What a day. In terms of daylight - it was short. In terms of driving distance - it was long. In terms of sleep -it was a nightmare. But I’m not complaining as we made it safe and sound to our destination and ready for a new day. (I’m actually writing this the next morning.)
We were apparently up too late Friday night cleaning and packing because we slept right through the alarm, or it just didn’t go off (not sure which since it was a new alarm clock.) Kaleb finally woke us up at 8:23am, and our intentions were to be up at 6:30 and out the door by eight -so much for making use of the little daylight that’s available this time of year. We had several ferries to catch and a long drive ahead so we flew around the house gathering things and getting dressed. The first ferry we needed to take runs every half hour and we just pulled up as they closed access to get on so we had to waste a half hour of daylight sitting at the dock. At least Kory got to eat breakfast without having to drive at the same time.
We had beautiful weather the entire drive, but it turned out to take a little longer than we expected as going over some of the mountain passes the driving was very slow. On good roads, the highest speed we can go is 70 kilometers an hour (not quite 45mph) but in many places we could only go about 25 or 30 mph safely. It was OK with me when it was light out because I was able to take dozens of absolutely gorgeous landscape photos out the window (see photo!), but once the darkness settled in about 4pm, it wasn’t quite so pleasant. I was very thankful for all the tunnels we went through in the mountains because then the roads were dry and bare and when we came out of them, it was like entering a different country. Most of them were 6-7 kilometers long and the scenery and weather and road conditions were constantly changing so it was like getting a surprise at the end of each one as we never knew what to expect.
Kaleb entertained himself in the backseat with his Nintendo and a DVD player so we didn’t hear a peep out of him the entire day. Kory did all the driving and I insisted we stop around 5:30 to eat some dinner and give him a break, so we didn’t get to our final destination until nearly 8pm.
Beitostølen is truly a winter wonderland – surrounded by mountains and ski resorts, it’s shaped like a huge bowl with a large lake at the bottom, which is always frozen over in the winter. When we arrived, all we saw was snow piled high on everything around us, that wonderful fluffy dry powdery snow that sparkled in the headlights and made it seem like there were diamonds lying by the roadside everywhere we went. The stars were as bright as I’ve ever seen and the air was beyond crisp.
Our accommodations last night were primitive and genuine. We slept in a Sami tent called a Lawo (pronounced Lah-vo) right next to the dog kennel (Kaleb’s favorite part). It’s just a large tee-pee if you ask me, with a woodstove in the center that gives one the sense it might actually be warm inside, but nothing could be further from the truth. It hit about 16 below zero last night where we were (about zero degrees Fahrenheit). Chunks of ice were hanging off the inside of our tent. There was a blazing fire in the furnace all night, as Kory set his cell phone alarm to go off every 75 minutes so he was sure to keep the home fires burning, but it seemed to me it was all in vain. No heat from that stove made it more than about three inches away from it, so unless we were practically touching it, there seemed to be no warming effect. I had a cup of water about 5 inches from it and it froze in less than an hour. My face formed ice crystals in the night as I was breathing in and out. It was as cold as I’ve ever experienced cold. Before we decided to go to bed, we all bundled up in our sleeping bags and tried to watch a movie I downloaded on my computer, but the volume wasn’t loud enough for Kory to hear so we just bagged it and went to bed early. (Kory claims his hearing is just fine and it’s only the particular pitch that my voice makes that he is unable to hear, but clearly he was proven wrong last night as Kaleb and I both could hear the sound track just fine.) So we slept on cots inside Norwegian military issued mummy bags with two reindeer hides under, one over and our own wool blankets and sleeping bags on top of that. We were in full wool long underwear and clothes, including wool sweaters and hats… and we were STILL cold! About 2am, when we were all still wide awake because we were so cold (we went to bed at 9pm) Kaleb started crying that he just wanted to go home. Kory let him crawl into his mummy bag to get warm and he finally fell asleep. I’m sure I didn’t sleep before 3am and the only time I really felt warm was when I was blessed with a hot flash. I will remind Kaleb of this night should he ever question if there were ever any sacrifices I made for him. And tonight it’s supposed to be colder, and we have booked this tent for two nights. I am the best Mama in the whole world.
We were apparently up too late Friday night cleaning and packing because we slept right through the alarm, or it just didn’t go off (not sure which since it was a new alarm clock.) Kaleb finally woke us up at 8:23am, and our intentions were to be up at 6:30 and out the door by eight -so much for making use of the little daylight that’s available this time of year. We had several ferries to catch and a long drive ahead so we flew around the house gathering things and getting dressed. The first ferry we needed to take runs every half hour and we just pulled up as they closed access to get on so we had to waste a half hour of daylight sitting at the dock. At least Kory got to eat breakfast without having to drive at the same time.
We had beautiful weather the entire drive, but it turned out to take a little longer than we expected as going over some of the mountain passes the driving was very slow. On good roads, the highest speed we can go is 70 kilometers an hour (not quite 45mph) but in many places we could only go about 25 or 30 mph safely. It was OK with me when it was light out because I was able to take dozens of absolutely gorgeous landscape photos out the window (see photo!), but once the darkness settled in about 4pm, it wasn’t quite so pleasant. I was very thankful for all the tunnels we went through in the mountains because then the roads were dry and bare and when we came out of them, it was like entering a different country. Most of them were 6-7 kilometers long and the scenery and weather and road conditions were constantly changing so it was like getting a surprise at the end of each one as we never knew what to expect.
Kaleb entertained himself in the backseat with his Nintendo and a DVD player so we didn’t hear a peep out of him the entire day. Kory did all the driving and I insisted we stop around 5:30 to eat some dinner and give him a break, so we didn’t get to our final destination until nearly 8pm.
Beitostølen is truly a winter wonderland – surrounded by mountains and ski resorts, it’s shaped like a huge bowl with a large lake at the bottom, which is always frozen over in the winter. When we arrived, all we saw was snow piled high on everything around us, that wonderful fluffy dry powdery snow that sparkled in the headlights and made it seem like there were diamonds lying by the roadside everywhere we went. The stars were as bright as I’ve ever seen and the air was beyond crisp.
Our accommodations last night were primitive and genuine. We slept in a Sami tent called a Lawo (pronounced Lah-vo) right next to the dog kennel (Kaleb’s favorite part). It’s just a large tee-pee if you ask me, with a woodstove in the center that gives one the sense it might actually be warm inside, but nothing could be further from the truth. It hit about 16 below zero last night where we were (about zero degrees Fahrenheit). Chunks of ice were hanging off the inside of our tent. There was a blazing fire in the furnace all night, as Kory set his cell phone alarm to go off every 75 minutes so he was sure to keep the home fires burning, but it seemed to me it was all in vain. No heat from that stove made it more than about three inches away from it, so unless we were practically touching it, there seemed to be no warming effect. I had a cup of water about 5 inches from it and it froze in less than an hour. My face formed ice crystals in the night as I was breathing in and out. It was as cold as I’ve ever experienced cold. Before we decided to go to bed, we all bundled up in our sleeping bags and tried to watch a movie I downloaded on my computer, but the volume wasn’t loud enough for Kory to hear so we just bagged it and went to bed early. (Kory claims his hearing is just fine and it’s only the particular pitch that my voice makes that he is unable to hear, but clearly he was proven wrong last night as Kaleb and I both could hear the sound track just fine.) So we slept on cots inside Norwegian military issued mummy bags with two reindeer hides under, one over and our own wool blankets and sleeping bags on top of that. We were in full wool long underwear and clothes, including wool sweaters and hats… and we were STILL cold! About 2am, when we were all still wide awake because we were so cold (we went to bed at 9pm) Kaleb started crying that he just wanted to go home. Kory let him crawl into his mummy bag to get warm and he finally fell asleep. I’m sure I didn’t sleep before 3am and the only time I really felt warm was when I was blessed with a hot flash. I will remind Kaleb of this night should he ever question if there were ever any sacrifices I made for him. And tonight it’s supposed to be colder, and we have booked this tent for two nights. I am the best Mama in the whole world.
