Jeff: Pulpit Rock

So the next morning we were up at 5am as the Pulpit Rock walk is very popular and you have to get started early to avoid the crowds. They used to say 7am was early enough to avoid the crowds but now they are saying 5am or 6am is better. The issue we had is our camperstop is at the bottom of the hill and the car park is 5km and 200 meters up and charges £20 for anything over 2 hours. So the plan was to cycle up the hill and then start the walk which is a 4km walk with a 500 meter climb. So off we cycled and while I had my bike on max power (and all the bags for the walk) poor Rich had no support. We made it up but it was hard and then we started the walk which travels through meadows, forests and over cliff tops. It was a stunning walk with three different climbs to complete the 500 meter ascent. The views over the fjord was stunning and once we reached the top there was around 30 – 50 people there but it was by no means as busy as we have seen in the photos. We admired the views and took some pictures, including the normal ones near the edge of the cliff before sitting down for some breakfast. We got chatting to another British couple while there and exchanged places we must go before climbing a little higher to get the views from above pulpit rock and then we headed back down, although we did get a little bit lost at the top and struggled to find the path back to the tock. We didn’t time the climb down brilliantly as the tour groups had started to arrive so we met many of them on the way down and due to the small width of the path we often had to wait for several people to come up before we could go down in several sections. It was interesting to see how people were coping with the walk as it is a demanding walk and some people were obviously not prepared for how difficult it was.

We made it up to the top in 1 hour 18 minutes and it took about 1 hour 20 down because of the people coming up and stopping to take photos but once we were down we headed to the lake which was nearby for a swim as the temperature was soaring and the walk had made us hot. We had a lovely little swim in the lake before heading back up to the bikes. Apart from a small section of uphill right at the start the rest of the ride was downhill and great fun. We managed to get to around 50km/h for sections of it and were down at the camperstop in no time.

I made some lunch, we had a hot shower and charged my bike battery back up before heading to Lysefjord, which is the fjord you can see from pulpit rock, where we planned to spend the rest of the day. We were lucky to find a parking spot, as someone was just leaving, and parked up almost opposite a small beach on the fjord and decided to get our chairs out and chill on the beach all afternoon with dips in the fjord to keep us cool.

The next day we got the paddleboard out and paddled from our little beach to pulpit rock so we could see it from below and I have to admit it was less impressive from the water than I thought it would be. We then paddled back and went into some of the coves around the fjord and then back to Jeff.

We had to plan what to do next and the issue is going to be weather, while it is beautiful today next week is going to be rain every day. So we have decided to spend the day on the beach today and then head north, which is going to take 4 hours, tomorrow in the rain.