Norway Round Trip: Maurvangen-Lom-Raubergstulen – Day 3 29/03/2012

We left our cozy cabin in Maurvangen at 11.00h on day 3, happy to have made it through Besseggen the previous day, since the morning was overcast and cold.  We headed North towards Lom on road 51. We drove past 3 lakes, Øvre Sjodalsvatnet, Nedre Sjodalsvatet and Lemonsjøen (easier written than pronounced!). At the cross of 51 with road 15, we took the turn towards Lom, along Vågåvatnet. We drove into Lom and stopped for a visit in Lom’s downtown, Fossbergom, where we visited our first stave church.

Lom

Stave-church   

Lomskyrkja (Lom Stave Church) dates back to the 12th c, and despite the fact that it was relocated and re-built, it still keeps most of its original features, like its medieval crests with dragon heads. It was built with wood, presenting with the traditional embedded posts structure. We found it surprisingly small -coming from a large building, old-Empire-type of culture; but well tended and in pristine condition. The tar on wood look (and smell) was also a first; it gives the building a gloomy appearance. The church is surrounded by a small cemetery where one thing kind of jumps at you: Norwegian women have definitely enjoyed a longer longevity than their men. Despite a few early-life casualties, one need not a lot of math in order to see a seemingly emerging pattern: Norwegian widows can outlast their espouses for as long as 20 years, even going back to the late 19th c.

After the short stroll on the church’s grounds, we got back into the car and took road 55, towards Gaupne. After driving for 20 km we saw the road indicating Raubergstulen, where our base camp was.

 

Raubergstulen Top Road

The  drive itself was a gentle experience; you go through undulating roads which progressively climb up a hill -it gets into a sharp climb right after the crossroads towards Raubergstulen. That was where we were glad to have a decent car with a more than decent engine. A Volvo isn’t quite the standard rental you’d get in our country of origin; but then again, weather conditions rarely make equipment so vital in terms of “getting there” in one piece. Not as in Norway, at least.

Raubergstulen cabin camp sits on top of a hill, overlooking a valley. It is only after getting out of the car that you realise a few things. Among them, that the drive with the twists and turns was worth it. Another happy realisation is that there are very few cabins, not too close to each other, fantastically equipped despite their outward stark, simple and dark look. The almost black exterior gives way to a warm, cozy and highly functional interior, with plenty of space and well-maintained.

The staff at the reception deserve a note. Despite lacking effusiveness, they are courteous and show empathy towards the internetless traveller -a “just need internet connection for 5 minutes” was met with a smile and access to a private laptop straightaway. No fuss. Wouldn’t you love such a people!

Raubergstulen Cabin Camp - View from Top

Raubergstulen Cabin Interior

Norway Round Trip: Gjendesheim-Memurubu-Besseggen Ridge – Day 2 11/03/2012

Besseggen Ridge Walk Graph

Besseggen is located in Jotunheimen National Park, and without a doubt it is its most salient attraction -it was immortalised by Norway’s most influential writer Henrik Ibsen, in his play Peer Gynt. Over the years it has become some sort of ‘rite of passage’ for Norwegians; a walk any Norwegian adult has to do once in his/her lifetime.

Gjendesheim to Memurubu Ferry

We left our cabin in Maurvangen and walked the 2 km. to Gjendesheim, where we took the 9.30h ferry to Memurubu, the start of the Besseggen Ridge walk. Once there we were pleasantly surprised that not only ticket-sales were thoroughly scheduled to allow on-time boarding, but that visitors could pay with their credit card (hand-held POS terminals rock!).

The trip lasted about 30 minutes, giving us a first taste of what the landscape had in store for us. Pretty soon we’d be seeing the same view from the top.

We started the climb at 10.00, in mild and sunny weather conditions. The climb has two clearly defined stages: the start goes from roughly 1,000 metres above sea-level to 1,500 m. to then make you go down and lose around 150m in a short 20-min downhill walk. After that we enter the ridge proper, which separates the two lakes, Bessvatnet on your left and Gjende on your right. It is easy to differentiate them thanks to the difference in their bottom sediments, which make them distinctively colorful. Bessvatnet is deep blue, while Gjende Lake is green, almost emerald-shaded. Although not too difficult nor dangerous, the ridge goes up quite steeply, which requires hikers to climb on all fours at one stage.

Climbing Besseggen on all fours

At the top of the ridge we had the most fantastic -albeit famous, view. This is the traditional Besseggen picture, the one that will feature on your next-Christmas postcard your loved ones will receive from you. It is spectacular, dramatic and gives you a great (and false) feeling of accomplishment. We sat down after a rigorous picture-taking session and happily ate our second morsel of the day. The weather threatened to turn and we decided to make it a short stop.

After the mini-lunch, we started going what we thought was downhill, although it would take us a good 40-minute walk through a stony plateau before we could see the start of the descent. It was a radical change of landscape, and it made us watch our ankles while we crossed through the lunar-like environment.

For those of us with bad knees, this was the worst of the hike. The descent prolonged itself a lot more than we had anticipated. This, together with the darkening skies and the threat of rain, made us speed it up so as to get down to Gjendesheim as fast as possible -from there we still had the 2 km. walk to our long wished-for warm shower in our cabin.

It was only in the last leg of the journey, almost at Gjendesheim, where we made a poor judgement call (I blame the rain, which was pouring by that stage) and decided to take a shortcut, abandoning the trail to cut through the open valley. We will never know whether it shortened our walk, and if so, by how much, but it was thankfully only 25 minutes to the safety of our dry cabin.

All in all, we walked 18 km, at a leisurely pace. We completed the Besseggen hike in 7.5 hours, which was a good time for two experienced hikers dragging a pair of novices behind!

Lake View from Besseggen

Norway Round Trip: Drammen-Gjendesheim – Day 1 11/03/2012

The first day covers our Drammen-Gjendesheim drive, with full driving directions, in preparation of our 14 Km-long Besseggen Ridge Hike (early morning Day 2).

Drammen Church, Norway

We drove out of Drammen at midday on Day one. Took the E18 towards Oslo, leaving it to take the 285 to Hønefoss in Buskerund County. We passed Lierbyen, Enger and Toverund. On the way to Toverund we had the Holsfjorden on our left, which offered us fantastic views through the trees on the road.  In Skaret, 285 joins E16, and continues to Hønefoss.

Due to the winding nature of the roads at this stage of the trip, it took us 1.5 hours to get there. We drove on the E16 in the direction of Fagernes in the Valley of Valdres. Sperillen Lake was on our left, which in such misty weather offered gentle and melancholic steel-gray views.

We stopped at the local supermarket right before entering Fagernes, loaded the car with provisions for the cabin, and took 51 towards Randsverk. This leg of the drive offered a significant, radical change in the landscape we had enjoyed so far: gone were the fertile lands with exuberant profusion of trees and shrubbery to give way to a flat, undulating and almost barren land during the Summer months. Judging from the height of the snow-pole markers on the side of the road, Winter must be a ghastly and tough affair in this area.

We got to Maurvangen at 16.45h, where we took possession of the cabin we had rented in the camp.

Maurvangen Cabin

After hearing from the reception desk that the weather forecast was indicating clear and rain-free conditions for the following day, we decided to take an exploratory walk from Maurvangen to the ferry station in Gjendesheim (2km up the road) so we could calculate the time it would take us to get to the 9.30h ferry to Memurubu on the following day.

Norway Round Trip: Drammen-Bergen and Back 10/09/2011

This is a great route for those who want to know more about Norway than its West Coast Fjords, an alternative route to the much-publicised touristic coastal cruise. It is a chance to see and experience the inland country.

Oslo City Hall

We embark on a round trip (6 days) that will take us from Drammen to Gjendesheim, where we will hike Besseggen, then drive on to Lom, Aurland, Borgund, Østerbø, hike to Vassbygdi, drive to Bergen, back to the East through Hardangervidda Plateau, Vøringfossen’s Waterfall, Geilo, Heddal and back to Drammen.

Norway Round Trip: Drammen-Gjendesheim-Lom-Aurland-Osterbo-Bergen-Geilo-Drammen

We will see Norway’s dramatic, almost lunar landscapes of Hardangervidda, Jotunheimen’s National Park, magnificent waterfalls, fjords of dream-like quality like Sognefjord and Nærøyfjorden, lakes, 3 stave churches and Hanseatic Houses in Bergen’s Brygge district. We will also have a chance to mix with the locals and experience their way (and cost) of living, stay at their traditional hytte and enjoy Norwegians’ open-arms welcome everywhere we go.

We start in Drammen, 40 Km. from Oslo.

Detail of Oseberg Viking Ship's carved underside, Viking Ship Museum, Oslo

Girona City | 1-Day Trip | infocostabrava.com 18/07/2009

Perfect little article with recommendations on what to visit if you decide to go to Girona city.

Enjoy!

Girona City | 1 Day Trip | infocostabrava.com

Shared via AddThis