St. Olavsleden

Day 24, Vuku - Verdal, 18 km approx.

Reached Verdal today and I felt like a crazy cat lady coming down from the mountains. I've not seen this many people and cars since I left Helsinki almost a month ago.

Reached also Stiklestad today around noon. Didn't stop there for long, but this is where the journey of Olav Haraldsson ended. After having marched from Russia through Finland and Sweden he and his army met a peasant army on the fields of Stiklestad. His army was defeated and he was killed in the battle on 29th of July 1030.

After the battle his body was buried in Trondheim. Shortly after people visiting his grave reported miracles happening. The cult of Olav was born. Later Olav was made saint, St. Olav and the Nidaros cathedral was built over his tomb and people flocked to Nidaros, the old name of Trondheim, on a pilgrimage. This used to be one of the most important pilgrimages for Catholics, along with a visit to Santiago de Compostela and Jerusalem.

However during the Reformation the Lutheran faith outlawed pilgrimages and the exact location of Olav Haraldsson's grave was lost. Even when the new faith was hostile to this type of activities they could not erase such a big part of Scandinavian history. The name Olav still lives in the many churches, castles, springs, statues and paintings in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Denmark and Iceland.

Since 2014 the old pilgrimage route has been marked down from Selånger to Trondheim as a long-distance hike, the hike I'm now hiking. In Norway there are many more routes leading to Trondheim and Finland has currently two long-distance hikes. The newest one leaves from St. Olaf's Castle and goes to Turku.

From Verdal where I'm for the night it's about 14 km to the path that separates into an outer and inner route and you have to choose which route you take. Originally I had planned to hike the traditional inner route as most go through that path.

However yesterday because my right leg still keeps giving problems I made the decision to hike rest of the journey on the so-called outer route. It follows the coastline of the Trondheim fjord and finally ends to the island of Tautra where a group of Trappistine nuns live on the site of former Tautra Abbey. From here you need to get a boat ride to Trondheim.

I decided this route because the outer route is slightly shorter, the terrain shouldn't be as rough as on the inner route and I also have more time to crawl shorter distances to the island of Tautra if I need to because of my leg, as next possible boat for me won't leave until Monday. It also gives me possible two rest days if I need as distance is shorter.

My leg is not finished. It felt ok to walk today, but the inner route can be pretty bad and rough especially on wet conditions. I rather as a precaution move to the outer route. And to be honest it was a route that I was more interested originally because it follows the coastline.

I met today a Dutch couple who started from Östersund and their feet were also pretty beat up from hiking yesterday in the rain up and down the mountains. So it's just not me.

In the morning before leaving I threw everything extra away trying to lighten my backpack for the last 100 kilometers. Mosquito spray, sun screen, skin lotion, extra camping gas, all away!Read more