Just two days ago I returned fram an amazing week of traveling. Due to the ol' corona we've been keeping it in Norway and that's something I don't mind at all. Even though I've lived here for all of my 28 years I'm still experiencing views and vistas that are leaving me in awe. We really are blessed with some of the worlds finest scenery if I dare say so myself.
I've been buzzing some teasers of these experiences but now its time to show them off for real. I quickly realized that compiling it all into one post would be to much so I will be splitting my trip into two or three parts. Starting out with the first two days who were mostly spent getting to our destination and the third day where I went on the best damn hike of my life!
Day 1-2 - Traveling
These first days were mostly spent getting to our destination; Sunnmøre. Sunnmøre is the name of the area where I grew up and coincidentally where my girlfriend heirs from and where they also have a vacation home.
The first stop however was the town where my girlfriend grew up. Since we don't have a car we traveled by bus which is both quite cheap and comfortable. I had my Nintendo Switch which made sure the ride didn't get boring.
Once there we took it easy and grilled up some food for the evening before getting to bed. We had a five hour car ride waiting for us the next day to take us to our final destination.
The next day isn't much to talk about. Five hours in the back of a car while playing the Nintendo Switch and enjoying the passing scenery. We stopped halfway to get a great burger which we ate in a mountainside rest area.
I didn't get any good pictures out of the window of the car but I did get a couple of nice shots while we were waiting for a ferry to take us across one of the fjords.
Safely arrived at out destination we quickly unpacked the car, cracked a few beers and watched Denmark lose to England in the euros. Gotta support them Nordics!
Day 3 - The hike to Høgsvora
Now on to the highlight of the whole trip. We climaxed early on this trip. We had decided the day before that we would go hiking today. It would be the only suitable day seeing as the next day would see heavy rains and a chance of thunder. Just a couple of days past two young girls (12 & 18) were killed by lightning while hiking in my hometown so we wanted to stay far away from that.
My girlfriends dad really wanted to take me to a mountaintop called Høgsvora. He described it as a pretty rough hike that starts out lightly but gets more intense the higher we get. With my girlfriend and her mother not being in tip top shape due to some recent injuries they went with a lighter mountaintop.
What I really liked when starting off this hike was that you get above the treeline relatively quick. That opens up the landscape for some great views along the way. Some hikes where you're walking in trees most of the way only gives you a view at the top. Not here.
It took us about 40 minutes to get to the first real rise where we finally got some height and the first real views started unfolding. I had to stop so many times during this hike to take pictures. I got so carried away that I ended up snapping a total of 580 pictures. Mostly due to snapping the same motive with different settings and filters.
On the way we're passing several cairns that's built up by people passing by to signal that this is the right way and a safe route. These are quite normal to see along most hiking routes in Norway. Right after passing the cairn the real hike starts and it was time to enter the fog.
We pushed on for the rest of the hike, only making a few stops to take some photos. We stopped specifically at one rock to take a picture of me standing on it. My girlfriend stood on the same rock a couple of years ago to take a picture so her father, my hiking partner, thought it would be cool to get a shot of me in the same location.
This part of the hike was really cool cause it had us walking along the top line of the mountain with steep falls leading down on either side. It was quite a broad "road" luckily so there was no real danger unless you're stupid enough to go out to the edge. Sadly I wasn't able to depict that in a good way.
What made it extra cool was all the fog. It came rolling in and out and as we were walking along the edge it was almost like walking in a movie. The scenery was changing all the time. Looking either left or right we would spot new looking mountain tops or ranges in the distance every time even though they were the same. Really cool!
Then, after a short rocky section we made it to the top! And what a view it was from up there! My guide has been here several times before but I was left in complete awe. You can look in every direction from this top and see nothing but mountains in all directions. So awesome.
Up top we sat down to get some food and a cup of coffee while just enjoying the view. Luckily the fog had mostly cleared up by now. We saw two eagles gliding around below us and they even started dancing in the air which was really cool. Circling each other while falling. I don't know if they were fighting or what but it was really cool.
Being an avid geocacher as well I of course had to find the one located up here. I almost forgot as well which would have been a real shame after hiking all this way. I was able to find it relatively quickly and signed the log as the second finder! That's the closest I've been to being first even though it was unintentional. This will be my most memorable cache for a long time.
After about 20 minutes of sitting up top it was time to start the trip back down. This wasn't a shame at all seeing as now I would have the view in the other direction in sight all the way. As we got down we could see the mountaintop encased in fog once again and it stayed like that for the whole trip down. Quite lucky for us to hit the fogless window!
It's gonna take a lot to top off this hike and it will be burned into my memory for a long time going forward.
All images in this post are taken by me.