The first day covers our Drammen-Gjendesheim drive, with full driving directions, in preparation of our 14 Km-long Besseggen Ridge Hike (early morning Day 2).
Drammen Church, Norway
We drove out of Drammen at midday on Day one. Took the E18 towards Oslo, leaving it to take the 285 to Hønefoss in Buskerund County. We passed Lierbyen, Enger and Toverund. On the way to Toverund we had the Holsfjorden on our left, which offered us fantastic views through the trees on the road. In Skaret, 285 joins E16, and continues to Hønefoss.
Due to the winding nature of the roads at this stage of the trip, it took us 1.5 hours to get there. We drove on the E16 in the direction of Fagernes in the Valley of Valdres. Sperillen Lake was on our left, which in such misty weather offered gentle and melancholic steel-gray views.
We stopped at the local supermarket right before entering Fagernes, loaded the car with provisions for the cabin, and took 51 towards Randsverk. This leg of the drive offered a significant, radical change in the landscape we had enjoyed so far: gone were the fertile lands with exuberant profusion of trees and shrubbery to give way to a flat, undulating and almost barren land during the Summer months. Judging from the height of the snow-pole markers on the side of the road, Winter must be a ghastly and tough affair in this area.
We got to Maurvangen at 16.45h, where we took possession of the cabin we had rented in the camp.
Maurvangen Cabin
After hearing from the reception desk that the weather forecast was indicating clear and rain-free conditions for the following day, we decided to take an exploratory walk from Maurvangen to the ferry station in Gjendesheim (2km up the road) so we could calculate the time it would take us to get to the 9.30h ferry to Memurubu on the following day.
journeys and places 