The Dead Marshes
“Do you want us to stop?” the man asked. So engrossed in the scene before me I was taken quite by surprise as I hadn’t heard this couple approaching me from behind. “No, no. Please keep walking as I would like to have some perspective in my photo if I can get people in it!” We chatted for a few more minutes about why we were here - me to take photos, and this couple from Holland were wild camping a few kilometers closer to the mountains. Apart from Dom - where was he exactly, I had sent that text about the rainbow - I hadn’t talked to another person face-to-face in probably over 24 hours so it was nice to “check in” with humanity, albeit for three or four minutes. They soon wandered off and I got ready for when they would get to the base of the rainbow and the top of that small knoll along the path. I rattled off ten or so shots in quick succession, happily knowing one will be “just so”.
Dom soon showed up and we started to talk about which way we should go back to the car. In hindsight we should have followed this Dutch couple even if it was a longer walk but I was conscious about my knee so both Dom and I looked to our right over the moss-covered plain. “There”, said Dom, “It looks like a path”. Sure enough it did, just a narrow depression in the moss where, probably, reindeer walked. Better still it looked like it was pointing in the direction of the big gravel car park where we had left the car over three hours earlier. Dom wanted to take a few more photos so I decided to head off before him, knowing full well he’d catch up to me.
It was fairly easy going the first 100 or so meters as I followed in the footsteps of reindeer but as soon as I crested a small hill the path disappeared. At a guess I had 600 meters to go so I carried on. Suddenly I felt one of my boots sink into an unseen pool of water. As I lifted my foot I could feel the suction of water and mud trying to pull the boot off. OK I thought as I surveyed the land before me. Best try and stay on the “higher ground”. In front of me were hundreds of small pools of water - a bog - surrounded by very springy moss. Try as I might to stay on the moss it was impossible not to lose your footing and step into a new pool of water. Or worse still, the moss that looked quite sturdy and "surely that would hold my weight" giving up as soon as I set foot on it, resulting in a Welly disappearing through and into the water underneath. After a while I took my rucksack off, undid the tripod from it and extended its legs. I was now using it as a pole to test the ground before me, or like a wizard’s staff to support my journey. Wizard… wizard…. Oh yes this reminded me of the time when Gollum was leading Frodo and Sam through the haunted Dead Marshes in Mordor. My imagination can run wild sometimes. But just to be safe I did check every now and then for the bodies of the fallen. Tolkien described the bodies as eerie, luminous candles of corpses that show the ghostly, unmoving faces of the dead. Best I do not fall in then, though dying in a Tolkien book wasn’t too bad a way to go. A buzzing in my pocket brought me joltingly back to reality. It was Dom wondering how the conditions were where I was at. “Just the same as where you’re at”, I replied as I looked back to Dom hundreds of meters behind me. My knee was now taking a beating but as I carried on I saw a mobile home drive out from the carpark and along the straight road back to Mysusæter. Even if I couldn’t quite see the road due to how the landscape was (and how dark it was getting) I knew it wasn’t too far now.
After what felt like an eternity - or a chapter from one of Tolkien’s books - I finally made it to the road. I wanted to get down on my knees and kiss it like the pope kisses the ground when coming off a plane, I was so happy. My knee said no. I still had possibly 400 meters to walk back to the car and I was going slower and slower it felt like. But back to the car I came. What a relief it was to take off my Wellingtons and slip into something a little more comfortable. I started the car and pointed home, picking up Dom along the way as he had finally finished his Dead Marshes side quest. Back to the cabin, some warm grub and some Champion’s league footie on the TV. God bless the hosts of our cabin for having the correct channels installed so Dom and I could watch footie into the night. Oh and I needed to look at my knee…
The Dead Marshes
“Do you want us to stop?” the man asked. So engrossed in the scene before me I was taken quite by surprise as I hadn’t heard this couple approaching me from behind. “No, no. Please keep walking as I would like to have some perspective in my photo if I can get people in it!” We chatted for a few more minutes about why we were here - me to take photos, and this couple from Holland were wild camping a few kilometers closer to the mountains. Apart from Dom - where was he exactly, I had sent that text about the rainbow - I hadn’t talked to another person face-to-face in probably over 24 hours so it was nice to “check in” with humanity, albeit for three or four minutes. They soon wandered off and I got ready for when they would get to the base of the rainbow and the top of that small knoll along the path. I rattled off ten or so shots in quick succession, happily knowing one will be “just so”.
Dom soon showed up and we started to talk about which way we should go back to the car. In hindsight we should have followed this Dutch couple even if it was a longer walk but I was conscious about my knee so both Dom and I looked to our right over the moss-covered plain. “There”, said Dom, “It looks like a path”. Sure enough it did, just a narrow depression in the moss where, probably, reindeer walked. Better still it looked like it was pointing in the direction of the big gravel car park where we had left the car over three hours earlier. Dom wanted to take a few more photos so I decided to head off before him, knowing full well he’d catch up to me.
It was fairly easy going the first 100 or so meters as I followed in the footsteps of reindeer but as soon as I crested a small hill the path disappeared. At a guess I had 600 meters to go so I carried on. Suddenly I felt one of my boots sink into an unseen pool of water. As I lifted my foot I could feel the suction of water and mud trying to pull the boot off. OK I thought as I surveyed the land before me. Best try and stay on the “higher ground”. In front of me were hundreds of small pools of water - a bog - surrounded by very springy moss. Try as I might to stay on the moss it was impossible not to lose your footing and step into a new pool of water. Or worse still, the moss that looked quite sturdy and "surely that would hold my weight" giving up as soon as I set foot on it, resulting in a Welly disappearing through and into the water underneath. After a while I took my rucksack off, undid the tripod from it and extended its legs. I was now using it as a pole to test the ground before me, or like a wizard’s staff to support my journey. Wizard… wizard…. Oh yes this reminded me of the time when Gollum was leading Frodo and Sam through the haunted Dead Marshes in Mordor. My imagination can run wild sometimes. But just to be safe I did check every now and then for the bodies of the fallen. Tolkien described the bodies as eerie, luminous candles of corpses that show the ghostly, unmoving faces of the dead. Best I do not fall in then, though dying in a Tolkien book wasn’t too bad a way to go. A buzzing in my pocket brought me joltingly back to reality. It was Dom wondering how the conditions were where I was at. “Just the same as where you’re at”, I replied as I looked back to Dom hundreds of meters behind me. My knee was now taking a beating but as I carried on I saw a mobile home drive out from the carpark and along the straight road back to Mysusæter. Even if I couldn’t quite see the road due to how the landscape was (and how dark it was getting) I knew it wasn’t too far now.
After what felt like an eternity - or a chapter from one of Tolkien’s books - I finally made it to the road. I wanted to get down on my knees and kiss it like the pope kisses the ground when coming off a plane, I was so happy. My knee said no. I still had possibly 400 meters to walk back to the car and I was going slower and slower it felt like. But back to the car I came. What a relief it was to take off my Wellingtons and slip into something a little more comfortable. I started the car and pointed home, picking up Dom along the way as he had finally finished his Dead Marshes side quest. Back to the cabin, some warm grub and some Champion’s league footie on the TV. God bless the hosts of our cabin for having the correct channels installed so Dom and I could watch footie into the night. Oh and I needed to look at my knee…