Jeff: TrollTunga and Bergen

Thursday was another quiet day where we pottered around the town and prepared for the walk on Friday, including making breakfast for the walk, and doing some shopping.

Friday we got up at 5am and made a quick cup of tea and then drove to the free car parking space we have found (its better than paying the £25 in the parking lot at the bottom). The issue is due to the size of the van (its more than 5 metres) they won’t let you park anywhere but at the bottom and then you have to pay £15 for a shuttle bus to the second parking lot which is what we could also get from our free parking space. Once at the second parking lot you have two choices, walk the extra 3.5km trail which goes past the small level 3 parking and includes an additional 400 meter climb or get another shuttle (£13 return). Rich being Rich decided that we should do this extra walk which makes it a 28km walk with 1,200 meter climb in total and the guides suggest it should take between 9 and 12 hours (hence the 5am start) and does not recommend anyone starting the trail after 8am.

So after we got off the bus we visited the toilet for the last time until we arrive back at the car park and off we trailed up the big hill and then onto the main trail which was great but its not an easy walk but it was beautiful, with stunning views over the fjord and snow capped mountains – we even got to touch and walk on some snow. The hills were steep, both up and down, and while it was not boulder climbing as other trails have been it ranged between large stepping stones/steps, gravel/stone paths and water covered stone, but we managed to get to the trolls tongue in about 3.5 hours which we didn’t think was bad going. We then had to queue for photos on the tongue while the other one took photos (we could have tried to get one together but that seemed a little bit too much hassle) and given that we had to wait for about 30 minutes each for photos already Rich was done! While we were waiting for the photos we managed to have our breakfast and chill out but my god it was colder up there so we had all our layers on.

After the photos and a bit of exploring it was time for the walk down. We calculated that we had around 3.5 hours to get back to the second parking lot in order to catch the bus back (although there were other buses but each were an hour and a half later than the previous one and we didn’t fancy waiting that long). So we powered it down and while you think going down should take longer its not a simple path so you have to be mindful where you are stepping and while its not as demanding as going up you are definitely working other muscles hard. There was also the issue of passing other hikers who were coming up or going down slowly which we didn’t really have on the walk up but we tried to keep our pace up and we were watching the time and calculating how much leeway we would have (not a lot!) but once we got past the top level of the parking the hike back down the last 3.5km was easier and we even had a little run on the really steep bits (something we would regret the following day). We made it down to the parking lot with around 10 minutes to spare allowing us to pee before lining up to try and squeeze on the bus (there were far more people than seats it appeared until a second bus turned up). Once the bus dropped us back at the parking we had a shower and sorted out the van before going to service the van and pick up a well deserved vegan pizza (it was mediocre) and heading onto our stop for the night about an hour away.

The next morning we woke up aching but we never let that stop us do we. We got up and drove across the Hardanger bridge and through the tunnel (which has a roundabout in the tunnel, which was cool) and drove West until we hit a town just outside Bergen. We then hobbled onto the bikes and cycled the 10km route into Bergen. The route was supposed to be mostly flat but we knew on the cycle in that it was mostly down hill so we would pay for that on the way back! We parked the bikes up in the centre and walked around the town looking at most of the touristy things including Bryggen which is the historic wooden port buildings which were very cool. there were also some very nice ships there which we admired (and wondered who owned them and how much they cost!) We also walked through their food market which had a range of non-vegan foods from seafood (including whale!) to reindeer, moose and boring meats. It was a bit crazy all told and it was mainly aimed at tourists so we hot footed it through and continued our tour of the town. Next we jumped on the funicular which took us up 320 meters to the top of Floyen to get some great city views. We slowly explored some of the top and found the lake where we were given a free canoe to paddle around the lake but after two laps we were bored and the rain was starting again so we headed back to shore and thought about the journey down. Rich had bought singles with the idea of walking down but our legs were against that idea and with the rain coming in we decided that it was a bad idea so we jumped back on the funicular and sped down to the bottom. Once down there I wanted to find some cinnamon buns as they are supposed to have some great vegan ones in bakeries so we headed out to find some and explore a little more of the city (and found some murals without looking). We then decided to head back to Jeff knowing it would be a harder cycle but we made it back, just before the heavens opened again. This rain continued most of the evening with thunder and lightning and we were glad we made it back before it all started.

The next morning we woke up and briefly considered a run and then decided against it. We headed off in Jeff for a long day of driving but with some stops as its due to rain on and off all day. We drove for about an hour before we arrived at our first stop – Voss. You may recognise this name its because this is the village Voss mineral water comes from. The town is very pretty with a lake/fjord in the centre which we briefly walked along some of the edge before finding a really cool outdoor gym which we had a go on to stretch out our muscles and then we looked at a nice church. Before leaving we filled up our water bottles from the drinking water tap that said it was the best drinking water in Norway for free and it was very nice water!

We hopped back into Jeff and carried on West to our next stop Flam. This is a bittersweet stop as we ha been considering a ride on the Rallarvegen cycle route which is 82km long but the issue is you need to also take a train ride to the start from Flam but the train didn’t leave until late in the morning meaning we would have also needed to have accommodation on the route or at the start. Most of the route was not accessible by car and therefore you also need to pack everything on the bike that you want to take. We just decided it was a little bit too much hassle to try and organise and very expensive especially as the weather isn’t going to be great for a few days so we would be either cycling in the rain or having to wait in the area.

Anyway back to our journey we continued slightly north and made a detour up a very twisty mountain to get to a view point. For most of the road it was only 1 car wide so it took a fair amount of time and lots of reversing to passing points to get to the top. Then the next issue was the parking lot was tiny and having gone past it twice and not managed to find a parking space we parked about 300meters down hill and walked up to it. It was a very nice view but very busy and then we had to do the drive back down. Once down we had some lunch and then started to head onwards but soon found we had an issue. Our plan was to go through Laerdal tunnel which is the largest road tunnel in the world at 24.5km but the roundabout in front of it was blocked and we soon realised the tunnel was closed. There were some angry Norwegians trying to get around all of the traffic, including us, but everything was gridlocked. After a few minutes waiting we chatted to others who had been waiting for over 30 minutes already and we decided to give it a miss today and find somewhere to stay for the night. This issue is that the tunnel is pretty much the only way (otherwise you have to go over the mountain roads which takes more than triple the amount of time and is not passable all year around.

We settled into a camper stop on the edge of the fjord for the night and booked our activity for the next day!