Monday 20th August 2018
Our plan for today was a 74 km, hour and a half drive to the National Park village of Lom, located at the foot of the mighty mountain Lomseggen. We were looking forward to admiring Lom’s main attraction, the lovely stave church, as well as indulging in a traditional Norwegian Schillingbollen bun and a hot chocolate at the Bakeriet i Lom.
Our drive out of Geiranger on RV 63 took us up towards Dalsnibba and past Djupvatnet before joining the E 15 road. From here we drove past several large lakes dotted with log cabins, which looked ideal for a spot of fishing, as long as you have an appropriate licence as well as a very small island with the remotest house in the vicinity 😉
On the opposite side of the road, despite feeling as if we were in the middle of nowhere, we saw large wooden lodges perched on the hills above the road, with spectacular views across the lake.
Our journey threaded between the Reinheimen national park and Breheimen national park and the road was lined with tall trees, with glimpses of the river we were running alongside.
Like so many of our drives out, it often takes a lot longer than predicted by Google, as we have a habit of stopping to admire the views or take photos. This trip was no exception. Our stops included:
Just off the E 15 to admire the Framruste River. The power of water is always something to be in awe of.
We would have stopped further along to see the Pollfoss but it was closed.
At the beautiful blue coloured lake, Heggjebottvatnet, this was dammed at one end.
Dønfoss Camping, which is located on the Otta River, where the Dønfossen can be seen.
And on the way back we also stopped at the start of the Billingen Culture Trail to admire the cascading water yet again.
On the final leg of the journey leading towards Lom we were blessed with views along the wide base of the valley of the River Otta, where the far bank was home to a plethora of farms and cultivated land; delightful picture postcard scene.
We had also noticed that most of the dwellings in this area were not painted in the pastel shades we had spotted during our travels but were more rustic in their dark brown to nearly black wooden exteriors.
On reaching Lom we located a car park, conveniently close to the Bakeriet i Lom and several other small shops and headed straight inside for our long awaited hot chocolate and bun! This bakery has featured in an episode of the Hairy Bikers and we were happy to give it a try too, in the name of research of course 😉
Needless to say we were not disappointed with our choices and also had a brilliant table next to the window overlooking the River Bøvra where we could watch the torrential torrent of water gushing over the rocks sending spray high into the air before thundering under the main road bridge.
Across the main E 15 was the Lom Stave Church. There are several types of stave churches, but one thing they have in common is corner-posts (“staves”) and a framework of timber with wall planks standing on sills. These walls are known as stave walls, hence the name stave church.
Not far from here we found a small wooden bridge which led us over the river and Prestfossen which led us back up to the main road in Lom and the location of the tourist office.
