Gaustabanen, Rjukan 6 7 August

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We decided to drive inland and managed to see one of the wonders of Norway the old wooden church build at the time they were moving from pagan to christian.

It was amazingly complicated and quite beautiful.

Next to it they had gathered old farm houses and buildings  so we had a look through those as well.

animals and tools under the house


painted interior walls

the sheep shed

We carried on and soon realised that reggie had taken us on a secondary road and not the easy one through the valley. We climbed and climbed and climbed and he started to puff and moan and the temperature dial was rising.



After about 24 kilometres we had to give up we stopped opened the engine and we could hear the boiling water.

We decided to stop where we were for the night , there was a smaller van there as well. it was just a gravel plateau at the top of the pass,


The clouds came down and it rained and the wind blew rocking the van  it was like the set of a  horror movie and I said to P Im not opening the door for anyone.
But still wwe had dinner and watched a movie ( downloaded previously ) and went to sleep.



In the morning the wind had dropped and we set off to the gaustabanen, which is a tunnel railway into a mountain then another cog railway which takes you to the top.


You end up 1883 Mts above sea level. They were building it for skiers and tourists then the army decided to take over for radio comms and then NATo and the US opted in s well and it became a military comms site .

It wasn't till 2010 that they gave it back and it became a tourist spot.
It was very odd to go up inside the mountain and swap from a flat to rising train and come out on the top.

train one , tunnel all build by hand no machines

view from the top, the grey path had lots of walkers climbing up to the top

the radio tower thay had an apartment at the top

me on the end of the world about to step off








After that excitement we went down a hairpin road to Rjukan a world heritage city known for:

  • a WW2 raid to sabotage a heavy water power plant
  • Mirrors on top of a hill shining sunshine down to the village so the people could see sun over winter they have 6 months of no sunshine
  • a cable car built to take the people to the top so they could sit in the sun
  • The second best goats cheese in the world
  • the best yarn shop in the world
  • Mass production of  fertilisers using hydropower??? 
We bought a book about the raid.

Stood in the light of the mirrors ( they are focused on the town square and computer aligned ) 

Went up the cable car and started the walk to the mirrors but after two hours of up and down on slippery narrow paths we met another walker going the other way and they said the mirrors were ages away and even steeper so we gave up. 


white building is cable car house we walked to here and more


a bit rough in places

tired on the way back
Got the cable car down and had a coffee. We are staying the night in the cable car car park.



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