Motorcycle Explorer October 2014 Issue 2 | Page 46
Paul Holroyd
It was still only mid-afternoon and
so I decided to visit the stave
church which is just outside the
modern centre of town. Although
not the most famous or indeed
ornate stave church in Norway the
Ringebu church dates back to the
13th century, built entirely from
the slow grown Norwegian timber it
really is a fantastic feat of primitive
engineering. The church is still used
for daily services by the faithful of
Ringebu as it has been for a
mindboggling 760 years.
The next day I am looking at the
map and will be heading for
Dovrefjell a high altitude plateau,
home of wild Reindeer and the last
stronghold of Norway’s magnificent
Musk Ox. Leaving the E6 for the
day I decided to take the lesser
route 27 joining it just north of
Ringebu. The road twists and turns
as it climbs and you can literaly feel
the drop in temperature around
every climbing bend.
Something that I learned very
quickly about Norway is that of
altitude, it is plain to see the
change in vegetation as you climb. I
know this is not a necessary skill to
have on a bike because my running
nose tells me that it is cold as do
my frozen feet, the only two
problems that I have thanks again
to Halvarssons. Anyway if you are in
a nice warm car with the heater on
before you open the door to be
shocked by the cold, altitude can be
judged like this, lush green conifers
interspersed with green leaved
Birch trees equals Lowland
relatively warm. Sparse straggly
conifers and yellow leaved Birch,
it’s getting colder, stunted bare
Birch trees, now it is cold.
Nothing but a few berry bushes and
rock equals freezing and that is
where I am now, my ebay bought
temperature gauge states that it is
-8 degrees, I really don’t know but
it is very cold. There is a stark
beauty about these vast upland
places with nothing for as far as the
eye can see, but as I think about
how dangerous these exposed
places can be, it starts to snow, only
lightly but it is snowing.
The road seems to go on indefin
conscious that I am still climbin
didn’t I stick with the E6, that’s t
to ride. I realise that my jaw is a
through cold, more that I am ten
descend, I want to see houses o
anything. An hour later the road
turn downward as I follow a rag
For mile after mile the foaming
progress and as my confidence
bends once again become a joy
I have survived something that p
except in my own mind.
Still bitterly cold I re-join the ma
descending into the bustling no
Trondheim, Norway’s third large
used to be Norway’s capital, St O
boasts a picturesque location on
of the massive expanse of wate