Norway - Adventure Heaven
By
on
August 17th, 2005
Print This Post
Email This Post
Today was not a great day, it was a fantastic day! I woke up with Daniel at 8 am while Sandra slept in. Nothing but blues skies and sunshine outside. Brewed some tea, made a fire, and had breakfast in front of the fireplace while Daniel played by himself. What a great relaxing start of the day. If it would have included some morning sex and WI-Fi connection it would have been hard to beat.
Sandra took Daniel to a river for some playing and nice photos while I went biking. I had a fantastic ride. Exhausting but awesome. There are lots of bike trails, or at least tons of trails. Since I can bike on trails where most people can’t even walk it means lots of possibilities. Norway, like Sweden, got something called "Allemansrätten" which means you can basically go anywhere in nature. With or without a mountainbike. Some exceptions are sensitive nature areas where you may not bike. It goes without saying that you may not destroy nature in any way by cutting down trees, bushes, or throwing trash anywhere. Use common sense. You may put up a tent or hang out almost anywhere you want. Even on private land. Conditions are just 50 or 150 meters, can’t remember which, from a private house and you may not stay more than two nights without asking landowner for permission.
My ride took me by a couple of lakes with stunning views. The water was like a mirrorand in the distance I could see the snow covered mountains. Some technical singletrack but mostly walking trails and some gravel roads. Lots of steep uphills and some tricky sections. There were more trails wherever I looked but I had to pace myself since I promised Sandra to be back in three hours. We always tell each other roughly where we will be going and leave a time limit for safety reasons. If we are not back by this time we got eaten by a bear, crashed into an elk, or lay injured in the woods somewhere. Yes I know it’s not ideal to go alone on these adventures but it’s the only way with Daniel. We have to take turns. I love doing adventures with Sandra and I miss this part of our lives. But it’s an insignificant sacrifice. Instead of doing what most people with children do, stop doing their favorite things, we are a bit creative and come up with alternative solutions.
It has rained quite a bit the past few weeks here so the ride included many small stream crossings, plenty of mud, and soaked shoes. The only downside was me taking a wrong turn and having to cary my bike for around 30 minutes over a ridge. But what a great ride. Postcard views in every direction for three hours straight. It reminded me a bit o biking in Utah. We had one of our best vacations ever in Moab, Utah, a few years ago. Biking, hiking and good food for two weeks. It’s impossible to take a bad photo in Utah. Every photo looks amazing with those red rocks and blues skies. In Norway there are no red rocks but there are lakes, blues skies, and mountains everywhere.
I got back just inside the three hour limit, exhausted and HUNGRY. It was Daniels naptime but he was too excited to sleep. After trying for 15 minutes in his travel crib I took him for a walk in the carriage. He was asleep after 30 seconds……… I don’t know what Sandra did to him during her river outing but he napped for almost three hours. This is very unusual. Perhaps the ulta clean Norwegian air does something to him?
The afternoon was marked for a family bike ride. We put Daniel in the bike seat and headed out for a trip around Gålåvatnet. We rode mostly on gravel roads and some regular roads to be gentle to Daniel. He seemed to enjoy it. There was no wind and the lake was beautiful. The fields had that smell of freshly cut grass. After 20 km. we were back for dinner and relaxing. Sandra headed up to the main lodge with the laptop to check some mails and make a few calls on Skype. I put Daniel to bed and relaxed with the Crichton book. It’s a very intense book, one of the best fiction’s I’ve read in a while
Aug 26th, 2005 at 10:34 am
[…] e no stroller has ever gone before. Too bad you didn’t get to see all the nice mountain views daddy saw on his bike rides. I’m hearin […]
Oct 16th, 2006 at 9:24 am
[…] Posted on Monday 16 October 2006 Wife and Daniel next to a stunning Norwegian lake (Click for larger image) Canon Powershot SD500, ISO 50 Photography is a hobby of ours and we take lots of photos. The screen saver on our Imac consists of many thousands of photos from our collection and I love to sit and browse through the images. I love the photo above because it clearly shows that having a toddler doesn't automatically mean no more travel, fun and adventures with your child. The photo above is taken last summer during a week long trip to the Norwegian mountains. Wife has a huge smile and is enjoying a day out on the bike trail with her son in a beautiful setting. We spent some time in the little village of Gålå which is located in the stunning valley of Gudbrandsdalen four hours north or Oslo. It was a relaxing week filled with nice food and adventure for both toddler and parent. We see way too many parents who stop living when they have a child. We try not to go down that road and like to include Daniel in our activities. We loaded up the car with our camping equipment and the mountain bikes on the roof and headed out into nature. We spent a couple of nights camping and week in a mountain cabin. Daniel can't join us on our extreme biking adventures so we had to work around this and take turns riding during the day. One person riding and one having fun with Daniel. We also took a few casual trips with Daniel in the bicycle seat he loves so much (read more about biking with your toddler here). It was a a very memorable trip for the whole family, especially the last day when Daniel started puking in the early morning and continued throughout the day. To top it off it was also Sandra's birthday:-)) Take my advice, don't stop living when you have children. Try your best to include them and your likely to have more fun than ever! […]
Oct 28th, 2006 at 7:29 am
[…] I love this photo. It says a lot about my son. He's had that smile on his face since he was a month old. From morning to evening, day after day. Even when he's sick. He loves to bicycle, either on his own bike or in the rear of my bike in his child seat. He's also a kid that enjoys being outside a lot, summer or winter, which makes things so much easier. On the photo he's biking around the garden outside our place where he usually hangs out with his friends after day care or during the weekends. Nowadays his speed on the bike has increased dramatically and I appreciate that he always wears a helmet. Funny thing is that he's usually the one reminding my about it as soon as we grab the bike. Biking has already given us many nice memories and we're just getting started. […]