June 30 – Slependen to Telemark

It had been a busy morning already when we got up today. Tonje, the daughter of Ragnhild and Anders, had left early in the morning for Italy with her soccer team for a week long tournament. As well, Ragnhild’s and Anders’ niece, Kristina, and her boyfriend, Martin, were up and getting ready for a mountain biking race in a neighbouring community. It was also raining very hard … muddy trails for sure!

Anders is now officially on holiday, so after everyone headed off in their various directions, we all got ready for our planned visit to the ‘Kullerud Hytte’ in Telemark. We headed out of the city in mixed weather, but as we drove further west, the weather settled a little bit. Anders drove us via Drammen, Hokkstad and then Konsberg, ‘King’s Hill’. The latter community is pretty with its raging rapids. It also had an intersesting history of silver mining. We stopped for lunch along the way by a pretty lake. It was memorable because in that particular location, wet from the rain and no wind, we ate as the gnats ate us! J

Our next stop was at Rjukan, where in 1911, an amazing power generating station was built in a very narrow valley with a large waterfall and deep gorge. The long term plan by Norsk Hydro included bringing much industry to this valley, starting first with the production of fertilizer. There were many people employed and living along this valley for many years.

Rjukan has another fascinating and inspiring part of its history in the time of the Second WW. At that time, the Germans occupied all of Norway and took over this power facility and began to make heavy water to ship back to Germany for their nuclear research. The allies trained many Norwegians who were working in the resistance and they eventually went back to the Rjukan area secretly. These men worked in extreme conditions to sabotage, first the power plant and ultimately the transportation system for the heavy water to prevent it being taken to Germany. Unfortunately, there ended up being a sacrifice of some of the local life in the sinking of a ferry so this history is very much honoured today. On the lighter side, we got to watch some bungee jumpers dropping off the edge of the suspension bridge that crosses the gorge to the old power plant.

From Rjukan, we headed past some popular downhill ski areas over to the Totak Lake area and the community of Vaa. All along, we were amazed to see each hillside farm with the same type of old wooden buildings as we had seen in the Folk Museum in Oslo at the beginning of our trip. They have a special beauty with their colour, carvings and designs.

Vaa is where the ‘Kullerud Hytte’ is located. To get to it, one goes up a steep zigzagging road through a mountainside farm overlooking the beautiful, steep sided Totak Lake. We had a fun-filled time right from the beginning as our door key broke off as we tried to open up!! To make a long story short, the lock-picking team of Anders/John were amazing. We were soon settled inside with a fire in the stove, feeling cozy and warm and very pleased with ourselves.

This hytte experience was equally as special as the Sandefjord one. The main part of this hytte is over 200 years old so it is made of wonderful log beams and walls. The doors into the sleeping rooms are typically small so we were warned to duck our heads when entering (some were more successful than others!). And the view from the front porch and the windows…it was awesome!

Ragnhild set to creating a delicious meal complete with wine and pears with vanilla sauce and shaved chocolate for dessert … pretty impressive for a hytte! Our evening walk after supper was to a wonderful lookout overlooking the lake near a neighbouring hytte where Anders once stayed as a young boy. It was fun to hear about some of his memories.

We actually looked at some of our Norway pictures before heading to bed and a good night’s sleep. What a privilege to be here with these good friends.