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Where am I?:^mistymornings-->Cycletouring-->2008-->Norway.-->Day 24

Day 24-3. Trondheim to Græsli contd.

Damae disappeared into the distance as she usually did on downhill sections and I stopped a couple of times on the way down to take photos of the view of Selbusjøen in the sun. We put on quite a few kilometres in a short time before we reached Selbustrand. Once at the bottom of the valley the cycling was easy for a while with a bit of a tailwind keeping us cool and we carried on round the Selbusjøen admiring the views. A while later we came to a T-junction at Tømra that gave us a choice of following the RV 705 to Tydal or take the road to Hell. One day we'll come back to find out what Hell is like but for our plans today didn't include going that way. At the junction we saw a roadhouse cafe and wondered if we could get some chips and fizzy pop to keep us going. However today was a Sunday and all was shut.

It took us about three quarters of an hour before we reached somewhere that was open and serving food. At Garberg there was a Statoil petrol station with a Spar supermarket and a small place to eat food outside. We wandered round the shop, picked up some fresh fruit and veg before ordering some chips and coffee and heading out onto the terrace to eat. This was a bustling place with laden cars coming and going all the time. It looked a bit like people were heading home after their summer holidays as most of the cars were heavily laden with people and possessions.

The calories and the half hour spent people watching were welcome and both physically and mentally refreshed we got back on our bikes and headed onwards. We were thinking about where we were going to stay and it looked like wild camping was the only option. Damae was having her personal battle between wanting to stop sooner, which would mean wild camping vs wanting to have a shower, which meant pushing on to Græsli.

From Garberg Cycle Route 9 went fairly straight on missing out a large loop that went along the main road through Mebonden. Any straight road in Norway usually means uphill and this was no exception. As we climbed the road surface steadily became less smooth until we reached a rather imposing home made sign. Here the road changed to gravel and we stopped to consider the sign. It said all traffic had to pay a toll, but did not mention bicycles. We didn't know if bicycles were defined as traffic in Norwegian law or indeed if the toll was enforceable. Damae was all for pushing on whilst I was a bit more hesitant (2010 after moving to Gol we encountered another vague toll road sign whilst out cycling. The following day I asked about bikes and tolls at the Gol Tourist Office and got the answer that cyclists never have to pay these tolls).

On consulting the map we realised that taking the main road would add something of the order of ten kilometres and we'd lose the height we'd gained. If we carried straight on we'd not go back to the level of the Selbusjøen but stay a little higher. After an unnecessary amount of time umming and ahing I gave into Damae's confident 'we'll be OK' and we pushed on up the hill. The road surface was not pleasant on the way up and somewhat more care was needed descending. It was with a bit of relief on my part when we reached the RV 705 again, crossed the road to turn left and headed uphill again. The clouds parted briefly giving us an idea of how warm it would be if it were sunny.

The valley ran alongside the river Nea and started narrowing as we headed towards Tydal Kommune. We paused for a while at a lay-by opposite the entrance to Nedre Nea Kraftstasjon (opens in a new window/tab and it needs javascript) to use the loos. We considered camping here as we would have had space and toilets, but decided it was too close to the road. It would have been possible to camp on the other side of the river but the idea of hot showers this evening definitely had its appeal. Maybe there would be an unmarked campsite before the one at Græsli.

By the time we crossed the border into Tydal Kommune (here is a higher resolution picture of the Tourist Information map) at around seven thirty the valley was much narrower. It was also climbing, somewhat more steeply after we passed Flora but still quite gently which was a relief. Despite the lateness of the hour it wasn't too cold either. The road was reasonably quiet unlike roads in Holland on a Sunday evening and was to stay quiet for the rest of the evening. Having pushed through our mid-afternoon dips we had now got second wind. Feeling reasonably fresh, the idea of pushing on to Græsli was starting to have more appeal.

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