people will be even more humble and care even more for each other. I hope we, in respect of the fallen, the survivors, their relatives and ourselves, can move towards an even more tolerant, warmer and including society.
I believe this is possible.
Oversiktsvideo over fakkeltoget 25. juli 2011 – tatt fra toppen av Tønsberg rådhus
Magnus Eliassen og Kråkesølv «Til dem du e glad i»
Kriss K – Tusen Tårer (Akustisk Versjon) Minnesang for Norge
Further reading:
‘Tonight the streets are filled with love’: Royal family and prime minister lead the nation in mourning as crowd of 150,000 gather in Oslo for ‘rose march’ tribute to Norway’s dead
Norway’s lost innocence
Aug 15
Wroclaw, Poland
After getting some more gasoline on the car, we again started driving towards Wroclaw in Poland. I could have closed my eyes and still known for sure when we passed the border between Germany and Poland. Road quality is not comparable at all. All the way from the border to Wroclaw it was a really bumpy ride, as opposed to flat, smooth roads in Germany. We took a random detour off the highway, to take a little rest. We ended up in some rural area and found a road that lead into a forest. Warm weather and the smell of the forest. It was lovely. I worked a bit more on the car stereo, but there is still some issues to be solved. Harald did nature a favour and picked up some trash in the forest.
After some rest and a little food, we started searching for a ramp to get back on the highway. We followed the friendly voice of Nora, but we ended up in a construction area, where the road to the highway was temporarily closed. Ignoring the GPS for a little while, we drove through rural landscapes, and finally found an entry point to the highway. We decided get a little more gasoline, so we pulled over at a gas station. Some 22 liters later, and 120 zloty less on the budget, and 25 euro cents more for a visit to the toilet, we continued our journey towards Wroclaw.
We had no problems getting around in Wraclow, and the engine was still running. Wraclow looked like an amazing city. Under most of the bridges, there are beautiful graffiti pieces, and they have changed the looks of the old concrete buildings into something really nice. We drove to Harald’s friend in Wroclaw and drank some beer on his balcony. His friends lives in a charming old building from 1932, with a lovely backyards with plum trees. A really quiet and lovely place.
After this visit, we went to another friend of Harald, a few minute’s walk away. There we drank some tequila flavoured Polish beer on the roof terrace. The view was amazing. Old architecture, quiet gardens, and the terrace was full of all kinds of green plants. I would not mind living in a place like that. Too bad there is no access to the roof where I live in Oslo.
A bit later, another friend of Harald came and picked us up. We drove to some place in Wraclow, where there was some art project outside. It was literary a rusty old locomotive and railways emerging from the ground and aiming straight for the sky. The project was completely finished, but it was still an amazing view. We then went to find a parking place, and went into the back yard of a synagogue. There was a restaurant there – not the most quiet one, and a little too many tourists for my taste, but it was OK. There was a ceremony in the synagogue, and one of the side doors were open, so the whole backyard was filled with music and song from the synagogue.
When we left the back yard of the synagogue, I noticed that the walls were black. I was told that it was due to Germans putting the whole place on fire and the ash on the walls had been left there.
After a beer and a little car trip in Wraclow, we were back at the first of Harald’s friends. He made us a lovely dinner with potatoes, beans and some scrambled eggs with tomatoes. So much more healthy than yesterday’s late night dinner in Berlin.
This is my first day in Poland, and I do not understand anything of the language. Yet it seems to be quite OK and I am really looking forward for tomorrow’s journey to Auschwitz and Krakow.
Aug 15
Solutions are incoming!
Harald just called and said he now have 10 liters of gasoline. He was some 30 kilometers away from me, and that it was a bit hard to get a ride from the gas station but he will keep on trying. Not sure if he is in front or me or behind me. With this Autobahn thing, I do not think it is safe to cross it at any circumstances, so I hope he solve it in a safe manner. About 75 minutes since we stopped. Faster than expected, and I guess I will still be able to see Wroclaw in daylight.
A thought just occurred in my mind. We are driving an ambulance. I wonder how many people who have already died in this vehicle. Probably a few, yet the car is in good condition. What were the causes? What were their stories? Did they live a happy life before the trauma? I guess we will never find out.
Aug 15
Stuck on Autobahn!
Yesterday we planned to sleep at Harald’s friend in Moabit in Berlin, but she was not home at the time, so we ended up sleeping in the car. Driving an ambulance is kind of awesome. There are so many buttons and switches to play with, even with all the medical equipment and emergency lights removed. And one of the seats in the back and be folded back to 120 degrees – a perfect sleeping place.
Harald put a bag between the two front seats and laid down to sleep there. I pulled out my sleeping bag and laid down to sleep on the seat in the back of the car. I had a good night’s sleep.
Today I woke up at five minutes to six. After a quick session of filming in Moabit, we aimed for Wroclaw, Poland. Exiting Berlin went smooth and easy – Harald seems to have become friends with Nora already, and no longer need my help for map reading and directions. When we drove on to the Autobahn, we noticed that there was very little traffic. Not a big surprise, being an early Sunday morning.
According to our friendly GPS, we were to arrive at Wroclaw at fifteen minutes past ten unless we had any stops for breakfast and refilling of gasoline. Harald also said he should buy a jerry can to have some spare gasoline stored in the car, just in case. A very light rain shower, quiet morning and everything seemed all right..
…until…. Just a couple of minutes after Harald mentioned the plans of buying a spare can of gasoline, things went wrong. Mentioning that seemed to jinx our smooth ride out of Germany today. Suddenly the engine stopped, and we were out of gasoline. The gasoline meter on the car is non-functional, but according to Harald’s measures, it should last a little further. But it did not. So we managed to pull safely over to the side of the Autobahn and put on the emergency lights.
Harald put the emergency marker behind the car, and we started checking the GPS. Nearest gas station is 8 kilometers away from here. That is some good 90 minutes of walking in a fast phase, and that’s only one way. Harald raised his thumb – the lovely international symbol for hitch hikers – and got a ride in just over two minutes. The drivers was working today, so he kindly refused to drive all the 8 kilometers to the gas station, but agreed to take him to the nearest exit from the Autobahn, so Harald could continue waving his thumb from there. I added the spot of the vehicle as a favorite on the GPS, and gave the GPS to Harald so he could navigate back.
Sitting in a vehicle on the Autobahn, with not much to see and not much to do, I started eating breakfast. Some lovely rye bread and cream cheese, and slightly luke warm milk. Sitting in a stranded vehicle on the Autobahn is a bit scary, I can feel the car shaking due to air pressure as every car passes by. But the car is parked on a leveled surface, visible from a long distance, so I do not expect more trouble yet.
Yesterday at Cafe-Cox, we spoke a bit about how the problems with the heating system was solved in such awesome manners yesterday, with the Serbian Romas. Harald said he thought we were just gonna cruise in to Poland with no more trouble, but mentioned Moore’s law – if it can go wrong, it will. I thought that more problems could be interesting since you never know how you will solve them before you find the solution. Though I would have wished we had something slightly less of a challenge than ending up with no gasoline on the Autobahn 8 kilometers away from the nearest gas station.
Still, I find this trip quite pleasant. Always keeping in mind the gently words written on the front cover of The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy: DON’T PANIC!
