Up and Down and All Around the Lysefjord

Sorry. It’s been a while. Getting started with this school year has been h a r d. More on that another day. For now, on with the story of the end of the sabbatical travels…(And, apologies in advance for the massive number of photos. I can’t help myself.)

After getting dropped off in Stavanger (see previous post), we crashed for the night, only to get up the next morning, purchase an ankle brace (given my sprained ankle) and catch a bus out of town. We spent the next week circling one of the southernmost fjords in Norway (also, one of the biggest, and, oddly, straightest), the Lysefjord. After catching a taxi from the furthest point on our bus route, we got dropped off at a parking lot in the middle of nowhere about a thousand feet above the fjord. We ate a quick lunch and then geared up to get going…

DAY ONE: Parking Skrøylå to Skåpet

The first day’s hike started out pretty mellow, heading up a dirt road (sadly past a small construction site with an annoying helicopter), but then the trail headed off over a series of low rocky hills dotted with goregeous lakes. This was probably the hardest hiking of the whole trip. The trails were hard to follow (thank god for GPS), there was frequent rock-scrambling (some with relatively dire potential consequences), and we had to wade through more of that deep sloppy muck that characterizes so many of these narrow Norwegian trails. That aside, most of the day was absolutely gorgeous…

Eventually, we descended into a valley that reminded me of a mini-Yosemite with lots of glacially-carved rounded granite mountains…

The last mile or two was a much-better constructed trail, as it goes from a popular parking area to the amazing cabins we ended up in. And, after the first half-mile, we only saw two other hikers the whole day.

The Skåpet is a DNT-run “self-service” cabin (see Aurland post for info on DNT cabins), but instead of being one main building, it has six individual little family cabins and one shared space for cooking. It’s also quite popular because there’s a sauna building as well. I mostly loved that it was in an absolutely gorgeous spot overlooking a lake surrounded by rocky cliffs and with a view down the canyon in the other direction. However, unlike most of our other self-service cabin experiences, it was full. Every little cabin had people in it, and a couple of guys also crashed in the little dorm room off the kitchen. But, it was kind of fun to see where everyone was from. I chatted with a French couple about board games and a Norwegian dad who had lived in Berkeley for a year. Overall, a pretty sweet place to land for the night…

DAY TWO: Skåpet to Flørli

The next day was beautiful and sunny, and our hike basically broke down into two chunks, one wonderful, and the second somewhat painful.

The bulk of the day was spent crossing several high valleys, occasionally scrambling up and over one set of rocks, down and around some lakes, and then up and over the next little hill. There was some mud along the way, and a fair number of sheep, but mostly just a lovely rolling hike.

Eventually, we reached the point where we could see the giant canyon of the Lysefjord again…

…and began a steep, muddy, trip-hazard-filled, knee-and-ankle-crushing descent. We did see some cute toads…

…and the views were nice…

…but it was still long and steep and somewhat less pleasant than the rest of the day.

Eventually, we ended up wandering into the upper reaches of the tiny town of Flørli.

Flørli was once an isolated little village, but about a century ago, a power station was built there to supply hydroelectric power for Stavanger. Now, the defunct power station is a cafe on one half and a town museum on the other, with little exhibits about the inhabitants of Flørli over the years, their lives and livelihoods. Most fascinating (and slightly disturbing) was the entire family tree of the village, which definitely had some slightly-too-close-for-comfort marriages.

Nowadays, the town is mostly inhabited only in the summer, and most of the buildings are managed as a giant B&B by the couple who run the cafe. But, since the “B&B” is spread out all over the hillside (and is managed by just two people…), instead of having a central gathering place, they let the guests run stuff more or less on their own (a bit like the DNT cabins). When we arrived, they assigned us to the old Post Office, where there was a lovely bed and more historical info on the walls.

We were given a basket with all of our breakfast foods in it (bread, yogurt, milk, juice, etc. — more than we could eat) and told we could use the breakfast room at the school house, about an 8 minute walk from our room. No problem. But…that was also the nearest bathroom. Slightly less convenient.

Regardless, Flørli was incredibly cute and quaint, and had a stunning location right along the fjord…

It was probably one of my favorite places we stayed in the entire year abroad. I loved everything about it (except the long walk to the bathroom). But, in particular, the attention to detail on preserving the history was great. Where we ate in the school house, there were old maps the kids used, and also some old kid-made art. Best of all was the turntable with a note dated from 1941 that read: “WARNING: This is a reminder that gatherings with dance or other merriment must not be held without police permission if there is access for an undetermined group of person or members of an association or similar organizations. Violations will be prosecuted immediately.”

DAY THREE: Flørli to Langavatn

The next day was E P I C. It started with one of the most unique hiking experiences I’ve had, and that was followed by a long day of stunning vistas. Excellent all around.

The first part of the day started with the Flørli 4444, a series of 4,444 wooden stairs following the old pipeline from the top of the hill down to the powerstation. Most of the stairs were at a relatively normal angle, but some were steep like a ladder and others were set along a much gentler slope. The stairs were marked (for better or worse), and there were occasional spots where you could stop for a second, but mostly just constant vertical motion. Regardless, the climb took us about two hours in which we ascended about 2500 feet over the course of a mile. Oof.

It looked something like this…

Once we reached the top of the stairs, we still had an 11 mile hike ahead of us. And it was incredible. We passed a few grassy lake valleys, but by and large we were mostly crossing a gigantic moon-scape of sometimes-smoothly-rolling and sometimes-jagged-and-steep rocky hills dotted with crystal-clear waters and the occasional patch of snow.

At one of the higher points where we could see a tiny bit of the fjord, it looked like this:

Eventually, we descended into a lovely lake-filled valley to another DNT self-service cabin called Langavatn. The cabin was small and basic, but we had nice company in the form of a father-daughter-granddaughter trio from Ireland with long experience of Norwegian hiking. There were also plenty of sheep too close to the cabin, and an unexpectedly gorgeous middle of the night view.

DAY FOUR: Langavatn to Øygardsstøl

The next day was a bit less epic (only about 8 miles total), but was still amazing. We first crossed back over the moonscape…

_{(You can click here if you want to see an even windier video from an even higher point than the previous day’s.)}

Eventually, we came to the famous Kjeragbolten, a boulder wedged between two cliff walls hanging out about 1000 meters above the fjord.

Of course, the thing to do is to go out on the boulder for a photo op…

It’s not quite as scary as it looks when you go around the back and see where you get on and off…

…but Jessica was low key freaking out when I wanted to go out there. So, I didn’t. Oh well. It’s still an awesome spot. And the view of the fjord from just behind the boulder is absolutely incredible:

From there it was another rocky fun-filled adventure with some very steep drops (lots of chains) hugging the edge of the clifftops with views down to the fjord and the little town of Lysebotn below. This was the most crowded section of hiking up to this point.

We ended our hike at Øygardsstøl–basically a snack bar with a view of the fjord. We could have walked down the road for another 5 miles or so to get to Lysebotn, but that would also involve walking through a mile-long tunnel (with no sidewalk and a fair bit of traffic). Instead, we took a van down, run by a local company that specializes in helping people get to Kjeragbolten for base-jumping purposes. A little adventurous for us, but nice to have a ride…

Lysebotn, at the bottom of the valley and the farthest inland end of the Lysefjord, was a cute little town. We stayed in the colorful and pleasant DNT cabins (basically a little hotel), where we enjoyed watching the automatic mowing machines wander the grounds.

The best part of Lysebotn was the view from the docks at the end of the fjord, which shifted and changed with the light and the clouds…

DAY FIVE: Through the mud to Songedalen

We had two choices for the next day: walk 10 or 15 miles up the road (through beautiful scenery, but, again, on the road) and then hike for about 7 miles or get a ride up the road and then hike for about 7 miles. We chose plan B and ended up getting a base-jumping van up the road to the start of our hike.

The hike followed a beautiful valley down to an unserviced DNT cabin at Songedalen. The only problem was that the beauty of the valley was significantly marred by old power lines and construction of new power lines. Pretty much the entire hike we were following the dirt road being used for vehicles to move in and out to build the new lines. And that dirt road was basically a gigantic mudfest. In fact, in one place, a sign warned us not to cross the road because we’d be likely to sink into the mud up to our armpits. The sign did not exaggerate.

Sadly, much of the “trail” had been destroyed by this construction, so we were basically picking our way down the edges of the mud pit or venturing off on some sheep paths to try to skirt the worst areas.

Regardless, much of it was still quite beautiful, following a lush green valley with steep canyon walls…just with power lines in every possible view…

The last mile or so was a bit of a reprieve, as we eventually came to a much more established dirt road. Of course, this one came with warnings for the drivers to not do things like drive off the road or crash into each other, which seem like kinda obvious ideas…

The Songedalen cabin was super-cute. A tiny kitchen, a little dining room, and two little bunk rooms. Just down the road was the funniest outhouse ever, with a giant toilet made from an old tree trunk, but evidently made by some sort of giant, as I had to launch myself up to get seated…

The place was also surrounded by a sheep. Tons of them. And when it rained, they gathered around the cabin to stay under the eaves, making quite a bit of noise as they scraped and scooted against the walls and tried to get into the tiny crawl space underneath. But…they were pretty cute (despite the poop we had to dodge) and the views around the place were pretty nice (despite the power lines)…

To give you a sense, though, of how loud these sheep were, here’s a spot earlier in the hike when a sheep far, far away, on the other side of the river, just wouldn’t stop…

And, while we’re talking about sheep, let’s just be clear that lambs are hilarious. Nearly every mama sheep we saw had two sizeable (not tiny anymore) lambs with her. And whenever the sheep got frightened by us, all three would run off together and as soon as they stopped, the lambs inevitably began nursing. The best part was, every time they started nursing, their tails would go absolutely nuts, like milk was the best possible thing in the world and they were the luckiest animals on Earth. This was a scene we saw dozens of times, but I only captured a tiny second on video:

DAY SIX: Songedalen to Bakken Gård

The next day also began with sheep. As we started down the road, two adult sheep and two lambs got scared by us. Naturally, they ran away, but instead of running off the road, they ran the same direction we were going. And then did it again. And again. And again. For over a mile. The funniest part was when all of them took a running leap over the sheep guard (is that a phrase? I know cattle guard is. Regardless, I mean where they have metal bars with gaps between them in the road to prevent sheep from going past that point!). One of the little ones didn’t make it all the way, but scrambled out after having one leg briefly stuck. When they got to the second sheep guard in the road, they finally turned off to the side…

The walk down the road from Songedalen to the fjord was pleasant and quiet and the views (despite the power lines) were nice…

There were flowers…

And, eventually, we got down to the ferry dock where we had some gorgeous views out across the water.

Here, we had to make a choice. We were planning to hike another few miles along the fjord and then up to the hut at Bakken Gård, but we could skip the next several miles by taking a ferry one stop down to the Bakken Gård stop. We knew the next part was going to have tricky footing, and there was a little light rain, but it wasn’t raining so hard that we were unhappy to be out. So, eventually, we decided to go on with the hike.

It did start out a bit tricky, as promised…

…and after about 20 minutes we ran into a young woman hiking the other direction with blood running down her leg who explained that she had just slipped on some rocks and fallen into the water. She was fine, and we took some time to describe the options ahead for her before letting her head off. The rest of the way was a bit slippery, but mostly it was a fun, challenging traverse of the rocky coastline with absolutely stunning views…

Eventually, we ascended towards the DNT hut at Bakken Gård, an old farm. Along the way we passed the “Gertrud Steinen” which is not named after Gertrude Stein, but means “Gertrud’s Rock” because one of the people who used to live there liked to go to that spot. I can’t blame her.

Eventually, we made it to the hut (actually, several little connected buildings). It was one of the nicest we stayed in. When we arrived, an older couple who were DNT volunteers were just finishing a very thorough cleaning after having spent a week there. After that we had the place to ourselves until a young German couple came along and we had to teach them how the whole hut system worked. They were sweet, though, so it was nice to chat with them. In general, we liked hanging around at Bakken Gård and checking out the giant map of the Lysefjord.

Probably the best part was going out to the nearby viewpoint, which just kept getting nicer and nicer as the evening went on…

DAY SEVEN: Bakken Gård to Preikestolen Base Camp

Unfortunately, the weather did not hold for us the next day. After having dealt with light rain going to and from Songedalen, the morning we woke up at Bakken Gård was rainy, and it just got worse and worse throughout the day. We had planned to take a fairly epic hike that day, ascending from Bakken Gård to the Preikestolen (“Pulpit Rock”) and then down to the Preikestolen Base Camp (a hotel/hostel) that was to be our last stop before leaving the Lysefjord. The Preikestolen is advertised to look something like this:

You can see it’s quite a popular destination.

Alas, given the rain, we instead headed downhill to the Bakken ferry stop…

There we caught the ferry down to the stop closest to the Prekestolen Base Camp at Refså kai (conveniently spelled Revså on about half the maps and schedules, and left off of others completely). The ride, despite being windy and wet, was still pretty nice, and we got a good view of the Preikestolen from below…

From there it was a couple of hours of uphill hiking through the mud and across the rocks in a pretty serious downpour. The secenery was gorgeous, but we were pretty thoroughly soaked, and could only half enjoy it.

Finally, we got to the Preikestolen Base Camp, where, just as we were changing out of our wet clothes, the fire alarm went off and we had to go back out in the rain (which was now a drizzle) for another twenty minutes. Nevertheless, it was nice to be able to dry off and get some warm food.

We woke the next morning hoping to go up to the Preikestolen from there, but it was pouring again, so we ended up just hopping the first bus back to Stavanger, ending our amazing circuit of the area on a bit of a letdown. Regardless, it was an amazing week on the Lysefjord, and a pretty awesome end to a truly incredible year.

More to come on the road home from Stavanger to Santa Cruz. But that’ll likely take a few weeks for me to get to. Until then…