Friday 22 August 2025 – When we visited Antarctica, we had several conversations with people on our cruise who had previously visited the Arctic and recommended it. And so the idea to see the other end of the Earth was born, and when Kate at Whisper and Wild, who had organised our excellent Madagascar trip, suggested a specific cruise on a small boat in the environs of the Svalbard archipelago, it seemed that Fate had joined the dots for us. During discussions, Kate suggested a side excursion, to Dovrefjell in the Norwegian midlands, and so we included this as well as a couple of days in Oslo, with which city neither Jane nor I are familiar. So, we have a three-phase travel, and today we embarked on Phase I.

As with our Antarctica/Argentina junket, we’re covering a fair range of possible climate conditions, and so packing has not been straightforward. It’s not something I normally agonise over, but I have found it rather trying to make sure I pack a useful selection of clothing to cover sightseeing in a capital city in late summer conditions, tramping through the forests of the Norwegian midlands in search of local wildlife and clambering about on Zodiacs and tundra north of the Arctic Circle. Of course, I have also to pack a wide range of photo gear to give me the best chance of coming back after a couple of weeks with some good images.

Again, as with what seems like all of our travels, we had an early start today – an 0600 alarm, with the mission to rise, complete packing, have breakfast and get to Heathrow for a 1035 flight to Oslo, preferably without having forgotten anything.

In the end, the travel worked pretty smoothly, although a little congestion at the entry to the airport didn’t serve to settle the nerves. But we checked our bags and got through security in about 20 minutes, the flight pushed back and arrived a couple of minutes early and Hertz had a car ready for us and the four-hour journey north of Oslo to Dombås.

I’ve driven across the wilds of Sweden before, and found it pretty dull – there’s a lot of pine forest and huge boulders between its major cities. I was not expecting Norway to be significantly different, and I’m glad to say that I was wrong.  The journey was more picturesque and more varied than I had feared. Our timing didn’t allow us to be leisurely en route to Dovrefjell, but Jane took a lot of photos as we drove along.

The route to Dombås is almost entirely along the E6 Trondheim road. It starts as a decent stretch of fast dual carriageway, allowing us to view a selection of the undeniably stylish motorway bridges on offer.

as well as tunnels,

some of which were several kilometres long – not surprising, given the general lumpiness of Norway’s geography. We passed the odd occasional town

and lake

before we reached Lillehammer.  That’s a familiar name; I wonder why?

Ah yes, of course – Olympics and skijumping.

After Lillehammer, the road became largely single carriageway and consequently slower, but still passed through some nice countryside

and lakes and rivers of an extraordinary shade of green

and we arrived into the Dovrefjell area in lovely afternoon sunshine.

The Trolltun hotel is well-signposted, and after we checked in a specimen of the local wildlife was there to welcome us as we went to our room.

We had arrived just in time for dinner, an excellent meal served in unsurprisingly rustic surroundings.

On the walls were some more specimens of local ex-residents

and it will be a pleasure, I suspect, over the coming couple of days, to seek out some more of the rather delightful decor of the place.

And so ended day1 as we reached the start of Phase 1. It will involve tramping around looking for extant examples of local wildlife, and tomorrow’s weather is looking a little uncertain, so we’re not quite sure how things will pan out.  I suggest you check back in in due course to find out.