To the left of the picture is a frozen lake, which has friendly, rolling cross-country ski runs all marked out for novices such as me and the 2 year old down the road.
The scenery is beautiful. shame it had to be marred by viewing it from the lowest possible angle - ground! You can take it as read that I am not a natural skiier, in much the same way as I am not a natural ice skater, roller skater, bike rider or other '-er' which involves balance!
This is the fourth time in my life I have tried cross country skiing (although the first time was a good 20 years or so ago and was a complete disaster). Last year we did 2 days worth, and this year is the first time. I suppose in that respect I should be quite proud of myself as I only fell over three times, but we were only out for an hour and a half, so it's not as though I have spent time practising my technique.
Trevor didn't fall once. He did have a problem though keeping in the grooves made for your skis by the run-basher, as he negotiated the bends on the hills. He managed to get up quite a momentum and found it difficult to turn the skis and follow the curve. Hopping out of the track and continuing straight ahead can be unhealthy depending on your speed and number of bushes that are out to get you! But he controlled the hop very well! He has much better balance than I do, and is prepared to go faster!
I find the whole concept of balancing on two slim pieces of wood that are as tall as I am completely alien. My legs just do not work properly with these things strapped to my feet! Any hint of a downward slope and my body freezes and slams the brakes on, which means I fall over.
Getting up from the fall is even worse. I feel like Bambi on ice with skis crossed and poles caught up, wondering quite which part of me should I focus on to push myself up. Each angle I try just seems to make the skis slip away and I end up on my butt again! Elegance is certainly not something I can aspire to when skiing.
Norwegians make it look so easy, and they go so fast! We split from our friends in the car park, with the thought that they would meet us back there in an hour. An hour and a half later we got back from maybe a 3km 'run', whereas they had been over half the mountain and around the lake, and probably could have done so again. We were knackered though!
Still, I must be improving a little as I can do the gently rolling bits of the track now - give me 10 more years and I might be able to tackle a gentle slope without either hesitating or taking the skis off and walking down!
Actually, on Saturday we could not ski anyway as it was blowing a gale and snowing a little. When the air temperature is already -5C, gale force winds bring the chill factor down at least another 5 points. So we walked around down town Fargernes a twenty minute drive from the cabin, and discovered the most amazing second hand shop. It was in an old house and had room after room of second hand glass, china, furniture, textiles, toys - heaven!
Right at the back of the shop was a room full of china tea sets (the type your granny would have with cups and saucers and matching tea plates, teapots etc,) and a small shelf of Norwegian pewter. I couldn't resist, so now we are the proud owners of a pair of arts and crafts (Jugendstil) candlesticks. For once, it wasn't expensive either!
Because the weather was so bad on Saturday, the passes over Filefjell and Hemsedal (the only two routes back to Bergen and the west of the country) were either closed, or drivers had to join a convoy, which is when you follow a snow plough all the way across the pass. It means that traffic is moving in only one direction, so drivers on the other side have to wait. It takes about an hour to cross the pass depending on weather conditions, so it can really delay your journey. Few people live up there so it is best to be prepared and have food, warm drinks, blankets, snow chains and snow shovel in the car! A little different to every day UK driving!
The wind on Saturday, was so strong, and the flurries of snow so heavy that it was too dangerous to drive there, so the passes were closed. Thoughts were racing through my husband's head as he wondered how he would get to work on Monday, or whether he would be forced to take a days' holiday! It was amazing how quickly the weather had changed, as we had only driven across Filefjell the evening before and there had been little snow - certainly not enuogh to get blown across the road we thought and completely halt traffic on a major thoroughfare.
How naive we were! Going back, it was easy to see how the road could suddenly become hazardous. It isn't a brilliant photo taken with my phone through the windscreen, but you can see how the snow drifts across the road. If there weren't snow poles on either side you could easily drive off the road into the ditch, or worse down a mountain side. Also it was best to keep to the middle of the road where it was clear, as the sides of the road were treacherous with thick ice, coverred by slushy snow!
This road is the E16, a major traffic artery joining the east and west parts of southern Norway. As you can see it is just an ordinary road, no dual carriageway or road markings apart from a central yellow line (and that isn't everywhere). The road is used by thousands of trucks every month and there are always accidents, usually caused by foreign truck drivers driving on summer tyres as they have no way of checking the weather conditions up on the mountain (they can have snow here in September!).
Anyway, back to wet and (slightly) warmer Bergen and as usual we can hardly see the mountain across the water as it is so misty! If I have to choose I guess I would prefer sun, snow and cold, as opposed to rain, mist and cold - but would trade both for sun, blue skies and warmth!!
No comments:
Post a Comment