Two Nights on Anyone's Land in Norway — Epoche B1
Oslo, 18 June Dear Clara, So you are really coming to Norway in August with a rucksack! Before you book anything, one thing about this country will change your whole plan: for the walking part, you do not need to book at all. Norway has a law from 1957, the Outdoor Recreation Act, and inside it lives a much older custom called allemannsretten — "everyone's right". On uncultivated land — forest, mountain, moor, shore — you may walk freely, whoever owns it. You may also put up a tent and sleep, and the conditions are exact: at least a hundred and fifty metres from the nearest inhabited house or cabin, and no more than two nights in the same spot. Deep in the mountains, far from houses, you may stay longer. You ask nobody, you pay nobody. The right has a sharp edge, and knowing it is part of using it. Fields, gardens and farmyards are innmark — cultivated land — and there the right simply stops. A meadow that is being grown for hay counts, even if it looks wild to you. And from 15 April to 15 September open fires are banned in and near forest, so bring a camping stove, not matches and hope. Last August we walked four days on the plateau above Bergen and paid for nothing but food and one campsite shower. Each evening around eight we left the path, found flat ground by a lake, and counted our hundred and fifty metres. Nobody came, because nobody needed to. Bring a tent that likes rain. Everything else, the law has already arranged. Best, Sofie References MacCannell, D. (1976). The Tourist: A New Theory of the Leisure Class. University of California Press.