I am a bit late but never too late to wish you a very happy new year with lots of adventures, friendship, love and a good health.
The past week we’ve been hiking on both old and new roads while it felt like we were living in a Scandinavian Crime series (my mom’s worse nightmare!). Halfway last week a thick grey cloud crawled up the hills and laid down on the snowy trees. There was no wind to wake up this cloud so it stayed for days, blocking all the sunlight but making this lover of moody weather VERY delighted 🙂
When we decided to move, I gave Joeri a mug that said: “The adventure begins” and recently we added a mug for me. Mine says:” Adventures are better with a dog.” (by @adventurewoofs). How suitable is that!
The day of new year’s eve, we went on a road trip looking for a ghost town. We chose the perfect day for that. It was snowing and there was still some fog hanging between the dark trees. It felt like it hadn’t been day for … days. We started driving, not sure where we had to go. The only hint we had was the GPS location of a photo that we took about 2 years ago. We drove into the forest, went for a hike and didn’t see a living being for hours. Not a bird was making a sound, not a moose left a track to find. Almost all the houses that we passed by were covered in snow and with no sign of human activity.
We kept following that one empty road. Not that we had much choice. The other roads were covered with snow. Much later than we had hoped and while the dark was creeping in, we found the first signs of the town. The fog was getting heavier, providing a gloomy atmosphere that fitted perfectly with the almost empty town. Almost, indeed, because there was one house with light shining through Christmas stars in the windows. They must have felt like the only humans on earth.
It was already too dark for photographs and we got tired and hungry so we asked our GPS for the fastest way home. This piece of technology clearly had no idea about the snow nor the fog as it tried to convince us to try all the narrow, snow-covered paths straight through the forest. No. We were not going to get stuck in the snow on more than an hour from the nearest village!
We kept on driving and driving through endless fog and forest until suddenly we spotted a house with light and a father and his son playing on a huge pile of snow on the road. They waved at us and smiled like they hadn’t seen a human being in years. We waved back, smiling, but soon we disappeared again in the fog.

The snowy road continued and slowly we got less and less details in our surroundings. I stared at the fog until suddenly Joeri alerted me. There was someone on the edge of the forest, about 2 meters from the side of the road. We slowed down a bit and as we got closer we noticed a woman standing there with a big shotgun in her hands.
On new year’s day, we visited the old mine again and went for a hike in that area. It looked as desolate as any other path but suddenly we heard a motor that was quickly approaching. Quickly we called the dogs and kept them close when a quad drove up the hill. A man was driving with a cool looking dog on his lap, two passengers and a sleigh with a child on it that was sliding behind it. That lucky kid!!  Kilometers of paths with fresh snow and no other people, sliding behind a quad. That must be every kid’s dream, no?