Some days free, because of all the holidays in Norway -> time for a self organised trip!

preparation:

Much preparation wasn’t there before the trip. Elena and me both wanted to go to the Hardangervidda national park (the biggest national park in Norway), so we looked up some possible hikes, nice spots to see and how we could get there. After our oral theory exam we checked the weather forecast and that was okay, not that nice but not much rain. We made the decision that we could leave tomorrow. That meant doing a wash, going to the shop and prepare our rucksacks and food. We planned to do a four day hike, where we started at Kinsarvik, go up there by the four big waterfalls, walk through a part of Hardangervidda and walk down using the way of Trolltunga. We also needed two days for traveling with the bus. That meant we had a trip of 6 days waiting on us, so we also needed enough food and gear for 6 days, so a pretty heavy rucksack.

Thursday:

Bus day! We drove with 5 busses for around 9 hours including some stops, where one was 2 hours. It was a ride with a lot of different landscapes!

We came in Kinsarvik around 18h30 and did already around 5 kilometers, where we walked to the beginning of the waterfall hike and already passed the first waterfall. It was beautiful to see! We put up our tent, ate dinner, watched the beautiful sunset and tried to go to bed, what was not so simple with the loud sounds of the waterfalls and the light.

Friday:

Today we walked the waterfall hike further. The first three waterfalls, where pretty close to each other on a nice hiking path, where we had to walk in the wild nature on rocks and tree roots and cross some rivers. The fourth waterfall was a bit further away and there the hike became also a bit more challenging. Next to the fourth waterfall was a really steep part, where we took our time for with our big and heavy rucksacks. We made it up to more than 1000 meter heigth.  After that we saw more and more snow and became a bit worried. We expected to see some snow laying on the plateau of Hardangervidda, but we hoped that we could make it through. We struggled a long time at a big lake that flowed into several small rivers. We couldn’t pass there with our big rucksacks. I jumped once over without a rucksack and investigated the area that was waiting for us. I went up a bit more to see if the snow stayed the same or became less once we were completely up on the plateau. Unfortunately there was still pretty much snow. I went back down, where Elena was waiting and we decided together that it was not a good idea to go further. It would be possible, because we could walk around most of the snowy parts, but we didn’t know what would be waiting for us deeper in the plateau, so we decided not to risk it and started walking down again.

Saturday:

We walked down further and checked the weather forecast for Trolltunga, where we would first end our hike. The weather changed and they forecasted rain. We decided to not go there and walk up and down, because of the weather. We also heard from classmates that we walk itself was not that special but that just the view at Trolltunga was nice. We already did a really nice hike with also during the hike beautiful views so we decided to call this our trip. We took our time for the rest of the day and searched a good sleeping spot. We slept in a park, what we thought was a good sleeping spot, this time without sounds of waterfalls, but apparently some teenagers also thought this was a good spot to throw a party.

Sunday:

After taking our time in the morning we drove back with the busses and also bought some souvenirs in one of our stops. We were back in our student housing around 8 pm, tired but happy.