Swimming in the fjord! After looking askance at the cold dark waters of the fjord and finding a lot of reasons to avoid it, I decided to take the plunge this morning. It was cold but not life-threatening. It was actually pretty nice. My swim prompted Clay to take a dip later. We have been initiated! The water is very clear and deep and brackish. Very nice for swimming.
We had a lovely breakfast of French toast and bacon and then headed for a hike at Mollandsmarki. I had Googled hikes before we came and this hike showed up at the top of the list. When we arrived at our AirB&B, the couple next door had just done the hike and recommended it highly. It was an easy drive of about 40 minutes and then a turn onto a gravel road off the main highway.
We started out not knowing exactly how long the hike was or what it entailed. What we got was not surprising, it was mind-blowing. Our little group was in decent shape but not hardcore hikers. I guess I had anticipated a 3-4 hour hike. We started out climbing a fairly steep grade. We continued up and up through a beautiful mixed forest of aspen and cedar with a thick covering of ferns under the canopy. There is just the barest minimum of soil over the underlying bedrock so trees send out an elaborate web of roots to find a foothold.
After a couple of hours we reached what we thought might be the top of the mountain, an old dilapidated farm stead and shed that served as an unofficial lookout over the fjord far below. It was a spectacular view. We rested there for a while and had a snack before continuing up to the next point just over the next ridge, the next “top”.
After surmounting that steep ridge what did we find but yet another plateau to reach. Meanwhile, the views just got higher and more magnificent. Finally, the hiking became so challenging and the girls got so fatigued that they decided to stop and wait for Clay and I to continue to the top. So we headed off certain that we would return within the hour to stories of epic vistas. Not so fast. As before, each ridge begat another and then another. I began to get a little concerned. By this time we had been hiking for four hours and had no idea how long we might be on the trail. Plus Clay had run out of water and mine was running low. We pushed on. Finally, after trudging for probably 90 more minutes, we finally reached the marker at the top. It was an unbelievable view on four sides. Other hikers insisted that we had to hike all of the way to the far edge of the mountain before we headed down. After making the walk, we understood why.
That side of the mountain was an almost vertical drop of 3000 feet straight down into the almost pure aquamarine waters of the fjord below. This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime vista.
After photographing and videotaping and thoroughly documenting the experience, we headed down. We met the girls part way back to our rendezvous point. They were in good spirits and had worked their way quite a ways up the path. We headed down. It had been a long and taxing day, almost five grueling hours of walking at that point. Going up had been hard but going down was even harder- on toes, feet, ankles, knees, and hips. It was very slow going. We rested frequently and let others pass. Particularly humiliating were the families with kids ages five and under making the same trip that we had made, sometimes with dad or mom carrying babies on their backs. I must say, Nordic people are hale and hardy. It seems like everybody is fit and energetic. The kids are exposed to outdoor sports as soon as they are able to walk and being outdoors is a way of life. Once again we were stopped multiple times after saying hello to our fellow hikers. They find out that we are American and love to test their English I guess. It led to many lengthy fun conversations. But now it was time to get down! When at last we stumbled to the parking lot where we had started, we were sore, dehydrated, and exhausted. The first order of business was water. The second order of business was food. We found a very funky little cafe on the water in Sogndal and had yet another lovely lunch of homemade soup, sandwiches, and breads along with a few tasty local microbrews. Full and satisfied, we returned to the house. I could hardly move but a boast by Susan and Jean to go swimming got us all in the water. The girls barely hit the water and had had enough but Clay and I soaked our aches and pains for several minutes.
The rest of the evening was spent snacking and doing laundry. Time yet again to get ourselves organized. We leave for the rest of our “Norway in a Nutshell” tour and Oslo tomorrow.