Walking the Tømmerrena

14/08/2025

Three days travelling and three hours on the ferry. We were completely done with travelling. We needed a bit of the great outdoors to revive us. Luckily several people we follow on Instagram had visited a spot close to Kristiansand that seemed to fit the bill. We bypassed a visit to the city itself (we need a lot of energy to sight see in cities) and headed straight inland.

Our Destination

Our destination was just beyond the town of Vennesla, on the shores of the reservoir just before the Steinfoss power station. Here we were able to park up the motorhome along with several other vans (and one caravan). It reminded us of Scotland with a heavy proportion of rental vans in the mix. Conveniently, not only did this parking allow us to visit the walk we had planned but it also allowed us to stay overnight for a fee (150 NOK which was £10.96 to us).

Getting to our destination from the port was fairly straightforward with just that slight disorientation that comes from driving in a new country. There is a lot more use of yellow on Norwegian roads, with yellow road signs for minor roads and yellow lines down the middle of the roads. We also noticed that speed limits were very variable, changing frequently and Google Maps wasn’t always up to date.

The Tømmerrena

We arrived at about 4:30pm and as sunset was after 9pm we had plenty of time to head out on a walk. We weren’t the only people taking advantage of a sunny evening.

Tømmerrena literally means ‘timber gutter’ in Norwegian and is an old lumber flume that was used to transport timber downriver. It was built in the 1950s when the powerstation diverted water from the river, creating impassable rapids. The flume was built to a steady gradient, using suspension bridges and tunnels where necessary. By the end of the 1970s it was no longer needed (I assume a road had been built) and was destined for demolition. Someone had the foresight to preserve it instead, and now the water has been diverted away from the channel and you can walk along it for the 4km from Venneslafjorden to Kringsjådammen.

Where the water has been diverted from the channel. You can see the force of the water, those logs would have flown down the channel.

The trough is about 60cm wide at it’s flat bottom and widens out at the top. It was interesting passing people coming in the other direction, including one lady using a crutch and several dogs who didn’t understand the meaning of personal space. There was a technique to it, moving our feet as far to the side as possible and lounging on the trough side, or even sitting on the edge where it was low enough.

The wood has obviously been replaced over time but was still springy underfoot and there were plenty of holes and sections where the fixings were starting to work loose. There were two suspension bridges both of which seemed pretty rusty and swayed slightly as people stepped across them. The one tunnel was long enough that torches were required as we crouched down and squat-shuffled along, and yes we did have to pass other people in the tunnel too.

A few other paths intersected with the walk, and there are a couple of rest areas along it’s length. As it was just an evening stroll for us we decided to return the way we had come. Much of the walk is alongside the river through forest and walking through the dappled shade with dramatic views of the steep cliffs on the other side of the river was a really lovely antidote to our long days of driving.