Day 8

Half a tub of butter

We were woken by the sound of knocking on our front porch, and thinking that someone was knocking on the door, we hastily jumped out of bed, only to discover that the noise was actually hammer generated (repairs were being done on the porch). 

We slowly got ourselves ready to face another day and eventually got out to do some orienteering. Roark and Tim did a shortish ‘brown only’ (contour only) course which, while quite slow going, was good to get them reading the contour detail more carefully. Dylan meanwhile did the short uphill course.

The middle of the afternoon registers as a blank in our memory bank, so clearly nothing all too exciting went down. We did however manage to eat every scrap of food left in the kitchen walking away from the day with only half a tub of butter.

As the afternoon rolled by Roark decided to hit the short downhill and uphill courses that he had missed the day before due to a struggling achilles. While all went relatively smoothly for the first half, Roark managed to zone out on his way to the first finish and spent a good while moseying around looking for the start to the uphill course. The uphill course was a lot less fluid (unless you count the marshes), partially because much of the control tape was hard to spot but we have to put a bit down to less focused navigation. Dylan decided to tackle the ‘brown only’ course which he enjoyed a fair bit. He generally quite enjoys using contour detail to navigate and so the map and the training exercise suited him well. Given all the detail on these maps it can be educative to see them simplified, it gives one a better sense of the nuances of mapping in this part of the world.

After a short stint of relaxation, Roark and Tim took to the lawn to throw a Frisbee. While the Frisbee flew back and forth across the field, and Dylan headed up to the tower to take some pictures, two Norwegian girls came running up to the club house. While their dog was interested in the Frisbee, the South Africans were more interested in….you get the point.

Just after, Tim got a brainwave and was soon seen climbing to the top of the tower, with Frisbee in hand! While the trajectory of the Frisbee was noticeably altered by the strong winds, both the South Africans had fun not only throwing the Frisbee from the top of the tower but also trying to get it back up. When Roark’s throw got stuck in a tree he activated monkey mode and scrambled up after it, and although he wasn’t quite as graceful as the description would suggest, he managed to retrieve the Frisbee none the less.

We then set about cleaning up the cabin. While Dylan whipped out the vacuum cleaner and got busy, Roark pretended to sweep the floor. Tim set about the task of doing the dishes (Tim does a lot of dishes, making up for his absence when preparing meals). Soon everything was spotless and Dylan used the last few minutes before we were picked up to listen to some tunes, while Tim and Roark picked up where they left off and returned to a bit of Frisbee. They then took to spying on the Halden club house (checking out all the trophies), before taking a quick last look at the view from the tower. As they got up though, their lift arrived so the long trip up was for naught.

Tim was ecstatic to be lifted back to Einarbu by a once WOC medallist and nearly died when he got to shake his hand (we may have over exaggerated this ever so slightly). The rest of us on the other hand managed to maintain our composure and we were able to learn valuable lessons about what we may encounter in Rauland. On the way back we stopped off at Kwiki (a supermarket) for some food. We decided to impress Tim Noakes by stocking up on some meat but fell short when we saw the hot chips in the freezer.

Back at Eina bru we quickly fixed a dinner of fish fingers and fries (ok, Tim Noakes would not be impressed). Tim Chambers on the other hand was very impressed when he found tomato sauce in the cold room. After devouring our meals we hung around for a while, generally faffing around. 

Dylan soon resumed his love affair with the spot under the moose and continued reading his book.

Sigmund then came to show us the cottage we will be staying in while a group of thirty women invade the club house for a party tomorrow night (here’s hoping it’s a 21st…).

Tim then went for a run in the soaking forest to get his daily running quota up to ten km’s. He also did a couple of strides to check if his legs still work before tomorrow’s sprint race. Dylan and Roark in the meantime sat down to start the blog, taking a quick break to make toasted sandwiches with a waffle machine. With the blog nearly done, Tim returned.

And for a change we are actually up to date!

Quote of the day: Snickers in your nickers – Roark

Fact of the day: 3 yards equals ten metres – according to a confuzzled Dylan

Awkward interaction of the day: walking past two elderly ladies who just sat on the bench outside our cabin for four hours straight, watching everything we did (including us hanging up underwear on the washing line two metres away). They made us feel like we had to say hi every time we walked by.