5:00 am – my alarm went of and I am out of bed. Quick shower and the carefully prepared equipment is on its way to the car. Audiobook connected to the radio and the tour can start. Empty roads that early. I plan to find my first cache in Oppdal, about 150 km from Molde. My goal: Find at least one cache in every municipality in the county of Sør-Trøndelag (Challenge). There are 25 municipalities and I only got 2 of them before (Hemne and Trondheim).
First short stop in Sunndalsøra – a church without a geocache is a no no. 7 o’clock and it is done. Nonstop to Oppdal. Parked the car and the geocache is located fast. It is one of the Norgesboks caches, a series of 50 caches all over Norway. I plan to get 4 of them on my tour, finishing the Trøndelag part of the bokses.
After that it is a stop and go tour towards Røros. I carefully prepared the tour with the great tool on www.cachetur.no. Over 90 in 2 days might be a little bit too much, but I will see. I also planned to get as many parts of the 360 degrees of Norway challenge – which I think will take me several years to finish… I cross the municipalities of Oppdal, Rennebu, Midtre Gaudal and Holtålen before I arrive in the town of Røros.
Røros is an UNESCO World Heritage site. On a Saturday there are a lot of tourists here. Having used a lot of time stopping at many caches, I just take a quick walk through the city center and buy some pastry before I return to the car to leave. There are many more municipalities on my list for today and it is already afternoon, so at this point I have to cut down my list of caches to do and just do one in every municipality.
There is another Norgesboks a little bit outside of the town, close to an old church, which I also get. This was my last Norgesboksfor Sør-Trøndelag. Leaves Nord-Trøndelag tomorrow.
Then I see my first reindeer, which is not part of a plate of food. 🙂 I had some moose before, but this animal was on my list. After nearly 10 years in Norway it was about time.
So without hesitation on to Tydal, Selbu, Malvik, Klæbu, Melhus, Meldal, Orkdal and Skaun municipality. In Klæbu I feel the first signs of to much driving – I have problems finding easy caches. But I want to do it. i do not want to come back later.
At last, around 9 pm I arrive at my hotel in Trondheim. I have been driving and caching for about 15 hours and I cannot enjoy the upgrade I got at the hotel to a small suite. It is just a trip to the house of the golden arches and a quick shopping stop at the supermarket close to the hotel before I go to my room, log the caches I found today and fall asleep. There is still a long day to come tomorrow.
The day ends at about 700 km, 12 municipalities, 35 caches found, 2 Norgesbokser found, around 15 hours spent. More to come tomorrow. God night! 🙂