Day 10

Middle disaster

Early morning (something we have become very unaccustomed to)

Sigmund drove us back into Oslo for the second day of the Norsk O festival. It was the day of the middle distance and no need to hold you in suspense, it was a disaster.

Tim had the early start and did not have the best of runs, missing many of his controls very slightly, but then taking a while to actually find them (He needs to work on his fine navigation).

Dylan’s start time was about twenty minutes after Tim’s. He arrived at the start on time and after a bit of confusion with a number bib set off into the forest. He’d developed an Achilles niggle the previous day after the sprint and so wasn’t particularly fast, but worked on navigation instead. Other than a bit of inaccuracy on one or two controls the race went quite well.

Roark arrived at the start early. He was cool, collected and ready to start when his time appeared on the T -3 clocks. But on entry of the start tunnel he was told he needed a new number for a new day. A close to three minute run around ensued and the number was found. He made it into start blocks with new number in hand and a rattled brain. On the map pick-up he managed to lose his shoe in the mud and had to endure even more embarrassment as he struggled to put it back on. Halfway to the first control and he got his numbers sorted, but this horrible start set the tone for the course as he struggled to find control no. 1. He managed to get into the map but big mistakes set any good splits back.

Sigmund had the best run of the day, but we had to expect as much of our host.

Having not learnt from the day before (we forgot to bring food again), we headed to get burgers at the arena, before driving back to Sigmund’s house.

At Sigmund’s house we took advantage of his showers and wifi (as always) and sat on his veranda for a while as the weather was warm. We had some food out on the veranda all together, it was Lomper and sausages, which is a very Norwegian dish. Lomper are effectively potato wraps that you eat round a hotdog sausage with tomato sauce and mustard. 

Sigmund and Torill then headed off to a party. We were left with Jorgen to prepare supper. We popped a couple of pizzas in the oven and sat in the lounge playing around with pianos and guitars.

After dinner we went on a moose safari with Sigmund’s father Ole. We drove around the countryside with a pair of binoculars and a lot of enthusiasm. Especially Dylan, Dylan loves a good moose hunt. Unfortunately we didn’t see any moose, but did see a reindeer (Dylan got a bit excited there, it was just a deer) and a lot of very attractive fields. And a tree (Dylan doesn’t seem to realise that Norway is carved out of trees). 

We eventually had to give up the moose search and were dropped off back at the clubhouse. Ole doesn’t speak any English so Jorgen acted as a translator on the safari.

When we got back the party was just beginning. We were invited over for cake and tea. We then felt much obliged to watch the performance of the guy whose birthday it was and his band. They were called Dreadmist and we were expecting heavy metal from the look of their poster and their appearance. They ended up being a sort of heavy rock band (no screaming), and the music was not bad. All the lyrics were in English though which meant we were probably the only people in the room who understood the songs well. Dylan headed off after not too long to go and pack for the next day, but Tim and Roark stayed to the end and then preceded to get more cake and tea before returning to the cottage for an episode of arrow.

Quote of the day: Dylan: “do moose ever play on the swings?”, we then preceded to get a story of how the Vister’s swing had once been destroyed in the night by a moose (the moose actually just ran into the swing, but we’ll say it was playing on it)