Hans arrived in Norway yesterday and Hans is not a nice guy. He has now flooded, shifted or subsided parts of southern Norway. And I understand that the rest of Scandinavia, Finland and the Baltics are also having a visit from Hans. I'm talking about "Ekstremværet Hans". Or in other words, Hans is the name of the extreme weather conditions here.
Since I am getting a lot of messages from people who are worried about me or want to warn me, I am sending this short newsletter.
Although I am in the red area, I am safe here. For almost a week now, I have been in an appartment in the centre of the small town of Oppdal (on the map: slightly above Dombås). It came on my way by chance: I was looking for a place where I could write for a week and Halldis (the same Halldis from newsletter 2) went away for a week and I was allowed to stay in her flat. And now I'm sitting here high and dry. Every now and then I look down to see if my little red car hasn't drifted away, but it's still there on his place. (see photo: the troll standing in the centre of Oppdal did borrow him for a while last weekend).
A couple of times a day I watch the Norwegian news and am shocked by the images. I also recognize places because The St. Olav Way runs right through the affected area (from Oslo to Trondheim). Pilgrims were warned to stay indoors for at least two days, yesterday and today.
Today seems to be the peak, but strangely enough, as I type this (9:30 am), out of the flat windows I see the mountains reappearing behind the clouds. As if it were clearing up. But that is typical of the area where I am now: weather changes occur in quick succession, so maybe it will be different in an hour's time. Tomorrow, if the weather is okay, I hope to move on north for follow-up jobs. More on this later...
Kind regards, Gea
Photos from the past 11 days, since Remy left (I meant to type 'last month', as it feels much longer):
Cooking and eating together at Louis and Pieter-Jan's with three other WarmShow guests
The guide to the Kristians Route is now also for sale at the pilgrimage centre in Oslo (in Dutch).
Route check for the route On the way to St. Olav, between Oslo and the Swedish border.
In and around Oppdal
