Silly Billies Return to Roam

I just did 3 new posts - this one is a little rambling so if you are not into orienteering puff or reading Emily's mad long posts check out the other two entries below this one, they have some cool pictures and are more short and sweet. But if you stick with me you are a really dedicated fan (-: So.... another week went by in Trondheim with excellent ski conditions providing us many more days entertainment - AND - we also spent time doing more normal things like: 1. Chris looking for work, visiting NTNU, a career fair, various lecturers and companies 2. Emily visiting her new job and hoping to get some hours there! 3. Emily spending many hours waiting at the Police station to get her Residency Permit. 4. Attending O training with Wing on Monday night 5. Chris going to interval training on a Wednesday (a regular occurrence now - gasp!) 6. Emily learning to knit at the 'knit group' she was asked to join (-: 7. Buying more food supplies (a continual battle) from the local sup...

It was the Tuesday after we got back from our weekend spent frolicking on Storhornet in the Oppdal mountains and ski conditions in Bymarka were too good to resist. So we set out to conquer the '3 peaks' with the sun shining down upon us. After a five minute walk from our place we hopped on the 'Skistua' bus for 15mins to reach the base of the Gråkalen skifield. Our first goal was Gråkalen, a rounded peak with a small downhill ski field on it. The powder was sooo fresh as we trudged up to the summit to admire the blob observatories on top. We struggled back down through heavy snow and average skiing abilities, then scooted across the frozen lake and on to our next summit - Bosbergheia. This was a lumpy top and provided some beautiful views across the fjord. The trees were dripping with fresh blue snow. Unfortunately Chris and I had some debate as to which peak here was actually the summit! So on to the final and highest point - Storheia (stor = big). We had to walk ...

Last weekend we set out for another ski tour adventure with our Scottish friend Ally, who has recently purchased himself a shiny pair of Randonee skis. We had borrowed some more heavy weight classic skis and boots from a friendly Norwegian we met at the bus stop. We took off on Friday night to Oppdal, which is about 1.5 hours drive from Trondheim. We skied in to a cozy hut called Gjevilvashytta and spent the night there with some friendly Norwegians and a Belgian from NTNU university. Ally had an interesting time skinning in on the prepared trail while we zipped along on our skinny skis - however the tables would be turned the following day on our decent of Storhornet where some randonee skis were just the ticket! In the morning we skied back to the car and drove to the base of Storhornet. We skied up through the trees, then above them onto the snowy slopes towards the summit. The sun was shining through the clouds and we got a great view of the valley below. After 3 hours we reach...

After Christmas was over and we had fed oursleves on lots of chocolates and other delicious goodies Chris and I decided it was time to venture into the mountains to find some real snow! We hired a wee bubble blue car and set out into heavy snowfall. The land was quickly turning from white to whiter, if that is possible? We set out first to meet with Aaron and Sara and their friends in a place called Grövelsjön just over the Norwegian border in Sweden. We drove through the dark on the snowy roads to arrive at their place just in time before the New Year's Eve dinner. We had created an apple pie to accompany Aaron's pavlova...we were going for a Kiwi themed desert as it turned out. We had a wonderful feast then most of the 16 guests headed out onto the road to join in a large group of candle holding people heading towards the little upper carpark to see in the New Year. It was snowing heavily adding to the atmosphere. After a countdown there was a good wee fireworks display and ...

On Wednesday we landed in Stockholm airport, after flying over a white land. Snow and ice covered Sweden and it was hard to believe only a day ago we had been in sunny Brazil. We stepped off the plane to an icy blast; but it wasn't long before we were back on a cozy Swedish train on our way to Borlange. We were so excited by the white cold landscape before us. By 3,30 it was dark, so we crunched up the front steps of Alistair's place in Borlange and located the key for the his stuga. We woke up early to pack our vast mountains of gear into a vaguely transportable form and lugged it down to the train station via the bus. Once there we caught a train for 2 hours to Mora, and from there a 5 hour bus trip to Ostersund. In Ostersund it was beautiful and white with little christmas lights everywhere. We stayed in the 'train station hostel' (thank goodness there was one close!). Early the following morning we boarded the train for Trondheim and arrived here just as the sun set...

I looked out the cabin window to the arid planes of outlying Fortaleza disappearing below me. Slowly they transformed into more scrub covered hills and eventually onto a huge blue harbour. We landed in Salvador and waited in the airport for the arrival of Jorge and Rafael, our Brazilian friends who were going to lead us on this crazy adventure. Once we had all gathered in the airport, with the help of some super friendly locals Dilton and Casseo (organisers of the adventure race Brazil Wild) we were dropped off at the ferry terminal to Itacare. The sun was shining out across the harbour as we boarded the boat and a group on the ferry were beating out some great samba music to accompany us across. From Bom Dispachio on the other side we caught a 2 hour taxi ride to Camamu. By that time it was dark and Rafael had preorganised a jet boat to take us the final distance to the little beach villiage of Barra Grande. We sailed in across the still bay to twinkling lights on the shore and disemb...