Day 12 part 3. Mjørfjell YH to somewhere before Haugestøl.
A little further up the track flattened out, and I took some more photos. It was very misty by this time, making the view more beautiful but then started raining quite heavily shortly afterwards. Thus for the next half hour or so we battled through the rain, and were terribly relieved to see the cafe and museum in the 'Fagernut Vokterbolig' (linesman's house) appear as we rounded a corner. We did not need much persuading to stop and shelter and after parking our bikes went into the warmth of the hut.
We were obviously not the only ones caught in the rain, as the coat racks were full of dripping rain gear of various sorts, a selection worthy of any self respecting outdoor pursuits shop. Pushing the door open into the cafe area, we realised just how cold it was outside as a seemingly tropical blast of air greeted us. Damae organised the buying of some reserve chocolate for later and waffles with cream and jam and cups of coffee. This was all very welcome (high calorie) food. As we had already learned in Denmark you use a lot of energy trying to stay warm.
After a half hour it was time to push on. Our quick dry leggings and cycling shorts were now only slightly damp and the rain had eased quite a lot. Without too much ado we were off again. The cafe is very close to the highest point on the route, which meant that around 500m later we stopped for photos. This was achieved very quickly as we had not warmed up at all. I did take the time however, to take a photo of where we had come from and the direction we were going.
We cycled on and the next proper stop was around an hour or so later at Finse. After picking up some bread we looked at some detailed maps of the area. When planning the trip we had had a vague idea to go and walk to the glacier about 5 km from Finse railway station. However we could not find any information about guided walks, it was now gone five and the weather was a bit iffy still, we only had our cycling sandals and there was no campsite. With some minor regret we decided to push on 'down' the hill to Haugestøl. At least they had some cool snow clearing trains to look at.
Our reward for the decision was sunshine later in the day. We nearly camped at this spot however the problem was trying to find a truly flat spot for our tent. The green stuff on the ground is not flat grass but regular sized balls of moss. On the moss we saw what looked like little yellow blackberries. No knowing if they were edible or not we left them be. Realising that there was no good spot we decided to push on towards the dark grey cloud ahead of us.
In the end the camping spot was Hobson's Choice. The dark clouds as expected turned into rain again and we really did not want to get soaked a second time in the day. A spot between two houses, hidden from view by mounds of earth was deemed big enough and we put the tent up asap. Damae went round finally to put in more pegs, and got in before the heavens opened.
A slightly uncomfortable hour or so later we had eaten some soup and a trekkers instant meal (a Bever rice and nut meal so says Damae's diary). The pans were pushed halfway outside the tent to catch rainwater so they would be easier to clean in the morning. Then we put up the inner tent settled down for the night. Our Ortliebs had done us proud again and all our sleeping gear was dry. In our sleeping bags we warmed up nicely, and went to sleep to the sound of rain blatting down on the tent. We were both woken by the rain a couple of times in the night, but all in all a reasonable nights' sleep.