August 5/6: Our return home

We caught an early morning bus from Lofthus to Geilo, where a train took us back to Oslo. The ride was as scenic as before, with the added fun of traveling from sea level at the fjord up into the mountain plateau. Over the course of the day we finished off much of the snacks we had been eating throughout our hike: chocolate chip cereal bars, bison jerky, raisins, sunflower seeds, and bars of dark chocolate. We picked up Mark's laptop from the train station locker in Oslo, retrieved our luggage from the conference hotel, and moved in to the City Hotel (a hostel-type hotel; considerably smaller and dingier than our hostel in Lofthus) for our last night in Oslo. I was inexplicably seized with a desire for pizza for dinner that night (although the guidebook had warned against the quality of Norwegian pizza), leading us on a bit of a wild goose chase through the city. But it hit the spot.

The next day was really all about traveling home: big plane but poor selection of movies; I read my book too quickly so had to read Mark's over his shoulder; and the slowest luggage retrieval of all time. But, all in all, a decent trip home to end of a great vacation.

Photo: sunset from Akershus Castle

August 4 - Trekking the Fruit Trail

We woke to a rainbow outside our hotel window, which seemed a good omen. Although we had a mix of rain and sun that day, it was an improvement on the previous two days. Plus, we were on dry, level ground! The hotel clerk recommended we take the bus down the coast from Kinsarvik to Lofthus, as the road was too narrow to walk alongside. So we waited around for a few hours until the bus came, exploring the historic stone church and enjoying the view across the harbour. Lofthus was a very pretty village, notable especially for its old houses with roofs of huge slate tiles, or covered in grass sod (we even saw garden sheds and bus stops with sod roofs). We dropped off our backpacks at the hostel (which seemed to be a school outside of the summer season; our room was clean, modern and spacious), and enjoyed a leisurely hike along the 'fruit trail' to see the local river which came tumbling down over the fjord's cliff edge in two impressive waterfalls. Lofthus is famous for its fruit orchards: plums, grapes, apples (the summers are short but the days are long, which makes for high sugar levels). Dinner that night at the nearby guesthouse was a huge shoulder of lamb, with lamb sausages (as if the shoulder wasn't enough meat for a family), mashed swedes and a bottle of local cider.

Photos: The day opens with a rainbow; Kinsarvik's harbour; Mark harvests a wild strawberry

August 3 - The Descent

Day 3 initially seemed like it might be an improvement, but the weather soon turned worse - much worse. Although it was no rainier than the day before, it was much foggier as we began our descent down to the fjord - we were descending through the clouds. And, since we were hiking down what was (as far as we could determine in the fog) a sloping dome of rock, we no longer had the easy-to-follow muddy tracks of other hikers to follow. We were totally reliant on the trail markers, which became increasingly difficult to see - at times one of us would stay with amarker while the other would search ahead for the next one (this is the point at which Mark's bright yellow rain pants really paid off - sorry Mark - I know you hated the colour I picked out). All accompanied by the roaring sound of a tremendous, unseen waterfall (it made me a little uneasy to not be able to see the drop-off). I was never so relieved as when we got to the bottom, below the clouds, to level ground. We found the hotel almost immediately upon getting into Kinsarvik. All day long I'd been contemplating how much I'd be willing to pay for a room with a hot shower and a soft bed, and my maximum went higher and higher as the hours went by. Happily they had a room, it was bigger and nicer than what we'd had in Oslo, and cost less. With a hot shower before dinner, a hot meal in the restaurant, and a hot bath before bed, I celebrated our return to civilization.

Photos: Clouds rolling down onto the plateau; a mushroom in the forest at the base of the fjord; our last view of a waterfall before the clouds masked everything

August 2: Super Saturated

I should have never wished for a cloud or breeze to break up the intense sunshine on Day 1 of hiking. Because Day 2 was wet virtually from start to finish, and it was just the beginning of the deluge.

Not long after we left the cabin in the morning it started to rain. My hiking shoes were quickly soaked through ('super saturated' as I liked to say); my only comfort is that I would have had wet feet regardless, because we were hiking through much wetter ground. There were numerous streams of run-off water from melting snowcaps, and a few large-ish rivers to ford. I was glad to have my hiking pole to steady me as I balanced from one rock to the next, or I could have ended up in water well over my knees. There were bridges at the major river crossings (one of which we almost missed due to a poorly-marked fork in the trail; we were saved from going off-course by a couple coming back from the wrong fork, who had been searching for a point to ford for a couple of hours, without success).

Still, the landscape was impressive, with more snow than the previous day, many small waterfalls, and an impressive descent with many switchbacks. We arrived at Stavali at about 6:00, after 8 hours of hiking (again taking longer than the map predicted), just as tired as the previous day. Stavali is a self-service hut, which meant that we could buy provisions, but had to cook them ourselves. We were delighted to buy fresh, unpasteurized milk, as the operator of the hut is a dairy farmer, whose cows could be seen (and heard! - they were wearing cowbells) roaming freely on the hills outside the hut. The hut could probably sleep up to about 50 people, with foam mattresses in a large loft room, and a few smaller rooms, although it was only half full. Mark cooked dinner (a pre-packaged cheese pasta, using milk to make the sauce, with canned ham), we played cards for a while (he started teaching me crib), and had a chance to chat with a friendly Norwegian (she was surprised we'd come all the way from Canada to hike in Norway, when we have so much wilderness of our own).

We had originally planned to stay two nights at Stavali, giving ourselves a 'slack' day to rest and explore the area, then head down the trail to Lofthus. But judging from our experience thus far on the trails (going so much slower than the projected times), Mark estimated that the trail to Lofthus would be too difficult, especially if it continued to rain. We decided to leave Stavali the next morning to take the trail to Kinsarvik instead, spending the night there, and then going along the coast to Lofthus the next day. The only problem was that we didn't have a reservation for a place to stay. We asked the other hikers about our chances of getting a room on short notice; one of them was from Kinsarvik, and offered that if we were unable to get a room, we could stay at her house. I was amazed that she would invite two complete strangers to stay at her house, and tremendously relieved that we would have a back-up plan.

Photos: Me, crossing one of the bigger snow packs; the welcome sight of Stavali at the end of a hard day of hiking; the cows, as seen from our bedroom window

August 1: Heading for the Hills

We caught an early morning train as the start to our hiking trip. I was rather excited to take the train, as the ride from Oslo to Bergen is touted as the most beautiful train ride in the world. We would only see the first half of the route, as we were getting off at a town called Geilo to take the bus. It was a beautiful route, quickly exiting the city and then traveling from farmland to mountains. This route through the interior of Norway was not possible before the railway was built, so most of the urban areas are along the coast or on the fjords that cut in from the ocean. Our bus ride was equally as beautiful, taking us up to the Hardanger mountain plateau, winding around numerous lakes and rivers. We got off at Fossli, to see the famous Voringfossen waterfall, which thundered down an impressively steep gorge.

After a bit of searching to find the trail head, we were off! We started about 2:30, and the map projected a walk of about 4 hours to get to our first night's destination - the hut at Vivelid. But, as I would soon discover, I am a slow hiker. In the end it took about 6 hours. However, I was keen to take time for photographs, to watch my step carefully so that I didn't slip on any of the uneven footing, and to rest whenever the uphill climb got difficult. The trail was narrow but well-trampled, and marked with a red letter 'T' on rocks along the way. We also had a detailed topographical map, which Mark kept checking against our progress.

There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and we were above the tree line, so there was no shade and little breeze - the blue skies seemed immensely large. We did get to cool off in cold mountain streams, and I even lay down on a mini-glacier - there were numerous patches of snow still in the process of melting. The ground underfoot was spongy with water-soaked lichen and moss. We encountered very few people along our hike (maybe once an hour or so) and were far from any roads - it was wonderful to feel truly alone in this beautiful and unusual landscape.

We were tired when we reached Vivelid, which was built in a beautiful spot in a bend by a river. This was a privately run hut, so there was full meal service. Dinner was served in a room overlooking the river: beef stroganoff, soup, potatoes, vegetables, and apple cake for desert, washed down with fresh mountain water. It was extremely gratifying to have a hot meal waiting when my feet barely had the energy left to stand. We dropped off to sleep quickly, and the next morning I woke up with my legs and feet feeling miraculously restored.

Photos: Me lying on a mini-glacier; Mark walking along the trail; a 'T' trail marker on a rock; our first encounter with a mini-glacier

July 31: Summer Fun

The heat wave continued through our last full day in Oslo. You could see that the Norwegians take full advantage of the sun when they have it - many people were in bikinis, sunbathing in the parks. I spent part of the day running errands (figuring out where to store our suitcases while we went hiking, doublechecking bus schedules at the information booth). I also went to the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design, which had exhibitions of medieval tapestries (which showed the stylistic evolution of certain themes through the centuries) and extensive examples of clothing, housewares and furniture from the past centure. As with the other national museums, it was a beautiful old building, with elaborate marble stairways.

At the end of the day Mark and I took the subway up to the Vigeland Sculpture Park, which is one of the city's major attractions. The park has 212 sculptures by the artist Gustav Vigeland - nude sculptures of people from all ages of life, in a tremendous variety of poses and expressing diverse emotions. The park itself was also designed by Vigeland, and is very imposing - huge expanses of formally landscaped grounds, with fountains, terraces and bridges over the river.

On our way back to the hotel we walked through less touristy areas than we had so far in our trip. We stopped in at a Mexican restaurant for supper, where they seemed a bit surprised to be serving someone other than locals - there were no English menus (which was pretty unusual for Norway, as there are almost always English translations). But Mexican food in Norwegian reads pretty much the same as Mexican food in Canada, so we had no problems ordering. My only problem was finishing dinner - it was the biggest burrito I have seen in my entire life, practically the size of a loaf of bread!

Photos: Vigeland Park - baby in a tree, towering stone sculptures, man shaking off babies

July 30: We Go Back in Time

On Wednesday Mark had the afternoon off from the conference, so we took the ferry out to the nearby Bygdoy peninsula to visit the museums. This area had beautiful large residential houses and quiet streets (with strangely overgrown hedges intruding on the sidewalks). Our first stop was the Viking Ships museum, where three Viking ships that had been found, buried and preserved in mud, are on display. They were beautiful: tall curving prows, intricate carving, heavy wooden planks shaped into smooth, curving shapes. Two of them are in astonishingly good condition, and the third is a very incomplete version of the others (sort of a Salvador Dali melting ship of warped planks).

We then went to the Folk History Museum, which was something like a pioneer village. There were examples of buildings from various eras, the most interesting of which were the wooden houses and barns with their sod roofs, and the stave church, which was a towering wooden structure with interesting carving. There were recreations of herbal gardens and farm fields (we were tempted to steal some kale, although we did help ourselves to the currants). There was also an extensive exhibition on the Sami, who are the indigenous people of northern Scandanavia.

Our last stop was the museum of an astonishing ship that sailed through brutal conditions at both Arctic and Antarctic: the Fram. It is said to be the strongest wooden ship ever built, and it must have been to withstand being trapped in ice for months and even years at a time. The tour of the ship included many artifacts from the original sailors, laid out in their individual rooms, which gave it a very personal and poignant history - life was not easy under those conditions.

That night we went out for dinner for our first time since arriving - I'd essentially been eating ham and cheese sandwiches at breakfast, lunch and supper for three days, and was starting to tire of it (although I did enjoy thwarting the high cost of eating out). We found a Greek restaurant with decent prices and massive portions of food. It was pretty exciting to eat something different.

Photos: a Viking ship, historic buildings with sod roofs, wooden stave church, the Fram, Viking ship prow