Summary: 20 km, 729 m gain in warm, sunny weather (breeze and wind throughout the day).
8:30 am breakfast. It’s fascinating to have the unsupervised use of a stranger’s space and belongings, and to have their trust. We cooked our oatmeal, made some coffees in the fancy coffee machine, cleaned up after ourselves and left.
9:10 am start walking along the road
10:14 am Skaun church, made of stone, was built approximately 1180 “in a timeless Gothic style. The church is built with thick walls and runboga glass, and is also influenced by Romanesque style” (pilegrimsleden.no). A stone mason’s mark was found identical to one at Nidarosdomen which helped to date this church.
Across the street, Chin-Yu performed the Asian squat to take a photo of the “38 km to go” milestone. I tried to squat. I had a goal a couple of years ago to train myself to squat again. I seem to have forgotten about my training. Falling to my knees is far easier.
12 mins later, we saw a sign that indicates that Trondheim is 41 km away. The signs do not coincide, and consistently, my phone measures a few kms less than the green newer signs. I suppose this means that my summaries of km walked are lower than what we actually did. Ultimately, it’s not a big deal. We walked a long way, no matter the exact kms.
The grains that were green a month ago in the south, are blond now, here nearly 643 km north of them.
We passed through Husaby, where the ruins of a church built before the one at Skaun, was built in approximately 1040. It is believed that Einar Tambarskjelve’s castle or farm was also built here but there are no remnants other than those of the church he is said to have had constructed. Tambarskjelve was a rich landowner and politician who headed the “feudal lords in their opposition to Olaf Harraldsson,” the Olaf who later became a saint and for who the trail system we are using is named for.
“Sigrid Undset (1882-1949), who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1928, primarily for her powerful depictions of ‘the Nordic medieval life’” (sign at Husaby), invested time in this area to inform her trilogy about the character, Kristin Lavransdatter. Kransen (1920), Husfrue (1921) and Korset (1922), are translated and available in English too.
At 6km, we started on a forest trail. There were blueberries and cloudberries, though not all were ripe yet.
We came across some no-service zones (the first or one of the few of the whole trip) where we couldn’t access the maps at pilegrimsleden.no, so Chin-Yu accessed her guidebook. Chin-Yu carried her guidebook, which she also used as a journal and which contributed to the 8 kg weight of her bag. My bag, without food or water, and after sending two packages home, is 10.2 kg. I sent my guidebook home in my first package as I found it rather useless, only giving directions that I can find on the website. The website has more information and is easier to use and carry, but is not always available.
9km lunch spot with an outhouse in an open clearing. We watched a Tesla mysteriously drive by on the very rustic dirt road. After lunch, we noticed several cabins up the road, all which were granted access to by the dirt road. It worked during dry weather but I can’t imagine the cabins being easy to access in the rain.
11.5 km, we are back on a road
13.2 km, back on forest trail, where we catch our first glimpse of Trondheim in the distance!
At 13.6 km, we accessed the road that brought us through Buvika.
I started experiencing foot cramps. There were several steep down slopes that triggered my already fatigued lower body, in addition to the heat. We stopped for a mango popsicle and drink and that seemed to do the trick to revive the energy a bit. While there was a strong wind that blew off the fjord to help cool things down, the intensity of the heat made me grateful that we had some reprieve from it as well. I thought of places I’ve been that were without the ability to escape to the air conditioning inside the gas station where we bought our refreshments.
After a walk up yet another Norwegian road named Brattbaken (Steep Hill), and then another steep down-slope (this one had ropes to hold on to if you wanted), we walked through the campground where we were originally going to stay for the night. It was packed with semi clad, sun burned Norwegians fully soaking up the short summer. While I could feel that my body was ready to stop for the day, I was grateful to keep moving past the mass numbers and the noise.
At 19.6 km, the owner of Sundet Gård, where we stayed that night, came to pick us up and transport us across the Gaula (river) in a boat.
Ariel and Sture joined us at the farm and will walk with us tomorrow. It was so great to see them after over a month apart and I’m so touched and grateful that they wanted to participate in a small part of this adventure.
This was posted a few days following the actual events. I will post Day 32, our final walking day, tomorrow.
Stories from the Walk Home 