The Heroes of Telemark

Well, I’ve heard of this film from 1965, but can’t really remember it…Mum and Dad have seen it 6 times! We’ve driven towards Rjukan this morning, and as it was raining again, did a sudden de-tour to the former Vemork Hydroelectric Station which is now grandly titled The Norwegian Industrial Workers Museum.
We crossed a precarious looking suspension bridge over a gorge – on foot, thankfully! 😅
When Vemork opened in 1911 it had the greatest generating capacity in the world. The main room was full of huge turbines and Guy tried to explain how it all worked to me….😴😴😴😂
We were a bit ‘Oh, is that it?’, but upstairs there were films and computer animated stuff that bought the whole story to life.

The Germans were manufacturing heavy water here (used in the creation of nuclear bombs) and after several allied attempts to bomb the place, the Nazis decided to move the stuff by boat. The Norwegian resistance successfully sank the boat and its cargo but sadly there were civilian casualties. I’ll have to watch the film now, then maybe I’ll be able to explain it a bit better!

Rjukan is in a deep valley shaded by mountains; one of them, Gausta, is where we are spending the night. It’s very windy, cloudy and raining. Apparently, there are three huge mirrors on one of the hillsides round here that have been set up to reflect sunlight down to the shady town below!

If the weather clears tomorrow we should have some amazing views and we can either go up to the top on a railway inside the mountain or take an ‘easy two hour hike …suitable for children’ …Mmmm