Fjord Hopping from Stavanger Norway
Trip Start
Jun 15, 2004
1
6
40
Trip End
Apr 03, 2005
Stavanger, Norway
Monday, July 19, 2004
We found a campground in Stavanger where we pitched our tent on a big ol' lawn with many other tenters and RV'ers. There were showers, a place to do laundry and only a 3 km hike to town. This was to be our home for a few days. There are a couple of pictures that kept showing up in the brochures. One was Preikestolen or Pulpit Rock which is a flat block of rock about 1800 feet above the Lysefjord and has sheer cliffs on three sides. The other was Kjerag which is a rock that is wedged between two mountains and sits 3500 feet above the fjord with a sheer drop. This is a favourite destination for base jumpers. Don't worry Mom's, Jacquie and I didn't feel the need to jump off of the side of a mountain. We made a plan to hike around the fjord and see both sites as well as the rest of the area. Our plan was to take the ferry up Lysefjorden to an old power plant (operated from late 1800's to about 1929) in the town of Flørli. Flørli if famous for having one of the longest sets of wooden stairs which run up beside the pipeline from the top of the fjord to the bottom where the power station was. There are 4,484 steps rising about 740 meters. Not to be deterred, Jacquie and I hopped off of the ferry at Flørli, strapped on our 50 lb backpacks and headed up the stairs. These averaged a width of about 12 inches and in places were so steep that we were using hands and feet as if we were climbing a ladder. It took us about 1 hour and 40 minutes without a break to get to the top. We had great views all along the climb until about step number 4000 when the fog crept in and enveloped us. Not surprisingly for Norway, this was followed up with rain. We hiked for about 3 more hours in the fog, drizzle and rain. We had fun herding lots of sheep who would run along the trail in front of us and slogging through the muddy puddles. When we finally found a flat spot to pitch our tent it was raining too hard so we took shelter under a big rock until we got about a 5 minute reprieve from the rain and quickly set up our tent. We spent a very damp night listening to the rain pelt our tent. It rained for about 15 hours. By about 9:00 the next morning the rain had stopped and it turned into a really nice day. We squelched into our soggy hiking boots and headed out. We hiked for about 3 hours and then stopped for lunch and laid out everything to dry. Then another 3 hours or so and came to a beautiful spot to pitch our tent. We had an amazing 360 degree view above the Lagavatn Mountain Hut at about 1100 meters. Jacquie had a run in with an aggressive sheep that was looking for handouts. Jacquie said "Hey Ewe, get away from my food" The sheep was not taking no for an answer and we were forced to hide in our tent until it went away.... that took about an hour.
We went to bed with the sun setting and woke up to, you guessed it, fog and cloud. We quickly packed up before the rain hit and we were on our way to Kjerag and then on to Øygardstolen where we would catch a cab to Lysebotn. The trail went up one pass after another each time gaining and losing 1000 feet of elevation. We now know why the maps note travel time in hours and not kilometers. We came over the final pass and headed to Kjerag just as a doozy of a storm struck. The wind was gusting to about 40 miles an hour with driving rain. It was blowing so hard that Jacquie was blown off of her feet. We checked out the Kjerag Rock and both of us felt a bit of vertigo looking straight down over 3000 feet to the fjord below. The fjord ferry looked very small. After a few pictures we pushed on. There were still 3 more passes to go up and over before Øygardstolen. The storm raged on and we had to use chains bolted into the side of the mountain slab in order to get up and over without blowing into the fjord. It sounds like we weren't having fun but thats so not true. The clouds were flying out of the fjords in a tempest. Rather Valhalla like. We had a great trip but decided that we were too wet to carry on to Preikestolen so we spent the night at the end of Lysefjorden and then took the ferry back to Stavanger. We hopped on the overnight train and here we are in Oslo. We are awaiting our train to Copenhagen where we hope to find the sun. Norway is a beautifully rugged country steeped in history that we Canadians find it hard to fathom. We would highly recommend this as a destination but, bring your rain gear.
Thinking of you all, (hope summer and stampede are going well)
Love J&D
