Due to the record warm summer this year, the cloudberries have ripened a full two weeks early here, and these were our goal as we chose a 2km loop by Lake Totak for our morning walk.
Our walk began at Telemarkstunet, a cluster of traditional wooden buildings where craftspeople ply their various trades and so keep oxygen flowing through the cultural blood of this small yet deeply rooted place. We asked an old woman baking fresh flatbread and lefser about our walk and the possibility of picking cloudberries, and she happily showed us the way.
When we finally came upon our field of 'the gold of the mountains' we had to look hard to find ones that were ripe. This being a popular place to pick, the ripe ones had almost all been taken, but we got to taste a few and brought home a bucket of blueberries besides (for waffles - yum!).
The best part of the walk for me was discovering this beaver dam, still in use, and the many broken trees with gnawed-off trunks like toothpicks and wood shavings strewn all over. The beaver family has done impressive work here, totally backing up a fast-flowing stream so that it has become a pool of stagnant and oily marsh water. Their presence was closely felt - these were their woods, their swamp, their masterpiece of traditional craftsmanship.
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