07-Aug-2001 -- We were on our summer vacation in Norway. During the first week we had visited confluence point 61N 12E near Elverum. The second week we had planned hiking through the Hardangervidda national park. There was an unvisited confluence point in the southwest of Hardangervidda, so we decided for a southwest to north crossing of the plateau, starting in Røldal.

Hardangervidda is a plateau with subarctic vegetation. It is mainly covered with rocks and fens. There are dwarf-birches and -willows, but lichens, mosses and grass are prevalent. Fields of snow remain during the summer. Large amounts of rain and melting water build fens and brooklets and very cold rivers. 40.000 wild reindeers live on Hardangervidda, but I don’t spoil to much if I tell you that we saw none of them.

On Sunday, the 5th of August, we parked our car in Maurset at main road 7 and took several busses half around Hardangervidda. We arrived in the middle of the night at a camping site in Røldal. Next morning the sun was shining while we left civilization going up northwards. Because of our huge backpacks and the sweet blueberries on the way we moved on very slowly and failed to reach the point on the first day as we had planned. Nevertheless, we found a nice, mossy place for staying over night.

Next day we went up the valley Vivassdalen following the footpath from Middalsbu to Litlos. The confluence point just lies beneath the way. When we came around the last hill before it, we saw a huge fen. The arrow of our GPS was pointing directly through it and it was hard to say if the point would lie directly within it or behind it. We hoped behind and went further on the side of the fen. And we were lucky. It was not in the fen. But we had to cross a really cold river that was meandering and branching in the proximity of the point. Because of that I changed my hiking shoes for Teva sandals. We crossed two branches of that river and stood before a third one, when the GPS pointed 10 m further. So we also crossed the third one. At this point Christian’s feet (in his boots) became wet, too.

On the other riverbank the GPS pointed back to the river and it became clear that for a picture with the GPS showing N 60° 00.000` E 7° 00.000` I had to step in the middle of that cold water stream again. As you can see, I did it.