http://www.tynset.kommune.no/Default.asp?WCI=ViewNews&WCE=3971&DGI=21&Head=1

There are room for many things in Rendalen (The reindeer-valley), wandering, hunting and fishing of all kinds.
There are only about 2.200 people living in this community, but still it is the largest rural district in Norway,
with its 3.200 square kilometers. And there are large untouched woods and mountain-areas
and a varied culture-landscape including many idyllic summer mountain pastures.

The Jutulhugget canyon
Immediately before Alvdal, we stopped to see this canyon, Jutulhugget (the Giant's chop).
Legend has it two giants were fighting over rights to the nearby river,
and one threw his axe to alter the flow of the river.
In reality, the canyon was created when a natural dam broke shortly during and following the last ice age,
and billions of gallons of water rushed out from the nearby lake (now a valley) and into the next valley.
(But remember that reality today is not always reality tomorrow)
Truly an amazing sight, the canyon boasts walls 240m (800 feet) tall, is 2.4km (1.5 miles) long
and between 150-500m (500-1,500 feet) wide.

The road from E6 to Øvre Rendal (RV30) is called 'one of Eastern Norway's shortest
and amusing mountain-passes'. There are a good view down toward the river Glomma,
and at the same time to the center of Bergseth on the other side.
The road reaches its highest level at about 700 m asl.

Rendalen (The reindeer-valley) has two big attractions that are both definitely worthy of visiting.
The first one, of course is the Jutulhugget which is known as Northern Europe's largest Canyon.
Secondly the Fiskevollen at the Sølensjøen (Lake Soelen), which is the only inland or freshwater fishing-village.

It's a pearl of a valley
You may well call Rendalen a hidden pearl, as between the two large cities Oslo (the capital) and Trondheim
most people drive up E6 through Østerdalen (East-valley) or main road RV 3 through the Gudbrandsdalen.
Then they all miss Rendalen. It's a pity for those passing by, but fine for those who don't.


© http://www.aktivioslo.no/kunder/fiskevollen/ (Not valid as per Sept .2010)


Just another 20 km north of Jutulhugget, lies the mountain of Tron. 1.666 m asl.
From the Østerdalen at Alvdal, you can take the next highest road (for a car) in Norway up to the top.
There you will have a wonderful sight in absolutely all directions,
including the Dovre and Rondane mountains.
On the top is even a 45 m high antenna, but we do not recommend climbing that one, too.

This mountain is also called 'The Mountain of Truth'.
Back in 1917 an indian (from India in Asia....) philosopher and professor called Baral,
built a house here, called Gaurisankar.
He stayed on the top till his death in 1945, and is now buried just west of the top.
His full name was Maitreyya Buddha Sri Ananda Acharyas, and his idea was that
peace and truth should be spread around from all mountains in all countries.
Still some of his diciples are hoping to build a University for Peace on the top.
It was here - at the foot of this mountain - however on the other side of the picture above -
we had our first night.

  


Before we went to bed, we just had to take a walk around to see what nature had to offer.



The Tron mountain is in the opposite direction.
There is a white spot about 50 meters to the left of our car - that is the main road RV30.
The road coming up to you, is a small road up to an old farm.
The Tron mountain or not - we had a peaceful night's sleep.

Day 2


Day two brought us another day with bright sunshine and blue skies.
What else can you ask for?
Even the butterflies and other flies... were delighted and enjoying the fine weather.

  

As for ourselves, we still not had arrived the point from were we really wanted to start this tour.
We had to leave the southern valleys, the trip over to E6 again, and a bit down through
the minings at Løkken Verk, then through Orkanger (city?) and another 50 kilometers
out along the Trondheimsfiord to Valset. A small place were we could take the ferry
to where we really wanted to get started.
From here it was the coastal route all the way up to Bodø
that was what we have longed to go for many, many years.

As mentioned in the introduction-part of this story, we wanted to see the mountains,
for which this coastal route was so famous.
To our big surprise the first thing we met was a place so flat that we could not even see it from the ferry....



the map was found at: http://www.museumsnett.no/yrjarheimbygdslag/bilder/orl_kart.jpg (Not valid as per Sept .2010)

That part is called Ørlandet, and you have to look at the map to see how
far out on this peninsula we started our coastal tour.
Out at a place called Garten, where the houses were so close to each other
that we barely had our car turned so we could start on our tour right from the beginning.*
And that was as far as we could go.

More surprises awaited us. At numbers 1 and 3 on the map, out right,
we found a camping site, and for some unknown reason, there was a nice little beach,
with clear water and a sandy bottom with absolutely no people on it,
right down for the entrance to the camp - while inside on the beach there
several people gathered, bathing both in the sun and in the water....

An unusual lady reigned here about 500 years ago, called Inger from Austrått,
but that's another story. Perhaps we can have it translated to english shortly.
http://oddso.nvg.org/nsh/t-austraatt.html


After leaving Austrått some hours later, we made our way NorthEastward.
It didn't excactly follow the coastline here.
Highest point on the road was 290 m asl, and then it dropped down to the sea level again.


Storvik, 20 kilometers south of Osen, just North of Brandsfjorden.

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