A Quick Way to Telemark

A Quick Way to Telemark


As the saying goes, “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” My cousin Joyce and I had now taken several trips to Norway. We would fly into Stockholm, rent a car and visit family and other points that interested us on our way to Norway. We had a little knowledge of driving in Norway and Sweden. This leg of one journey found us in Valdres where we heard about a fast way down to Telemark, where we wanted to go but were not so sure we wanted to drive the E 16 back to Oslo and from there make our way to Rjukan, Telemark. In a straight line this other way would be about 120 km. from what we could figure from the map we had. That would be going over 2 plateaus and a low set of “hill” mountains to get to Telemark.

We did forgot about the weather. I would point out that we were visiting in mid May and it was a cold May, unlike the previous May when apple blossoms were in evidence even in Valdres. This spring it was cold and wet. There had even been snow in Valdres earlier that week. Our friend who told us about this other way had driven it in the summer. It was not summer! On the top of the hills between the Numendal Valley and Austbygda, Telemark, it was not really spring either. It was “breakup.” We would discover that later. We forgot the snow we had experienced earlier in the week and felt this way sounded good because it would be fast!

I had some experience driving in Norway! I had driven not only across Sweden and Norway several times but up to the airport on the plateau above Fagernes in Valdres and several times over and back from Vestre Slidre to Øystre Slidre, which seemed terribly steep over a very narrow road. Then I had driven over to the Hardanger via Telemark. I wouldn’t say that I felt invincible but Norwegian roads didn’t seem to me to be that difficult. Looking back I believe that there were a few other sayings that we should have heeded! But off we went.

We drove from Valdres on the # 51 highway over the plateau down to the Hallingdal Valley. The road was good and clear. On the plateau there were no big settlements but huts all over. It looked like skiing was a big thing here but the season was over. We easily got down to the valley and before too long we drove into the town of Nesbyen. This is the home town of a friend, Rolf Lee, back in Sicamous. He is noted for his frequent very long walks in the summer and long skiing jaunts up the mountains in the winter. While this friend is over 80 now, he climbed the highest point in Norway, GaldhØpiggen, when he was 70. He is a good example of one challenge that the Valdres folk have. Rolf is a Halling, from Hallingdal, which are the traditional rivals of the folks from Valdres. As the Valdres’ saying goes, “Don’t worry about being first in a competition----- as long as you beat the Hallings!” It is not so easy to do. But we were not in a competition and Rolf was not here! We did not imagine the challenge that we would find before we got to Telemark.

At the village of Nesbyen we got a quick bite of food and inquired about the road up to the next plateau and down to the Numendal valley. We heard that the road was paved, along a lake for a good bit and generally fine. But when we would reach the valley, it would be steep going down. Yes, we found it very, very steep! The hand brake was used, too! But, we got down safely. Most of the drive had been lovely, winding along a lake with lots of pine trees around. I remember hearing that where there were pine trees, the land wasn’t much good for farming. There were no farms around but as we got closer to the end of the lake, and the steep drive down, we did find nice houses. They were not big but not ski huts!

Again we got down to the valley where it was quite lovely. So far we were pleased that we had taken this route. Just across this next bunch of “hill” mountains was Telemark. I use a term “hill” mountain because they were not big mountains but they were not like the plateaus we had passed. On a previous trip to this area of Telemark we had heard that folks drove from Kongsberg over the hills to this eastern part of Telemark.

We had not taken the road because we had heard it had some problems. Too bad we didn’t compare the markings for that road size and the one we would be taking from Veggli! That first one had been marked like a secondary road and this one we would be going on rather a trail or path! While we did glance at the map, it seemed only a few kilometres! We were so close and thought we would easily and soon be in Austbygda, Telemark.

We did stop at a couple places before we could get any directions to get the road over to Telemark. When we did , we were reassured hearing that people did drive over. They did not say that “this was not the best time to go over” or “don’t think of going over! It’s breakup.” We would soon find that out. We heard that there was a toll road and that we’d have to pay. Somehow that seemed also reassuring; and we headed out, found the access road and headed up the hill. After a few kilometres driving west, we hit the toll gate, paid the toll and noticed a car leaving. “At least there were people up here,” we thought. We never saw any more people until we were down in Austbygda, Telemark! Yes, we did get there; but we did have a struggle before we got there.

After paying the toll, the road deteriorated into mud, lots of mud though there seemed to be a solid base a few inches down. We were not stopped by the mud or anything else. We hit fog, rather dense fog, which fortunately hid the steep ravines we drove around, or should I say, slipped around. We stopped for nothing- more out of sheer anxiety. We took no National Geographic type photos. I think that Joyce had her hands over her eyes a few times! I was afraid that if we stopped, we might never have gotten out! Fortunately we did not meet any oncoming traffic because I don’t know where they would have gone! There were only 2 ruts in the mud trail and we were firmly in them.

After slipping around for what seemed endless kilometres, we finally got to what turned out to be a pass and fortunately for us, it was the only pass. We did find snow on it; but it was not deep and did not make the trail bed worse. Best of all, the situation did not last long. You might think that knowing about “breakup” here in Canada would have put some sense into our heads; and we would never have gone on the trail. But we had taken the “easy and fast road.”

After leaving the snow of the pass behind, we were greatly relieved to notice that we were going down in elevation; and as we did, a road, instead of a mud trail appeared. We had survived. We left winter on the hill mountains for spring in Austbygda, not far from Rjukan, Telemark. We would not be going back by the same route; but we had a personal story of a foolish drive over the “hill” mountains of Norway where it was “breakup” and much closer to winter than to spring. We also had to have the car washed!