After our time in Hardangervidda we were ready for some rest and relaxation at Tone’s place in Bergen. With internet at hand and a couple of days to spare it was planning time. Well, in between the fishing anyway.
Our constraints were, we had to either do a round trip somewhere or carry all our gear with us. After thinking about it for a while we decided that it would be ok if we got rid of more stuff so we would be able to carry all our belongings on our hiking trip.
The plan was to ferry from where we were staying in Bergen down the longest fjord in the area (called Sognefjord) to Aurland Valley. Aurland was a tiny village where a party boat was docked in its down time and functioned as a hostel. It was a first to stay a night on a boat.
From Aurland the bus went through a 24km long tunnel to Kjerkstolen. As we were the only people on the bus, the driver dropped us at the start of the track. First stop was Slettningsbu. Well, we arrived there with no problems but found that the hut was locked :(. After settling in, ready for a cold night, a DNT hut warden showed up. That was a big relief.
After spending a night chatting away to a Dutch family, we were off on our next day, heading for Fondsbu. This time it was going to be a long day. We had about 22km of hiking to get through. This was a nice day of walking, though thankfully cut short by a lift for the last 2.5km of road. For about half of the track on this day we were attacked by mosquitoes.
From Fondsbu, we walked up on to a high glacial valley, climbed over a pass then round to Olavsbu. There was a lot of time walking in snow, some of it falling through. It ended up taking a lot longer then we had initailly thought. But we eventually made it. This was by far our favourite day. Some spectacular views with some challenging terrain.
After a long previous day and with the beauty of the area we decided it would be appropriate to have a rest day and go for a day walk. The hut warden was an interesting fellow who set us off in the direction of one of the peaks behind the hut. Climbing up to 2100m we found some amazing views!
All rested up, next we set our sights on Gjendebu but with a slight detour. Just before getting to Gjendebu we took a detour up to the peak at the end of the lake. This was nice to see where we had come from and where we were going over the next couple of days.
After Gjendebu was Memurubu, the first private hut we had stayed at. It was a pretty nice spot, but certainly reminded us of the differences between tramping in NZ and here. Much more of an upper class, rich mans sport.
Getting to Gjendesheim meant climbing high above the lake and traversing what is known as Bessegen. This was a well known tourist walk. It was pretty amazing, but we though a bit over hyped. Maybe the hype was also because of it’s accessibility more than it’s pure beauty.
This all ended with a bus then flight to land us in Amsterdam.
