The history of Oldevatn Camping

Andreas andThe fairytale about Oldevatn Camping started at ”Sundeodden” in Olden. The place we today knows as Oldevatn Camping was a small potato field. After a poor harvest, the family Sunde decided to cultivate grass instead of potatoes during the spring in 1969. It became green and luxuriant in this marvelous place, so without knowing, tourists started to settle down with tents and caravans. Andreas W. and Asbjørg Sunde who ran the farm, saw the potential in this, and put up a basic single outhouse toilet. This was before the cash register came into being, so Andreas’ father, Wilhelm Sunde were looking forward to every evening, because then he could take a walk down to the tourists to collect money.

In 1970, they built their first sanitary building. It was to a high standard, and contained mensroom and ladiesroom with shower and toilet. It was very well received by the tourists. This is the cabin we know as cabin number 1 today.

After this, they built a new cabin for every year, and all cabins were built without running water. Cabin number 4, also called “Mørehytta” from old times, is an old cogged house from the late 1800’s bought from Sjøholt at Sunnmøre. It was dismantled and transported to Olden, before they rebuilt it in 1973.

In 1981 Andreas and Asbjørg entrusted Oldevatn Camping to their son Vilhelm A. and his wife Inga Gullbjørg Sunde. They built a new sanitary building in 1985, and this is the building we today know as the Reception. Half of the buildings were sanitary, while the other half were reception. They also built 4 small terraces for campers the same year.

Cabin number 8 was built by a Danish man, called Henry Karlsen. He made an agreement with Andreas that  he could build a cabin, and have the right of use as long as he could, but the property would belong to the farm. Vilhelm bought the cabin  back to the farm in 1993.

When the glaciers enlarged during the 1990’s, and the thaw started during spring, the campsite got flooded by water from the glaciers. At it’s worst the Lake Oldevatn rose so much that it reached the road that goes through the campsite today. Because of this, Vilhelm and Gullbjørg chose to raise the campsite by 1 meter by filling up with gravel and soil. We estimate to have used approximately 4000 cubicmeters  of gravel and soil.

Cabin number 7, also known as “gamlebutikken”, is a former grocery store which was run for around 10 years until the early 1960’s by Andreas W. Sunde. The area around “gamlebutikken” was not involved in the camping before the early 1990’s. Because of flooding from the melting snow, Vilhelm and Gullbjørg chose to raise and fill out the area around “gamlebutikken” in 1995.

During Autumn 2002 they started to build a new sanitary building. It was ready in 2003, and it is the sanitary building we know today. Later the same year, Vilhelm started to build the two terraces on top as we know it today.

2012 – 2015 | Andreas and Anne

2015 – 2016 | Vilhelm and Gullbjørg

2016 – 2020 | Cecile and Per-Johnny

 Before the season in 2017 Cecilie and Per-Johnny made a total renovation of cabin numbers 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, made more caravan spaces with seasoncontracts, moved the playground and made several investments in activities specially for children. Before the 2018 season, a new playground of approximately 700 square meters was built, and cabin number 8 was totally renovated.

2021 – | Andreas and Anne

Today the campsite is run by Andreas and Anne