School holidays have finally arrived and after enduring a long winter in London, summer is finally here... JOKES!! After a fairly average London 'summer' Michael and I packed our bags and were joined by Rob, Georgia and Dave en route to Norway - a country, which, as far as I can tell, does not actually have a summer season!
We flew into Bergen, a city on the west coast of Norway, loaded our hire car to the brim and headed straight for a small town called Odda. Odda is a small fishing town, where we planned on basing ourselves for the next few days.
The town itself is very small but also very picturesque (as you can see from the photo above). It is located about a half hour drive from the famous Trolltunga (the Troll's Tongue) hike in the Fjords of Norway - this is what we had come here to do!
The following morning, we set off early to hike Trolltunga. As per the sign in the above photo, Trolltunga can only be hiked from June through to September, in the winter months it is completely closed (as it is too dangerous to hike) and in the shoulder season you are only allowed to hike if you are accompanied by a guide.
The sign also contains warnings about the type of hiking equipment that you should bring with you - most of which we were not fully equipped with.
The first 1.7km of the hike was absolutely brutal, it was an incredibly steep climb and a lot of the terrain was slippery, muddy and rocky - the above photos are taken at the top, when we finally got the chance to catch our breaths and admire the (already) beautiful views.
The entire hike is marked by red the read 'T' painted on the side of bigger rocker and also by little stacks of rocks - there is not exactly a clear cut path but these little markers lead the way for hikers. In the background of this photo you can see the ominous looking clouds, which pretty much haunted us for the entire hike - like I said, there is no such thing as summer in Norway!
Above: Rob, celebrating surviving the first 1.7km.
The Trolltunga hike is a 22km return - not for the faint hearted. Above is Me and Georgia, all bright eyed and bushy tailed (and only 2km into our 22km hike).
Rob, Georgia, Michael and myself after the second huge ascent of the day. Although the hike is 22km long, there are only two major ascents, both of which are within the first 6km of the hike - although this makes it sound easier, going up (and down) these ascents was absolutely brutal!
Only 7km until the Troll's Tongue! This sign warns hikers to turn around if they haven't made this marker before 1pm.
Self timer group shot - we definitely do not have this move perfected haha!
There were some amazing views along the way - sheer cliff faces, dropping into clear, still, blue waters - absolutely breathtaking scenery!
Some more hiking snaps, as you can see from some of the photos, the mud was already pretty bad but - little did we know - it was going to be worse on our trek back!
The boys - taking a break to admire the view.
Rob - getting some use out of his expert selfie arm.
FYI - Michael bought these lovely purple leopard print hats for all the boys to wear, this is a personal favourite design of Dave's.
Only 1km to go - we were getting close to the summit and starting to get pretty excited. Unfortunately, not all of us were able to contain our enthusiasm, Rob had a little accident - and by that I mean that he slipped and fell in the mud - battle scars!
Finally, 5 hours later, we had reached the summit: Trolltunga.
What an incredible natural landscape...
Trolltunga is approximately 900m above sea level and the drop from the edge of the Troll's Tongue and the water below is about 700m.
Dave and Georgia on the Troll's Tongue - photo of the day!
Michael conquering the Troll's Tongue - note the rapid change in weather!
After having to seriously talk myself into walking out onto the ledge (and with some intense coaching from Georgia), I battled some pretty intense nerves and managed to strike a - somewhat anxious pose - atop the Troll's Tongue! The pouring rain did not help my anxiety one little bit and I certainly have no conquered my fear of heights BUT I can tick this incredible, once in a lifetime, experience off the bucket list!
Michael and I on the Troll's Tongue - I held this pose for all of five seconds, fortunately Georgia's fast fingers managed to catch this snap!
By the time we had finished taking photos it was POURING rain - yep, the ominous clouds had finally caught up to us. We decided it was time to make tracks and get back to base ASAP - which meant 5-6 hours of battling pouring rain, despite our lack of waterproof attire.
Some shots of us, completely drenched. As it turns out, my 'waterproof' jacket is not designed to withstand this form of heavy downpour. Rob even whipped out his poncho, which also did very little to protect him from the rain. Michael and I both wore runners, which actually got so destroyed by the mud and rain that we had to throw them out, yes, I know, very hardcore haha!
There were a few breaks in the rain but for the most part it was pretty consistent throughout the entire descent. The descent down the steep, muddy and unbelievable slippery terrain was much more excruciating and painful than all these happy snaps make it out to be - there were several hours of ankle deep much, torrential rain, slippery rocks and general agony!
I would much rather climb uphill than go back down again - it was so painful and all our knees were hating life by the time we made it to the bottom!
Survivors: after 10 hours of hiking, we finally made it to the bottom.
-----
The following day, we dragged our weary bodies out of bed and made the drive back towards Bergen.
We stopped on the way to take a few snaps of this gorgeous waterfall - of course, it rained as soon as we got out of the car and we all ended up went (again).
We spent a full day in Bergen together before Rob, Georgia and Dave had to get their flight back to London. We spent some time wandering around the Old Town and main squares of Bergen - unfortunately it rained on and off for the ENTIRE time! Seriously, they don't have a real summer in this country!
Michael was very excited to try a skillingsboller (aka. a Norweigan cinnamon pastry) and it turned out they were pretty delicious.
Georgia at Bryggen, the old wharf of Bergen - this is actually a UNESCO World Heritage site and was [surprising] filled with tourists, despite the constant rain.
Finally, our last impressions of Norway - the lovely, rainy view from our studio apartment in Bergen.
