No way... we're in Norway!

14 August 2017 - 25 August 2017

A significant birthday for Scott made the perfect excuse for the Gilmour family to all meet up in Norway for a hiking trip together. We flew into Bergen from our various corners of the world and arrived at a beautiful hotel near the historic Bryggen part of town. The first highlight (after catching up with the family) was the breakfast - walking into the huge breakfast room was overwhelming. Imagine every type of breakfast from any corner of the world and it was probably there. We wandered around stunned for the first ten minutes before diving in and eating far too much. 

Sufficiently fuelled up we headed into town to join the free walking tour and then had a great hike up to the top of Ulriken, one of the seven mountains surrounding Bergen. Other than our flight in this was our first real taste of Norwegian scenery. In each direction you were seeing a variation of mountain ranges and sea views, all mixed in with fjords. It was stunning.

 

But why have a photo of Norwegian scenery when you can have a photo of Mark instead

The real reason for our trip to Norway was hiking so after another massive breakfast we met up with the tour guides who would be taking us around Norway. What followed was nine days wandering through the beautiful Norwegian scenery. The tour company we used had organised a great itinerary with a good mixture of hikes. We would be transported to a fabulous hotel and each day go on a hike in the area near the hotel before heading back to enjoy the local hospitality. 

 

The kids on tour in Norway.

The first hotel we stayed at on the hiking trip, the Walaker Hotel, is the oldest hotel in Norway and has been managed by the same family for nine generations. Each evening at the hotel there was a four course dinner, with ingredients sourced from the local area - including reindeer! The very enthusiastic owner gave a talk about the history of the hotel and surrounding area. It completely blows your mind as a New Zealander when he just casually mentions the Viking swords that they found on the property when they were doing renovations. 

We hiked up to the hut at the Flatbre glacier. It was warm enough for sunbathing while we had lunch up at the hut.  The views were just amazing. We were able to see right out over the fjord for miles. And the glacier was the most incredible colour of blue. The boys decided to do an extra hike to a rocky outcrop with a viewpoint in the middle of the glacier. The hiking was perfectly complemented with the blueberries and raspberries on the side of the track that we all gorged ourselves on.

Ian at a lake en-route.

And Mark at the glacier

After three nights at the Walaker hotel we had a bit of a walk on the Old Kings road and stopped off at a stave church at Borgund which was built around 1180.  Our next stop was a viewing platform. Its hard to describe how amazing this was. The platform is 650 metres above the fjord and hangs 30 metres above the mountain. It was all glass and the views were huge. Our destination was the town of Flam, which translates as "the little place between steep mountains". What an appropriate name!

We had dinner down at the water front and spent a considerable period of time mocking the couple who were trying to capture the perfect photo of them and the fjord on the end of a little pier.  

In fairness, it was a nice spot for doing just that... 

The first hike from Flam was one of the favourites. We were wandering through more beautiful scenery, and historic old farms. As we reached the old farms there were cute little houses which were dug into the mountain and had grass on their roofs, so they were hidden away into the hills. So hidden that Mark just casually walked up a hill that turned out to be the roof of a building. 

Rüfgrassen in Flam

The scenery just got better and better as we walked. It was constantly changing and there were waterfalls everywhere. Overcome with the beauty of it all Mark jumped into the river for a (very brief) swim. He carefully waited until the track was clear to strip off and jump in, only to have a group of elderly women wander around the track and get the best view of their day. 

The rest of you will have to be content with this picture of a waterfall instead.

Norway: full of beautiful waterfalls and gorgeous women.

And underground roundabouts!

From the beautiful scenery of one day the following day we were subjected to some real Norwegian weather. Foggy and cold and unable to see much. We were all grateful that the hike for that day was scheduled to be quite a short one. In the afternoon we had a bit of a field trip to go and visit the town located at the narrowest fjord. 

And then we stumbled across an outdoor wear photo shoot.

The final hotel we headed to was in the most beautiful location yet. The views were unbelievable and seemed to carry on forever. We were right on the waterfront of the fjord. There was a great pool which went from the indoors then with a lazy river turned into an outdoor pool. Some of us were brave enough to jump into the fjord for a swim. And Bridget was brave enough to push Mary into the fjord for a swim.

Over the past couple of days there had been various discussions about the hiking programme being amended so we could do the hike to Trolltunga. The main guide wasn't keen to go but the other guide was. The discussions culminated with a fairly robust discussion about the options and the logistics involved to make it all work. In the end the group split in half with Ian, Leeyan, Annie and Mark deciding to get up and out the door at 5.30am to avoid the crowds at Trolltunga.

[M- Not content with being up nice and early, Ian and I decided to run the 11km from the carpark to the tongue. It was actually a beautiful, if hilly, route to get out there, although *way* more crowded than anything else we had done in Norway. Despite the psychological boost of constantly overtaking people, it was a struggle piece of cake to keep up with Ian and all of his ultramarathon training, so it was a relief no big deal when the actual tongue of rock finally appeared. For anyone else considering, It took us about 2:15 to get there, arriving at 0900 there were already half a dozen people in the queue (all campers), and it really started getting crowded about 1030. Early is definitely the way to go, if not camping overnight nearer the site.

It was pretty entertaining catching my breath at the vantage point where all the iconic photos are taken from. Some people had some reasonably creative poses, including the three naked guys just before the girls arrived. At one stage a couple brought their dog out with them. It ran up to the edge to a generalised chorus of of dismay from the peanut gallery, looked down the hundreds of metre drop, and promptly scarpered back to safety with its tail between its legs. -M]

Mark & Annie at Trolltunga

Ian standing on a little rock outcropping above a waterfall Mark spotted from afar. Another one of those places that photos just don't do justice to.

The rest of us, Bridget, Scott, Mary and I went for a walk that was closer to the hotel and didn't require a 5.30am start. As is becoming a bit of a theme the views were awesome again. The fjord, the mountains and waterfalls! 

And our own little Trolltunga!

For our final hike the guides outdid themselves. The track was fairly vertical and had lots of ropes and wooden ladders to get us up to the Kjeasen farm at the top of the hill. Mary was being subjected to a whole lot of advice from everyone - then she ditched her walking poles and ended up hooning up the hill. In between watching our step there were the usual dramatic views!

Zoom!

We made our way back to Bergen for the final dinner together. The following day Annie and Bridget had to return to New Zealand to go back to work. The rest of us kids were flying with Scott and Mary to Naples, Italy where we were going to have another week together hiking in the Amalfi Coast.