Day 10, 15 January 2016

38.6 km walk along Setesdal and good news for red squirrels

A long day but a very satisfying one. We walked 38.6km along the truly beautiful Setesdal valley, passing traditional wooden houses as we walked along the enormously long Byglandlanfsfjorden lake. It snowed in the morning, but in the afternoon the sun came out. The temperature dropped to -10C and a wonderful temperature inversion saw fog descended upon the frozen lake. The narrowing of the lake with old fashioned lock gates at Storstraumen was a natural spectacle. Given that we are doing this journey to raise funds and awareness for Northumberland Wildlife Trust, (and particularly red squirrels) we thought it particularly apt when we found a dead grey squirrel by the side of the track. A great prophetic omen for the survival of the reds in the UK. I'm sure the People's Post Code Lottery that offer tremendous support to the Wildlife Trust would also be pleased with such an auspicious omen in our awareness journey. The day ended rather bizarrely when we found a cabin in what turned out to be a refugee accommodation centre for over 30 refugees from Eritrea and Syria. They were astonished to see us arrive, and they were clearly finding it much colder than us.