A day trip to Kongsberg

Day 3 – Thursday, June 30^th, 2011

Today we got up and discovered that it was pouring rain and decided that a more touristy day was in order. Working in quarries or on moss-covered outcrops is not the safest thing to be doing when it’s pouring rain. A light drizzle, sure, but your footing is compromised when the rocks are wet and slippery. There’s really no need for either of us to go home in a cast with a broken leg or arm, so we decided to head for Kongsberg.

Kongsberg is located 85 km north of Larvik along Hwy 40. It’s a winding, narrow road through farm land, logging forests, and up and down the mountains. Quite a nice drive actually. Our goal in Kongsberg was to visit the mineral/silver/history/ski museum and then take one of the mine tours into the 330 year old silver mines. We got to the mineral museum only to find out that the last train into the mines was leaving in 20 minutes, so we bought tickets and drove over to the mine location, 8 km away. The specific mine we were to visit is the King’s Mine. It was discovered in 1623 by 2 children who discovered a piece of silver at surface and brought it home to their father. The father recognized it as silver and sold it for a small amount, less than it was worth. King Christian IV, who at the time was the King of Denmark and Norway, declared the mine his when he discovered how rich it was.

We managed to jump into one of the mine carts just before it left. The cart would have held 8 miners in the old days, taking them 2.3 km from the head frame into the mine itself. From the head frame to the stop point, the tram actually travels 15 metres upwards into the mountainside. This is because the miners needed some way to drain the mine so the adit doubled as a transportation tunnel and a water tunnel. 2.3 km on the tram and a temperature drop of about 10 degrees brought us to a large open area in the mine where the tour started. We weren’t prepared for the 6 degree C temperature! We had on shorts and t-shirts. It was the strangest mine I have ever been in – most mines are warm, hot even, compared to the ambient temperature! This one was frigid. I was quite happy when we were able to don hardhats and start walking for the tour simply to warm up a bit! There was frost on some of the ceilings in the adits.

The King’s Mine is over 3000 feet deep, and most of it is filled with water. Only the top 300 metres are not submerged. In order to keep tours running, it has to be pumped out once a month. We spent an hour walking around the mine, seeing the old ladders and mine workings, and learning about how mining was done in the 1700’s. As dynamite didn’t exist back then, the miners used what is known as ‘firesetting’ to clear shafts and adits. Large piles of timber were place into the opening and a fire was lit. The timber was allowed to burn until it was extinguished, at which point all the surrounding rock had heated up and begun to crack. At that point in time, it was easier for the miners to come in with pick axes and chop away at the rock by hand. The host rock is a mainly a gneiss – it’s a tough rock. It would take a full month to create 3 metres of adit. Not the most time efficient method of mining! Many miners died in the mines not due to rock falls or explosions, but due to smoke inhalation when firesetting was taking place. Think about it – you’re trapped underground, a minimum of 2 km from the outside world, and someone is setting a fire in the only open space around you. Not the safest method in the world. When dynamite came along, things became much easier.

I know many people don’t enjoy being underground in a mine, but I think it’s fascinating. Especially when some of the mining techniques from 300 years ago are still visible. One of the more fascinating pieces of ingenuity we saw was a water pump turned into a lift for miners called a "mine engine". It was invented in Germany in the 1800's and essentially consists of reciprocating ladders and platforms. Two parallel timbers move up and down opposite to each other about 2 feet apart. Each timber has a hand-hold and a platform for the miner to stand on. As one platform goes down, you jump onto the one next to it, which is moving upwards. Ride the platform to it’s highest point and then jump to the one above it. Repeat as many times necessary to get to the next level. It’s really friggin’ cool!! Our guide demonstrated it for us (she said she had never done it before) but wouldn’t let us try. There are safety nets about 15 feet below where we were standing, but below that is 700+ metres of pitch-black open water-filled shaft! Such tours wouldn’t exist in Canada or the USA with the degree of regulations about health and safety we have, unfortunately.

At the end of the tour we got to see one of the banquet rooms they have available for rent. It was used as a bomb shelter during WWII and it’s beautifully set up for up to 200 people, complete with bar made out of larvikite!

After the mine tour, we went back to the mineral/silver/history/ski museum to look around. I had already been there so didn’t spend much time looking. And both of us were crashing with jet lag and hunger at this point, so by 5pm, we headed into downtown Kongsberg to secure food before the 1.5 hour drive back to Stavern. We decided on a shawarma place - $50 for 2 shawarmas and 2 cokes! That’s absolutely insane. I mean, it tasted really good, but still!! They put corn on their shawarmas here. And when we asked for hot sauce and the spicy curry sauce, the owner told us that Norwegians don’t like things spicy.

By the time we got back to our cottage, it was nearing 7:30pm. Glenn went for a run and I went down to the campground restaurant to use their WiFi and book a hotel room in Oslo for Monday night. Then we came back here and had a very extravagant meal of fried “Bog” (some sort of Norwegian version of Spam or Klick or canned ham) with Jarlsberg cheese and homemade guacamole! Maybe not the best meal at 9pm at night?