Troglodyte Adventure

We are back from the caves! We had to drive about four hours to get to the area where they are. If the roads were straight it would only take an hour but since all the roads go around the fjords it takes forever. There are some nice long tunnels through the mountains so that saves some time over what it could be. We stopped at a small shopping area in Ørnes on the way there. There is only one small store in our town so we feel the need to follow our shopping instincts when we get out to a bigger town. Since the Norwegians are adamant about the benefits of wool over synthetics I picked up a set of wool tops and bottoms while we were there. So far I like them quite well. We then stopped by a cave club house so that people could rent gear if they wanted. I got some spiffy red coveralls and a helmet with light. We set up camp in a birch and pine forest nearby. I made camp with a Norsk leader and another Yank student. Two tarps, some twine and a small fire made for quite a cozy place. Eight of us went with some big candles to a shelter cave over a river for a time of reflection. It was fun tromping through the snow filled forest in the dark to get there. We set up the candles all around the cave and listened to the roar of the river. Warm dinner, worship by the fire, a good night sleep and hot porridge for breakfast. We packed up camp and headed for a cabin and more caves. The cabin is beautiful. There is a lot of Norwegian pride in building cabins. The wood work is simple, practical and beautiful. It even had electricity and a wood fired sauna with a grass roof. Water had to be brought up from the river in pails. There was a wooden yoke which made it really easy to carry two pails full of water; very practical. After getting settled at the cabin and packing a lunch we set out for the caves in a cold rain. The caves were fun if a little cold and wet. It actually felt warmer in the caves than outside but the water was cold. One of the caves required crawling in a river up to your eyes to pass through one section. There was only a few inches of airspace at the top and required tipping your nose up if you wanted to breath. I opted to go with one of the leaders to set up a rope on the exit side to help people get up the waterfall at the end. We got to that room just as the first person emerged from the crawl. The room was like a washing machine with water from three directions colliding in a turbulent vortex. One of the girls was so cold she couldn't grip the rope and had to be boosted from the bottom while we pulled her up from the top. The sound of the water was so loud that even shouting wasn't really an effective means of communicating. It was a cool experience. The sauna at the cabin was very welcome after a day of caving. The morning we left the cabin it was snowing fairly hard. Huge fluffy flakes drifting down from the sky; it was so beautiful. The road and everything else was white so the only way to tell where the road was were the black snow poles lining both sides of the road. I got to see quite a few Lemmings on this trip. I had thought that they were just a mythical character, the stuff of cliché and video games but it turns out they are real. They look somewhat like short-hair hamsters. About every four years the Lemming population explodes and there are thousands of them roaming around in herds searching for uninhabited space. They can reproduce when they are only a month old, they have six to seven in a litter and can have a litter every three to four weeks under favorable conditions. When cornered they get very nervous, vibrate and squeak.
Sunrise- 7:19AM, Sunset-4:22PM