Wednesday 18 April 2012

What a difference a day makes!

My cabin before the heavy snowfall
As I got back to the cabin last night, I saw them coming in: slowly but deadly. Snow clouds! And during the night they dumped quite a bit of snow on little old unsuspecting me in my cabin. And on the car! Of course, being on the top of a mountain means that the chances of snow are much higher here than they are down in the valley. After I paid for my stay and wrote some postcards to certain family members (as I try to always do), I made my way to the car, cleared it to some degree of all the snow (thank you for the brush rental company) and drove off. The first 3 km the road was covered with snow. After that, the road was nice and clear. However, it snowed until well into the valley. Of course I then had to take a turn up another mountain (or the same mountain, but a different side) and there was more snow. I had seen them removing the road markers yesterday, which in my view might have been a bit prematurely, but the roads were still okay. 

They could do with some hats and gloves and what have you
Photo taken in Oslo
After I made an appointment with Gunnar (more on that on Friday), I decided to do another lovely trip. I knew it wouldn't be as lovely as the trip I took yesterday, but hey, I am in Norway, I might as well see something, even if it is p***ing down all day! Instead of getting out of the car on certain occasions though, I stayed in it and drove. Just drove. I went down to the seaside and then I drove straight back out. Took a wrong turning (didn't want to do the same route twice), turned around when I could and got stuck behind a real slowpoke. Mind you, I've been overtaken several times by people who think I drive too slow!

I am almost expecting a polar bear to show up,
after all, I did see tracks around the cabin the other day!
I thought about buying a hat at some point, but decided against it, I would rather go back 'home' and pig out on some crisps I bought yesterday. The road up the mountain was really good and the snowlevel had risen compared to this morning. But at about three km from the top, the roads were once more covered with snow. Some jokester had thought it would be funny to swerve along the road, but nearly ended up in the valley! At least I saw his skidmarks right up to the edge. It didn't stop him though, although the swerving was a bit less after that. I tried to just stay straight, but it is a narrow winding road and at one point I felt the car skid. It was a good thing I have wintertyres and that I was going slow. Otherwise I would have ended up down in the valley! I made it up though, safe and sound and parked my car in such a way that I don't have to do any three point turns in the morning: I can just drive off. As long as I don't have to dig myself out first of course!

I didn't take any photos today, so here are some I took earlier this week!

4 comments:

  1. Very brave of you to stay on top of a mountain. I used to love mountain driving, and even drove in the mountains in winter, when I was young (younger than you are now).
    It looks like a lovely country.
    K

    ReplyDelete
  2. I would hate to have to drive in snow. I am becoming a very cautious driver these days.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Catching up on linens, churches and snow. I think I missed a few days being under the weather. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Glad you were driving slow, would not want you ending up in the valley. So where are you staying now? I never minded driving in the snow but in the mountains is a whole nother story. Stay safe!

    ReplyDelete

Any weighty (and not so weighty) comments are welcome!