The story and foundation of Hagabrekka Wanderland

The foundation of our idea and dream when starting to look for land was to create a space where people can experience living a regenerative lifestyle, with the opportunity to see and feel the importance of connection to nature. We wanted to offer a widened perception on how you can choose to shape your life differently, to offer tools on how to find your happiness. Permaculture is at the heart of building our dream. We want people to feel the joy of being immersed in nature and go back to simplicity. Of course, we also wanted to create a home for ourselves where we would be able to live in a more regenerative way, to grow roots and ground ourselves and to learn more every day, by doing. The learning by doing will certainly go on forever as there are so many things we want to try out, new ideas from us and from all our visitors are filling my mind every part of the year when we are not in our home. 

We started looking for a land in Nepal in 2018 but soon realized that it would be out of reach because of our financial situation and the insane land prices in Nepal. Covid came, we lost all our savings, and I was eventually forced to return to Norway. Still with the dream of creating our space, we were searching for land in Norway, which to my big surprise was a fraction of the price of land in Nepal. With lots of land and hardly any people, and with the hardship of the geographical location of much of the land (the idea to live without running water and electricity in Norway is for most people not an option) it was shockingly giving me a small hope that we could be able to start our dream after all. I traveled around to look at some pieces of land with my dad, and I still remember the moment when I stepped out and saw the view from Hagabrekka. It was pouring down, my dad said; ‘Absolutely not, this is a dump’ and went back in the car! 😂I have to admit, it was A LOT to start on. But the only thought in my mind was: ‘I am home’. With the loving support from my parents that put their house in security for us to be able to get a loan, we finally did it. We were home.

So, from April 2021 we have spent most of our time working our ass off in a little piece of paradise that we are fortunate enough to call home. Hagabrekka is something special. It truly is the first time in my life experiencing love at first sight! Located in the most beautiful village in the world, Flatdal. YES, it truly is the most beautiful place. The warmth and big heart of the people, the beauty of the valley, the mind-blowing views of the mountains, the spirit of the community and the mystical atmosphere with the ever-changing view of the valley is something pretty crazy amaaaazing! The journey, even just started has been filled with so many victories and hilarious moments. From picking endless of trash, watching the spinach growing super big, to be able to pump water from the river, gathering some 20 kg of mouse poop from what is now our home, exploring our property, building our composting toilet (including lots of poo shuffling, as many volunteers also has got the pleasure of experiencing), installing our solar panels, welcoming our first guests which actually had to inconveniently participate in moving an old industrial toilet from our property, onto an old man’s tiny car hanger (he came several days late to pick it up, as well as unexpected), resulting in a urine waterfall when the toilet fell down sideways. The smell cannot be described, maybe it should not be experienced either! With the sweetest guests and lots of laughter, it ended up being a fantastic night in spite of maybe not the most peaceful event for the guests! We started building our yoga shala, watching the yoga shala roof crumble in a storm, tried to fix the roof again, weeding, weeding and more weeding, chopping endless amount of wood, creating so much awesome stuff from the trees we have cut down, Sabin cutting up his arms in an attempt to catch a flying glass water jar, creating new friendships with amazing people, another storm taking down another roof and our greenhouse that we just established (this year), learning to build with wood, getting insanely good at digging and carrying stuff….. and the list goes on forever. I cannot believe how much I have learned, how much we have failed and screwed up with a smile, as it has taught us even more.

We have a hope that by sharing our knowledge, both in our learning programs and in our yoga retreats, that it will create a more conscious way of living for our guests, also when returning to daily life. That we can provide tools that can be integrated into life, giving a hands-on approach to the joy of simple things and most importantly share happiness. If you are interested in yoga, regenerative lifestyle, permaculture and community you are very welcome to Hagabrekka. We offer both low cost programs, retreats to really disconnect and recharge as well as courses if you want to dive into the world of yoga, regenerative living and permaculture in the Norwegian wilderness.