Wednesday 19 August 2015

August 19th 2015: Norway: The Rauma Railway

Monty the Motorhome is parked at one of the most dramatic campsites he has ever been in. It is enclosed on two sides by steep and vertical mountain walls, one of which extends to 1000 metres and is the highest vertical rock face in Europe. A raging river runs close by, with water blue from snowmelt.

We rose early this morning to get to the town of Åndalsnes, terminus of the Rauma Railway, billed as one of Europe’s top 10 scenic rail journeys. This route is a working transport hub, but also doubles as a tourist attraction, with the train slowing at the main attractions and providing a spoken commentary in several languages. From previous research we knew it could get busy, so wanted to be at the ticket office with plenty of time to spare before catching the 0929hrs train. A very helpful young lady sorted us out with tickets and gave some advice on best places to sit. The train left on time and began it’s 90 minute journey to Dombås. Within a very short time we were in amongst the mountains. A splendid peak reared to the one side - Romsdalshorn - shaped like an inverted ice cream cone, while on the other side was Trollveggan, the 1000 metre rock face where we would camp later in the day. The railroad twists and turns up River Rauma valley, passing over 32 bridges during a huge gain in altitude from sea level to 660 metres at Dombås. Early on during the journey a Norwegian man sitting opposite us offered to swap seats (he had a window seat), saying he travelled this route quite often so had seen it all before. So Ruth and I both had a panoramic view. However he didn’t stop at this; for the rest of the journey he gave us a commentary about what we were seeing, complementing (and at times repeating) the on-board audio announcements. 
Dombås is the terminus of the Rauma railway, where it joins the main Oslo to Trondheim line. Quite a few passengers were travelling onwards, including Mr Kind Norwegian. We had just over an hour to kill before returning on the same route, so walked down into the town to buy some lunch.
Luckily our seats for the return journey were on the opposite side of the train to those coming up, so we were able to appreciate views we had missed before.

Åndalsnes terminus

Back in Åndalsnes we stocked up on provisions from one of the local supermarkets and made our way back up Romsdalen.

Our stop for tonight is Trollveggan Camping, which sounded so good from the Sheila and Paul’s travelogue (referred to previously during our trip). On arrival it was just as they described it - level grassy terraces, good clean facilities and enjoying the most dramatic of settings right under Trollveggan.

A dramatic setting for tonight's pitch



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