Then there were 9

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Geo: 59.9138, 10.7387

It was strange at breakfast today as there were now only 3 crew and 9 tourists. Yesterday afternoon the other 13 tourists left our tour and caught the ferry to Tallin to join one of the other Topdeck tours and then heading into Russia. It was very quiet on the bus and we had heaps of room to spread out. We were glad to see the back of some of the ones that left.

Today we drove west and past many pine trees and lakes. The scenery was beautiful. As usual I slept and read on the bus. At 4 o'clock we arrived in Oslo and went to the Holmenkollen Ski Jump, which was used in the Olympic in the 50's. We caught the lift half way up and then walked 100 steps to get to the top. It seemed very steep when looking down.

We then got back on the bus and drove for about an hour and then arrived at camp. The camp ground was surrounded by pine forests. Although far from the city, it is a great location. The cabins here are huge and a bit strange. The nine of us had a cabin that could sleep 22. It is a huge house with lots of bedrooms and lounge rooms and two rooms on the third floor there were 2 doors that were locked??

We had time for a walk before dinner, so Nat, Brad, Lisa and I went on a 'Nature Walk'. We walked past all the cabins, up a hill, down a hill, saw a huge pile of animal poo- we think it must have been bear poo. Then walked over the bridge, along the river, under the bridge, saw a frog and another pile of poo- this was from a reindeer. It was then time to head back for dinner. The talented Trix cooked us a great roast and then BBQ'd bananas. Another filling meal. We all pitched in to do the dishes, we decided that instead of a roster we would all help. It is really good having a small group.

As we finished washing dishes it started rain. Headed into one of our lounge rooms and the opening ceremony of the Viking Olympics began. The 9 of us are in groups of three and we each did a little skit and were scored. My group is currently 2nd. At 12 we decided to go to bed, only because we had to get up at 7. There was still daylight at 12- amazing!

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Photos

01 Looking down
This is the view from the top of the ski jump, looking onto the crowd

02 Surrounding houses
Neighbours of the ski jump

03 Oslo
View of Oslo from the top

04 My new friend
How cute and cuddly is he!!

05 Top to bottom
Front view of the ski jump

06 Crazy men
Some crazy men were jumping up the stairs next to the jump!

07 Norwegian flags
Norwegian flags with a huge troll statue between the third and fourth

08 Side view
Side view of the jump

09 Our Cabin
This our huge cabin that sleeps 22 people. As there were 9 of us, there was heaps of space- my bag had a room to itself!

10 Grey sky
On our walk we saw these nasty grey clouds, luckily they were going the other way.

11 Creek
The little creek we saw on our nature walk while dinner was cooking.