I just installed Google Earth (after a complete reinstall of Windows) and was pretty curious where it is pointing at the first time. So I zoomed in and zoomed in. The surprise was huge. The point my installation of Google Earth is showing is the stave church of Borgund in Norway.

The last whole day of our vacation begun just brilliantly. The weather was splendid and so we decided to stay one night longer and to drive to the Hardangervidda. It prooved to be right that we drove through the mist the day before to Gol. This day reminded me on the first day of the vacation when we landed in Bamble.

But first we visited the local tourist center. We tried to get some kind of hiking map of the Hardangervidda. We not only got a very good hiking map, but also a hiking guide of the DNT.

Before we hitted the road, we visited the Gol stave church. This one is a replica because the original one was demolished and transported to the open air museum of king Oscar II. near Oslo. They demolished the old church because they wanted to build a new one (this one). No wonder it looked so well preserved

After meeting some nice Swabians we drove in the direction to Hardangervidda. The closer we got the cloudier it was there. On the Hardangervidda there blew a strong wind. Also there was plenty of fresh snow. Hiking under these circumstances and this “fit” that I am is not such a good idea.

The Hardangervidda is a strange place. No trees, shrubs etc. No wonder because this plateau is the largest one whole Europe with it’s own alpine climate through the year.

The next stop after this plateau was a water fall called Vøringfossen. It is the most visited waterfall in Norway, according to Wikipedia. The platform above the waterfall is impressive. One can just jump down the valley if one desires. Also a false step would do the same to you. Nothing for acrophobic people. We than wanted to hike to the small plateau on the foot of the waterfall. One has to cross a huge rock fall deposit. On this deposit there lays a truck wreck. This is truly not unexpected because the common Norwegian truck driver drives like insane.

The bridge over the Bjoreia river was closed due to some damage. That was too sad because I really wanted to stay below the waterfalls

On the way back to the hytta we stopped at another stave church. This time in Torpo. This church has a roof made of rock (mica schist as it looked).

This concludes the story of my too short vacation in Norway in September/October 2008. It was a very pleasant and refreshing vacation with every kind of weather except heat The time flew like on the run. It was a very intense vacation with so much to see that one has to take pictures to reprocess the impressions. There were plenty of opportunities left. Especially hikings and camping in the tent. This was definitely not my last vacation in Norway. Or as Schwarzenegger said: Aill bii back

This morning I had a mind to take an ice cold shower. This way I recovered in seconds

The weather looked awful. It rained cats and dogs. We decided to make for home. But before we did that we drove from Gaupne to the Urnes Stavkirke. This stave church dates back from the 12th century. Actually the church is not so pretty but on one wall the church has a very impressive wood carving. The Urnes Stavkirke is a World Heritage Site listed by the UNESCO.

From Urnes there is a ferry by which one can save much time when using it instead of driving along the Lustrafjord back. The road from Skjolden to Urnes is about 30km long and most times very small. I wonder how much traffic there is in summer. Nevertheless we wanted to cross over the Lustrafjord with the ferry but we had to wait almost 3 hours. So we had to drive back to Gaupne and from there going back home.

Occasionally I really love rainy days but when struggling almost every day with rain it gets boring. On the way home we stopped at the Borgund Stavkirke. The most famous stavkirke in Norway because of its high detail and sound condition. In fall the church looks very pretty with all the yellow leaved birches in the background. I wonder how it looks in winter

On the way we halted on a parking lot which was close to the Øye Stavkirke. That church prooved that not every stave church has to have a bell tower.

Soon we recognized that we wouldn’t make it home that day and kept our eyes open for a camping ground. Because of the unfavourable weather we didn’t choose the option of using the tent. Although it would be great to sleep outside with fresh air around ones nose. The first two camping grounds we had a look at weren’t very convincing. In Fagernes we decided to travel to the Plus Camping ground in Gol. After announcing our coming by cell phone we went to Gol. But not without poking about in a fog with a range of vision of about 10m and less. Although it’s only 50km from Fagernes to Gol we needed almost one and a half hour. Now I know why they call it heavy fog.

The Plus Camping ground in Gol is big. Big means huge. I guess from the most northerly to the most southerly point it’s more than 500m. The hytta we got was also big. There were place for at least three times as much space as we needed.

The storm from the previous evening was turning into a wild winter gale. Although the tent is a 4 season tent it is not build to brave a storm. We didn’t want to let the storm crash the tent, so we decided to dismantle the tent. By the way it was something 0130 AM in the night. The storm was very strong. It already loosened the tent pegs. If we both would leave the tent at once the storm would have blow it away instantly. So one of us had to stay in the tent as an anchor. Since I am the heavier of us both, I decided I stay in the tent and clean it up while Julia was dismantling the tent. This went pretty well and half an hour after we decided to dismantle the tent we were inside the car and tried to sleep there.

Around 0730 AM (it was beginning to get brighter, the storm was gone but it was snowing silently) we decided to down down to the valley. To drive 30km on a pretty dark, snow covered lane with only snow chains is pretty exhausting. One hour later we were leaving the foggy snow area and reached the not-so-foggy rain area.

On the way we had one funny episode. Two young Norwegians wanted to drive up obviously heading Aursjø but due to the mist one of them seemingly decided to sound out the situation. He was just getting back to the car well wrapped up in winter clothes and the other one wearing only a fleece jacket or similar was just getting out of the car. They both stared like they have seen an UFO. They probably were shocked at the fact that a small Renault Clio was getting through this area without any problem (as it might look) but they hesitated to drive into the fog and snow. Those faces we’ll never forget

Down in the valley the weather looked very miserable. Because it was a Sunday there were much less traffic than on normal days. As we discussed a couple of days earlier we were driving back heading Oslo. Although we knew we never would make it back in one day we had to get as far as possible on that day.

We were driving back to Eidsvåg along the Sunndalsfjord. We were passing Bogge where we had some trouble to find the amazing rock carvings one day earlier and had to drive over a small pass. Although it was on 600m a.s.l. there was snow also. This way we could determine the snow line to be at around 550m a.s.l.

Driving through rain can be quite relaxing but sometimes (especially after a sleep in the car) one needs some variety. No sooner said than done and we were driving to the small stave church in Rødven. This church is still under restoration. The oldest parts of the church are from the 14th century.

We then had to drive a big detour along the Romsdalsfjord because the Trollstigvegen we wanted to drive for a shortcut and for taking photos was closed. Our goal for the day was to maybe find a camping ground near Geiranger. The journey to Geiranger took several hours. We tried to look at sights as much as possible but there weren’t many.

Above the Geirangerfjord there is a observation deck for all the tourists like us This fjord is not for nothing that famous. A very impressive relief where one has to look twice to see the proportions. Because the weather didn’t look very promising that day we took the famous ferry from Geiranger to Hellesylt through the Geirangerfjord. This way we enjoyed the mass tourism journey with only a couple of fellow passengers. The seven sisters waterfall (De syv søstrene) was barely a waterfall. The sisters were reduced to a skeleton. While the Suitor on the other side of the fjord didn’t look so thin. The abandoned farms along the fjord looked very spectacular in combination with the heavy relief.

When we arrived in Hellesylt it poured like hell. It was now very dark. We were driving in the direction of Hornindal and had to pass another pass. We didn’t recognize the dropping of the temperature but it now snowed down to 400m and below. We soon had to realize that it was not good to drive home to Oslo for better or worse. Because of the summer tires and the snow chains we were quite a traffic block and had to halt permanently.

We were looking for a camping ground which is still open. This is not that easy in this area but we managed to get a (very) small hytta. It looked more like a built out garden shed but we were lucky to have a bed and a stove. The hytta was pretty cold because it only had something like small immersion heater above the door (the hytta actually had only one door). But we didn’t wail, cooked something, ate and went to bed.

The first night in a tent for a long time was great. Fresh cool air mixed with no noise at all. Only a gentle picking on the tent wall. The picking was the noise of small snow flakes landing on the tent. What a morning! Snow everywhere and that happened in the night from September, 30th to October, 1st. At home it could happen that there is no snow at all until February or later. Hooray! But the good news also have a bad news. The car was equipped with summer tires. Luckily we had the tire chains with us. These were brand new ones and were built in a way that the montage was a work of 2 minutes per tire maximum. After packing all our goods (including the wet tent) into the car, we drove down to the valley. We bought some food in Øyer and while discussing the route to Rondane we observed some hilarious magpies. These birds only exists for fun I guess

On the way to Rondane we stopped at the Ringebu stav kirke. The oldest parts of this curch are from the 13th century. The curch was continually expanded. The last part is a organ made by Åkerman & Lund in baroque style. Although I love organs, Baroque is definitely not my favourite time period. The church is open for visitors from end of May till end of August.

We were quite close to the Rondane national park and despite the bad weather we decided to go on a short hike to Rondvassbu, a quite big hytta with service. The hiking guide said the walking distance is 1 hour. We really almost ran to the hytta but didn’t get there in 1 hour. I wonder how fast good hikers should ran. The mountains around us were hidden in clouds almost all the time, so we had no panorama. When the clouds disappeared over a mountain for a short while we could see that they were completely covered with snow. No wonder.

After we were back at the car, it already had begun to get dark. So we looked for a spot for our tent. But one thing at a time. Before discovering a spot for the tent we visited the Kvitskriuprestin. These are small towers made of moraine material from glaciers. On the top they have a huge rock which protects the pillars from being eroded. The walk from the road up to the Lvitskriuprestin is really steep. Although one walks only 10 minutes (or less) ones heart is pumping like hell.

Although the weather looked like it would rain through the night we looked for a spot for the tent and decided to erect it on the parking lot for the Kvitskriuprestin. The lot was made of coarse gravel and so we had to flatten it before building up the tent.