Norway Walking Tour - July 2014

12 July - Bergen to Oye for two nights.

On a beautiful warm day with clear skies, all the walkers converged on the Comfort Hotel in Bergen, on time, from the other side of the world. With nine walkers, two guides and our guide, Graeme's two Uni student children coming along as well, we loaded up the two minivans and set off north into fiordland. 

Car ferry crossing

Views from lunch spot

Lunch stop

The drive to Oye on the end of a fjord was one of the most beautiful and spectacular drives we have ever done. The glacial formed landscape was truly magnificent. We passed through numerous long and very long tunnels, travelled high up into cross country ski fields and down to the water's edge fjords, including Norway's longest - Sognefjord at 205 klm in length, and along glacial lakes. The further north we went the more breathtaking became the scenery. We eventually turned off the main road and snaked down a deep valley towards our hotel in Oye. Enormous waterfalls cascaded either side of us, snow and ice patches at the base of the sheer cliffs ran with crystal clear ice melts from caves under them. Our hotel is located at the end of the fjord.  It's old, somewhat dated and cramped but in a good location for next day's walk.

Hotel Union, Oye

13 July - Walk from Hellesylt to high above Sunnylvsfjord

Amazing reflections off glacial lakes

This morning we drove back out along the amazing winding road where our hotel is located to the old Viking port of Hellesylt. It has a spectacular setting and is lulled by a roaring waterfall that cascades through the centre of the village into the fjord. Beside the waterfall is a little timber hut with grass covered roof that was/is a water driven flour mill. Hellesylt is on the mountainside at the end of the 200 metres deep Sunnylvsfjord - the backdrop of our view for lunch today. 

Flour mill in Hellesylt

Each day we buy our lunch and carry it in our backpacks to what is always a beautiful location. Yesterday our tour guide told us of a supermarket where we could by lunch and we could walk up the hill above it to have a broad view of the fjord. When we arrived the supermarket was closed, as was the picnic spot, due to roadworks. This then became the joke for the day  with Graemed. Today we were to buy our lunch at a supermarket in Hellesylt but it too was closed until midday as it was Sunday. The joke continues  ......

Views on the walk up

Our walk was nothing less than spectacular. There is only one opportunity on this tour to see the Sunnylvsfjord and we make a special two-night stop to see it. The mountainous terrain is very fickle and a number of previous tours have made the climb only to see cloud. Today we were so fortunate with the weather. It was warm and sunny with such a light breeze that the glacial lakes we passed were mirror perfect. 

The track followed the old Postal Route that started providing weekly postal services to the remote villages along the fjord  from 1790.

At the top of the walk we had these views where the Sunnylvsfjord meets the Geirangerfjord.

Lunch room

Monday 14 July - Today we travelled through the fjords, across them and then away from them into the centre of Norway to the cross-country ski fields of Oppdal to Kongsvold on the Kings' Way, a pilgrims trail between Oslo and Trondheim. 

Before leaving the fjords we stopped at 320 metre high Stigfossen Waterfall with its cleverly designed Tourist Information Centre and landscaped ponds fed by the waterfalls stream. The Centre blends in with the natural landscape with the ever present souvenir shops buried into the rivers bank. Leaving the waterfall and driving down the switchback road we started travelling at about 1000 metres into heathland and the ski fields to our hotel.  

The hotel is made up of numerous old buildings some dating back to the 1700's and is an important and popular stopover for pilgrims. The dining room has been serving food every year since the mid 1700's. Elk horns adorn the outside of the buildings, a small botanical garden run by the local university is beside it. In the hills around the hotel are elk, musk oxen and alpine ponies.

We did two walks here; one each side of the valley with our hotel in it. The first was along the pilgrims trail and its cross country skiing trails. Julie spotted a lemming beside the path that eventually gave up trying to hide and took off into the low shrubs. The walk was beautiful giving us panoramic views over the ski fields and to the mountains and valleys beyond.

The second walk was up the hill over the road from the hotel into musk oxen country. We spied several single beasts feeding and a couple of herds one of which moved onto a patch of snow with the you calves running around and around the adults. The bison looking animals are related to sheep and will charge if you get too close. We stayed well outside the 200 metre exclusion zone recommended. 

With all this game around it was inevitable that it would appear on the menu. I (not Julie) have now added bison, reindeer and reindeer tongue to the list of dishes I've had. The Icelandic chef at the hotel is exceptionally good and very creative. Local wild animals that stray into to the wrong areas and refuse to go back end up on the plates of the hotel guests in all forms of delicacies.