2nd August 2016. Svenningvatnet, Trofors, Norway.

It was a beautiful sunny day when we opened the blinds and started eating our breakfast looking out at the rocky landscape.  We had planned to walk up to the ridge that we had seen in the distance when we were up by the Cairns the previous day.  However the heavens opened and I thought that was going to be the end of that idea, it didn’t seem like the most sensible thing to go tramping around up there in the pouring rain.  I was very disappointed so we sat and waited for a while because we could see a small patch of blue sky in the distance, our patience paid off and the sun came out.

We discovered we’d walked up to the ridge via a very convoluted route once we’d reached the top and the ‘people’ we’d seen up there the night before were in fact a large marker Cairn and a couple of smaller ones.

We sat up there for a while drinking our coffee then noticed there were dark clouds heading our way, we jogged half the way back!  It’s amazing the speed we can achieve if there’s the possibility of a soaking!

It didn’t rain as it happens but better safe than sorry.

We’re heading towards Sweden today, we’re aiming for Tännäs.

The scenery along the way was beautiful but we were amazed at the amount of roadwork that was going on and extremely thankful that they appeared to have the day off!

We stopped for lunch having just turned on to the E12 that goes to Umeå in Sweden but after lunch we did a ‘U’ turn because we decided to go to Tännäs via Trondheim!

We drove through an 8.6 km tunnel on this journey, it was a strange experience.  Darren said now we know what a mole feels like!

As we came out of the tunnel we finally found a pull in with a view, the car park overlooked craggy snow capped mountains covered in thousands of ‘Spruce Springsteens’ (as Darren christened the Spruce trees) that towered over the fjord below.  Time for a coffee and chocolate break.

We drove on to our next stopover at Trofors but as we neared it I caught a glimpse of a very wide waterfall, Laksforsen, so we detoured to go and have a look at it.  There was a restaurant overlooking the waterfall, Laksforsen Turistcafe, so we popped in for coffee and cake (STILL moaning about the price, we really should be used to it by now) then we walked down the very steep and slippery dirt path to the bottom of the falls. They were spectacular, the power of the falling water sent a fine spray up into the air and it felt like rain landing on us.  When we drove past the top of the falls the surface of the river running up to it was so still it looked like glass.  It was well worth the detour.

The first stop we had programmed in to the GPS wasn’t anything special so we carried on to the next one which was forty minutes further on.  Luckily it turned out to be lovely, it was beside a big lake, Svenningvatnet.  Darren made me walk round the vast car park to decide where we were going to park because he was fed up with me always wanting to change our position once the van had levelled itself.  Funnily enough there were two other women walking around the site too so it must be universal!

It was a very big area and I wandered down a track to a wooded area with individual camping bays.  I found a place but the man in the bay next to me mimed that he was just packing up and that we should wait and move into his space because it had a better view.  He was adamant that it was the best place because I wandered back to the main car park to get Darren and when I came back he told me again as he drove off.  Darren was busy talking to a lady who had wandered down the lane (she had been directing her husband to a pitch earlier, obviously still hadn’t found one she liked).  We’ve no idea what she was trying to tell us, she mentioned something about lots of caravans up this end when they visited two years ago and then she wandered off. The man was right, it was the perfect pitch, just beside the beach and away from the other vans.

As we walked along the beach we found a river cascading over a boulder strewn river bed.  The crystal clear water was pouring into the lake.

Later on that evening I took lots of photographs of the sun setting over the lake, just for a change!