Girls night out at Blåsjø (Norway)!

[Arya]

Me and a good friend of mine decided to travel to a different planet a couple of days ago, and ended up at the Blåsjø area for a sleepover.
Not very Buschcrafty, but a nice trip nonetheless.
Blåsjø is a water reservoir, for producing energy, and is supposedly the biggest in Norway. Located at about 1060 m above sea level it also offers a spectacular landscape in addition to awesome engineering.
Spectacular for a forest troll like myself anyway.
The dams themselves makes me thing about Helms Deep in LOTR

We were planning on staying two nights, skulking about, but my friends dog got acute stomach issues on the way (and even pooped several times in the car...Lord have mercy on us...), and he didn´t improve, so two sleepovers became just one.
By the way, she just trader her poop car into a new one
We still had a really nice trip and I will be going back sometime in the future to discover even more of the area. Hopefully see some reindeer as well

Now, let´s have some photos!

Haukeli by Lykketrollet, on Flickr
Having a rest at Haukeli, a wonderful area on the way to Blåsjø.

Haukeli by Lykketrollet, on Flickr
Haukeli, taken from the window of the car.

Røldal Stavkirke by Lykketrollet, on Flickr
Røldal Stave church. You don´t just drive past a Stave church without stopping to admire it!

Waterfall by Lykketrollet, on Flickr
Waterfall at Suldal. The name eludes me

Blåsjø43 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr
Closing in on our destination. By now I´m starting to look for Gollum around every turn.

Blåsjø39 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr
The first dam, and the highest dam build from stones in Norway, Oddatjørndammen. I´m standing more that 50 meter from the dam and I´m still just a speck in front of it! 142 m high and 4,75 million cm3!

Blåsjø38 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr
The car is parked, dogs and folks packed an ready. Some packed more more than others, but that is an entirely different discussion There´s still snow as you can tell, and the temperature was around 8 degrees during daytime and 4 degrees at night.

Blåsjø37 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr
Starting uphill...

Blåsjø34 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr
Sheeps grazing the area during the summer months.

Blåsjø31 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr
Huh? No trees?

Blåsjø28 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr

Blåsjø23 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr

Blåsjø22 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr
My friend adjusting her pack. This was only her second time camping and she kept a good spirit all the way, despite of the monster on her back.

Blåsjø26 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr

Blåsjø20 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr

Blåsjø19 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr
When we finally arrived the fog was starting to settle.

Blåsjø17 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr
Camp.

Blåsjø15 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr
Next morning we had rain and a lot of fog, but that´s cool to

Blåsjø14 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr

Primus by Lykketrollet, on Flickr
Breakfast for champions Looks gross, but tastes good so who cares? Pluss it is good fuel for the body and kept us going for hours.

Blåsjø13 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr

Blåsjø10 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr
Exploring more dams, This is Norways largest concrete dam, Førrevassdammen. 1300 m long and 255 000 cm3!

Blåsjø3 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr
The view on our way back...


The end.

 

[Bigfoot]

Looks like a fantastic trip. Great pics, thanks for sharing

 

[Arya]

Blåsjø1 by Lykketrollet, on Flickr
Morale was a little lower on our way home

 

[Leshy]

Great pictures, surreal location.
The views seem infinite.
The church is beautiful and the waterfall just magic.
The cold is apparent at that altitude even in the summer!
That last shot is awesome

It would be interesting to hear what you took for sleep systems , navigation etc

Did your friend take too much stuff ( as we all do ) or did you forget anything ?


Anyway, thanks for sharing.
Beautiful

 

[SGL70]

Lovely pictures!! Inspirational....but no Snurring?!

 

[woodsorrel]

Great pictures! Thank you for taking us along on your trip.

- Woodsorrel

 

[wicca]

Great views of a different world..beautiful, and snow! Now that's a sight when it's Sahara weather over here. Thanks for that post Arya

 

[Arya]

Great pictures, surreal location.
The views seem infinite.
The church is beautiful and the waterfall just magic.
The cold is apparent at that altitude even in the summer!
That last shot is awesome

It would be interesting to hear what you took for sleep systems , navigation etc

Did your friend take too much stuff ( as we all do ) or did you forget anything ?


Anyway, thanks for sharing.
Beautiful

Thank you! Yes, I think surreal is the word I was looking for

As for the sleep system, it was nothing fancy. Just a sleeping bag and a thin, inflatable sleeping mat. I brought my Åsnes Endurance -25 (used to be named Nanok Endurance SF -25?), but still wore wool underwear inside the bag. I doubt that this bag would keep me comfortable without, even when it promises to be a winter sleeping bag.
I would have had a good sleep if it wash´t for the intense farting and licking of the dog, haha! He was close to being a chemical weapon :aargh4:
If I´d brought my bivy bag I would have moved outside. But I didn´t...
You might say that if there was anything I "forgot" it was the bivy.

My backpack was a 62 l and I didn´t really forget anything I also carried a triangular bag, intended for empty cartridges, on my thigh as a camera bag. I´ve padded the inside, and it works really well for the camera! It frees up a lot of space in the backpack for other essentials, and also put less strain on the back.
My friends backpack was 130 l and it was full. I think learning by doing is going to help her prioritize in the future. 130 l is not necessary for only two nights out.
The dog carried his own food and bowls

Navigation didn´t demand much this time, haha. We brought a map and compass, but there was a road that we followed all the way.
It is probably possible to cross the distance off road, but there are a lot of ravines and big crevices there. Especially since we brought a dog it didn´t feel safe to risk it.
Next time I want to try it, because it does´t give me much to walk along a road for several hours.

 

[Arya]

Lovely pictures!! Inspirational....but no Snurring?!

Thanks!
Snurring is seriously over priced now, so it didn't come with me this time. I like Snurring, I just don´t like the price anymore

 

[Janne]

"Girls just wanna have fun"!
And it seems you certainly had it, in a very beautiful part of a very beautiful country!

Snurring expensive?
Mix a can of Corned Beef, a can of ärtsoppa and a pack of ready made Uncle Bens rice!
Even tastier!

 

[Arya]

Thank you for the tip! I will definitely try it out

 

[Janne]

There are lots of foods you can recreate by just reading the labels. I do that as we ate unsble to find much Scandi foods hete in the Caribbean.
Usually they taste better, as the flavour of the ingredients have not bern mixed to death.

 

[baggins]

What a great looking trip. i do hope the Dog is better. Great to still see snow after the mini heat wave we're having here. hope you don't leave it too long before you head up there again.

 

[Tor helge]

Good report.
It is Nice to see other parts of Norway which I don`t usually visit.
I`ve been in these areas as a kid (lived 7 years in Vennesla), but don`t remember much of it.

Just a correction to Your text. Blåsjø is the largest Power produser, not the largest in area nor volume.

 

[barbourdurham]

Absolutely stunning Arya. Thanks for the write up. Is that an army shirt you're wearing? The pattern looks kinda cool.

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk

 

[Arya]

Good report.
It is Nice to see other parts of Norway which I don`t usually visit.
I`ve been in these areas as a kid (lived 7 years in Vennesla), but don`t remember much of it.

Just a correction to Your text. Blåsjø is the largest Power produser, not the largest in area nor volume.

Thanks! The area was new to me, so it was a good experience!
My friend on the trip actually lives in Vennesla
You have some pretty spectacular areas in the north as well, lucky you!

And yes, I know that Blåsjø is not the largest by volume or area, but I was told that they rate these energy reservoirs by how much energy they contain, therefore Blåsjø is considered the biggest
But hey, that´s just what I was told by "dam nerds". I will not bet my dogs life on it

 

[Arya]

Absolutely stunning Arya. Thanks for the write up. Is that an army shirt you're wearing? The pattern looks kinda cool.

Sent from my SM-G903F using Tapatalk

Thank you!

Yes that´s an army shirt. I´m not a wannabe Rambo, I just got a good shirt for 1/3 of the price I would have to pay for something similar in civilian colors
Fashion is not my strongest trait

 

[Klenchblaize]

Nothing wrong with camo. And no less appropriate to a Girls wardrobe!

K