It's a really beautiful day and I stop and apply sun lotion before I've even walked half an hour. I will burn like hell if I don't. Boonie and sunglasses are nice and no matter how the world is now, it's beautiful with the green grass that is full of small purple and yellow flowers, gray stones that pop out of the green everywhere and a little taller grass that gently sways in the wind. Here on the south side of the mountains there are no snow fields, but there are plenty of them on the north sides. In many cases they never melt over the summer and I have seen lakes here with half a meter of ice at the end of July. Usually there are snow fields on both sides of the road across Hardangervidda in early June, and I'm in late June. I can be such a contrast depending on which side of a mountain you are on, or if you're in open terrain and at 500m lower altitude. One of all the things that makes hiking in mountains interesting.
I can't find the hiking trail that the map shows, but this is Norway. Trails are generally marked with a pair of stones on top of each other, or red painted T on stones. The problem with the red T is that Norway have lichens that grow on rocks, that are red-orange. If a few years have passed and no one has refreshed the trail and the markings, it's difficult to find the trail when rock piles have fallen from snow and ice and the red T can no longer be found or looks like the lichens all the rocks have. Especially in the less populated places and trails where I usually hike. Both a bit of the charm and the problem.
I take regular breaks and let my feet air, as I watch birds jumping around and looking for food. No matter what happens in the world, there won't be much difference in places like this. It's peaceful, and stressing and ruining my feet up isn't worth it, especially if it's actually a crisis when I come out. Then I want to be in good condition. I hope the bus service still runs, since I will be something like 1.5h by large road away from my car. But a future problem.
One after another there are streams to cross. Hiking poles are magnificent for balancing with a backpack over rocks and boulders. Far more stable and it lessen the risk of sprains. I have designed and 3D printed my own rubber tops for these, like a four-leaf clover that spreads out and tips point down. It's so practical for keeping the pole stable against a stone edge or round surface.
It's a nice view to the south east over the rolling plateau with grass, rocks and streams, rivers and lakes. I take a few pictures before I continue. The north side is mostly rock, waterlogged ground and grass tassels. Snowfields everywhere. It takes some time to get over the wide stream from the lake as I have to take off my boots and wade, but I just keep walking, round the mountain and pass Rjupehaug. I see larger birds that I think are grouse or something running around like dizzy chickens. It's difficult to take a picture of them, but a short shutter time it works and I still needs to take breaks. I keep a nice pace, and work my way down to Rjoto. I should meet other hikers during the day as this is the usual trail to Hårteigen with manned cabins along the route.
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Rjoto isn't there. Or yes it is there, but not the buildings that should be there. From what I remember, there should be a couple of red private cabins. But there isn't any damn cabins here. There are a couple of very old cabins that consist of piled stone with grass on the roof and some planks for a door but no more than that. The bridge is also missing.
WTF?
I take a lunch break. Can see sheep walking and grazing further away on the side of the valley. Whatever. I just continue to Hedlo, but with the pace I keep I should be able to get to Vivelid without problems. I've hiked this route before a few years ago. Vivelid has hot showers and the possibility of served food, electricity and Wifi. I hope they have a room available and I will get there on time. Then I can leave early tomorrow morning and walk down to Upper Eidfjord and take the bus to the car. The bus don't run very often, and I don't know if I remembered to put the timetable on the tablet, but I might be able to get it via the internet from Vivelid, and I hope the bus still goes as it should. That the world is okay.
I takes some photos as I pass the wide falls downstream from Rjoto. It would be fun to paddle down to Hedlo, but seems to be a couple of big falls on the way even though many are wide flat cliffs where the water rushes. It would go fast. Were there so many trees here last time?
With the binoculars and I can't see any large buildings at Sandvadet, the west side of the valley where Hedlo is on the east side. There should be buildings there. They're marked on the map. What's more worrying is that I don't see Hedlo either, and I'm pretty sure it should be a large yellow two-story building. There is also no real trail here like I remember, more animal paths. I take another break and air my feet while I dig out the tablet and boot it. Boot faster. I check if I have the photos from my previous hike here. Nope. Crap. But the map and the compass are correct. The terrain is the same, just a little more trees than I remember, and significantly fewer houses. I'm starting to get really worried.
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I become more worried when I stand where Hedlo should be. No evidence whatsoever here ever been a farm. Just untouched nature. Worry's annoying pal 'Panic' is knocking on the door and wants to enter, but I'm pretending I'm not at home. There is a rational explanation.
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It's difficult to avoid the rising panic and anxiety when I work my way up through the birch forest towards Fljotdal. But I can see some stone buildings with grass on the roof there, and sheep or something moving. Unfortunately no humans. I've not seen any human or hiker at all. No footsteps. There should have been a few footsteps in the mud during these hours. I choose to go up on the side of Kjeseshovden to look down towards Vivelid. It probably doesn't take more than twenty minutes or so, but those are anxious long minutes. I'm no longer looking at the clock.
Vivelid doesn't exist either. I'm convinced that I should have seen some of all the houses that should be there. As far as I remember they were in all sorts of colors even if the main cabin was black. I don't know what the hell to believe. I just keep sitting there staring through the binoculars at the nature that is there. No houses or electric poles. I don't know how long I just sit there and stare. Or how many times I look at the same small area as if the houses are magically about to appear. It's beautiful nature, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, a couple of mosquitoes are annoying and everything is just so ... wrong. No condensation streaks in sky either.
It's late. I go back down for Kjesehovden and pitch the tent for another night. Something is very, very, very wrong. Most things go on automatic as I go to bed. Still no GPS signals. No cell phone signal either. I try to eat because I have to, but the appetite isn't there. Thankfully, the panic isn't there either. Just one big...
Huh?!
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And I who thought last night's sleep was bad. Zombie Robert is up and running, but it has been tough to get started since 'Worry' and his troublesome friend 'Panic' have started to make themselfs at home during the night, and seems to be preparing for a big party. A damn big party. So I have made the decision to go east over Storasåta. I hope the height will help give me a view down to Upper Eidfjord and maybe get cell phone coverage. But I'm starting to suspect I won't get GPS or cell phone coverage no matter what I do. Walking down by Vivelid is a bad idea, since there are marsh and bogs everywhere and if there isn't any trails there...
It's like I've gone back in time a couple of hundred years, but that is something I just refuse to accept. Time travel back in time does not exist except in Sci-Fi or Fantasy. Time travel towards the future, yes - we are already doing so at different paces. Not backwards. Time is not a direction like up, width or south; time is how we perceive consequences of events, which give new consequences, which give new consequences, etc, until the universe is finally cooled down and energy leveled and nothing happens any more. Pick an apple and eat it, the body converts it's atoms into energy and other things and spreads it out in the body. Turning back time means that all these interactions and chemical reactions must go perfectly in reverse order. Where is all this information stored how all these atoms were put together, the particles interacted with each other, what charge states and directions have they had?
Nope. Time travel back in time does not happen.
But I should have seen remnants of Hedlo, and if it has fallen apart without a trace and forest have reclaimed the ground, it has been a long, long time. A damn long time.
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It's hot and sweat drips off me. Thank goodness for quick-drying clothes and good weather. When I reach the top of Storasåta I get no signal, and I try to search with my cell phone. Nothing at all. I even try Wifi analyzer on 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz when I take a break. Nothing. The walkie talkie scans channels but is completely silent. I refuses to use the marine emergency frequency by principle as I am not in an emergency, and it probably won't help anyway.
I manage to stop the big party 'Panic' tries to start when I with the binoculars can see cultivated fields and houses in Upper Eidfjord about 7km away. But I can't see the main road. No traffic. No cars, lorries or buses. Signs of civilization anyway with people. There is a horse too. I takes a couple of zoomed photos with the camera, but even zoomed in the image isn't good enough to see details. I should have gone and checked out those stone cottages with the sheep. But I won't turn back just for that.
Clouds build up and can't see Upper Eidfjord when I go down towards the valley, and then the mountains themselves are in the way.
When I get to where there should be a car park and road down into the valley, and none of it is there, I'm no longer surprised; just cold acceptance of facts while I cross over another awkward wide and fast flowing brook. I know I'm right. It just isn't there. No traces of the road at all, but I can see a small path down the valley that I start to follow. Had this been a weird future, I should have seen traces in the rock face - mountains don't grow back - and if we talk about the time scale where mountains grow, everything would have looked different. It takes time to go down through the rocky terrain and reach the valley. Very steep in places but I continue to follow the path or animal trail that I follow. It's heading in the right direction. I now expected that there won't be a farm in the valley, but there are some cows. But no house or yard.
It's noon and I estimate I have walked 17km or so in rugged terrain with a big backpack when I finally see fields, houses and people down in Upper Eidfjord. But it's so wrong. So very wrong. All fences are wooden beams or piled stone, and people are working with hand tools. There are no machines but I see a horse. The houses are longhouses. Longhouses. Vikings? I just stand there at the edge of the forest and stare.
Seriously!?
Vikings!?
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VIKINGS!?