Day 13, 18 January 2016

Plastic doesn't like the cold

 Another cold day at -17C., although not as brutal as yesterday. We had 2 plastic incidents today! The first one was when I want to get my water bottle out of my rucksack and as I squeezed the buckle it just snapped. The second was associated with my new plastic map case, that has a very strong closing seal... I simply couldn't open it to turn the map over. In the end I had to take my gloves off and use bare fingers, which incidental wasn't a clever thing in these temperatures. I decided to wear mitts today which are always warmer than gloves, only to discover that the fleece inner mitts were size medium instead of my customary XL. I cannot believe I made such a basic error because I am normally so meticulous with kit preparation. Fortunately, I have a spare pair for emergencies, so It is not the end of the world. We have arrived at the town of Hovden and intend to rest tomorrow as we have put in some longish kilometres the last few days and the bodies feel quite pounded. The colder weather, although a shock to the system, is good because it generally takes about 2-3 weeks for someone from a warmer country to acclimatise to being outside in the cold all day. We are slowly achieving this. The next stage sees us head across the mountains to Haukeleseater. Hopefully, being further East and North (and colder), will have made the lakes more frozen and stable. We will check with iskart.no to get the latest ice information (previous ice report 14 January). The few Norwegians we have met think it's fantastic what we are doing (apart from the odd city dweller who thinks we are mad!).