30-Jul-2001 -- We were on our summer vacation in Norway. The first week we spent in Elverum, participating at the 8th European Forestry Orienteering Championships. We had a hut on a camping site about 30 km away from the 61N 12E confluence point.

One sunny noon we grabbed our GPS and drove on main road 25 north-eastwards out of Elverum. Having only a 1:300.000 scale roadmap with a cross at the confluence point in it, was sufficient to get near the point by car. We left the main road about 6 km north of the point and drove on a small forest road southward. When the target was only 4.5 km ahead, we decided to continue by foot.

First we followed a footpath to its end, where it crossed another one. Neither going left nor right brought us closer to our goal. Therefore it seemed necessary to go straight across the country to reach it. Still 3.5 km to go, we had only the arrow on the GPS to follow, but we joyfully went on. And found us among small spruces, pines and birches, lots of grass on a fen. It didn’t take long before we got wet feet.

However, we came closer and closer to our first confluence point! After a while we started guessing, whether the point would be on one of these small rocky hills or just in the middle of one of the brooks…

Finally we found it on a huge meadow, next to a puddle and a small group of pine trees. Sure, that we stood with our feet in the water.

On the way back to the car we found a small path, probably used by elk hunters and followed it with the assumption it would quickly lead us to a bigger road. Indeed: Just after 1 km the small path ended at a forest road, which we followed. After a turn to the right we found the footpath we had used before. We arrived at the car, exhausted and hungry but lucky - our first point was done!