Sometimes walking out the door and around back is the best way to hike. We bushwhacked up through juniper and blueberry towards a small lake where fish are rumored to live. Tyinkrysset, Norway is beautiful.
This little stream is just up the road a few hundred meters.
Here are some pictures of our walk in the mountains.
A view of the valley.
Chilly Romey.
Panorama
Our intrepid hosts at the top. Our fearless leader Nova was dressed for the weather.
The trail, built by hand with horses and carts through steep mountain passes, is incredible. Like a movie set. This is one hike in Norway not to miss. We did a few kilometers day hike to the Stave Church completed in the 1180s.
The Kings Road is what Kongevegen means, BTW. The scenery at peak Fall is stunning and magical.
Romey and the logo bench.
Just up over the pass the first view of the Stave Church.
We approached from behind (with a herd of sheep). These are not the sheep!
Our fearless leader Nova.
Don’t eat the mushrooms.
A quiet moment of conversation.
A boy and his dog!
An impressive waterfall on the drive home.
Coffee stop.
And back home for beer and a small fire. This is the only kind of smoking that I like to do.
It’s pretty far to get to the waterfall, and the directions are tricky.
Maybe it’s that way?
Should we follow the reindeer?
And you have to stop by the visitors center snack place where they have really nothing. No coffee today, no waffles, nope, no water, sorry only candy made from juniper berries.
But there it is! Upness in a waterfall.
OK. Not the best waterfall in Norway, or really even the most interesting. But there were reindeer!
Visting purenkel.no is always a pleasure. One of the owner’s excellent pieces now lives at the Stick. The first post covid lockdown visit to Oslo included some art.
The rockslide helped. Our original plan was to start hiking just down the road from the Skarvheimem cabin and walk 19km (11.8 miles) along the river bed. Just a few km in, a change of plans due to trail damage had us hike up over a ridge instead. This added 3.2km longwise and a whole bunch of vertical. The distance was not the issue, as you may imagine! Here is a photo documentary of the walk.
Morning view from the cabin
Ready to hike?
We started at a little restaurant/camp area where we ended up (8 hours later) having dinner. Getting started was a thing. By 10:30, we were walking.
Stopping for photo opportunities was a must. We had more cameras than people on our hike. Good news: the tripod actually got used!
The valley hike was very pretty, but in the end we were really glad we had to hike up over the ridge.
Don’t get too close to the edge!
Lunch break. We were joined by many lemmings
There was some wind at the top of the cliff.
And then it was down, down, down. Hard on the knees. The trail was so steep that in places metal cables had been installed. Those were a good thing.
Waterfalls, rock-covered trail, going up when you should be going down, and never quite getting to the water were all things. The wind was impressive when it was funneled up the valley and concentrated into tight eddies.
The sun peeked out occasionally with spectacular long yellow light.
Finally a road. The pace sped up as a taxi was summoned. We made it back in time for dinner, though walking up the three stairs to the restaurant was not easy!
This hike is among the most beautiful I have ever experienced. More is in order.
Norway in a nutshell is a great way to see lots of a gorgeous country. It’s grueling though! We were on trains, boats and buses for 12 hours! Sadly, there is no beer on the boat until May 1st, so all future tourists make sure not to go to Norway in April.
This montage includes all legs of the Norway in a Nutshell trip plus our time spent in Bergen. We were joined by some great Norwegian friends for the last half of the trip. Conversation and laughter abound.
