tour de norge 2

next destination Kjerag or Kiragg is a Norwegian mountain, located in Lysefjorden, in Forsand municipality, Ryfylke, Rogaland. Its highest point is 1110 m above sea level, but its northern drop to Lysefjorden attracts most visitors. The drop is 984 m (3,228 ft) and it is also the site of Kjeragbolten

WikiMiniAtlas

Kjeragbolten is a 5 m³ boulder wedged in a mountain crevasse by the edge of the Kjerag mountain. It is possible to walk onto the rock without any equipment, but there is a direct 241 m drop below and then another 735m gradient down to Lysefjorden. The name means "Kjerag Boulder" or "Kjerag Bolt".

 

it was snowing and the flakes came upwards, it was bizarre. in the morning i was pretty sure of myself to go on this rock and make a dance. ha, but that was in the morning.

first step was to get around a edge to climb on the actually stone. that was not a problem even when a lot of people say that is the hardest bit. i was standing there and i think i just standing to long and it was a too long thinking. man i can tell you my heart was on 200 beats a second and my pans filled up ;-) than i did the step. one foot on it and than.....that was it. i just could not do it my second leg was like concrete. couldn't get on it.

                        

                 still stand                                                                                 retreat                      
        

 angered about myself

this was on the way down again. skurill(german) is the word i just can describe this decent. we have been a group of  approx 10 and still it was hard to find the way back. the track is marked with red painted dots on stones every 50 to 100 meters. it just doesn\t help when the snow comes side wards and covering these bloody dots. so we sprayed out in a line just in few side and did make our way down. slowly but surely. alone it could have been hours and hours to find the down. it was cloudy, stormy and up there in this kind of condition everything looks the same. IT WAS SO COOL.

Preikestolen tour

Preikestolen or Prekestolen, also known by the English translations of Preacher's Pulpit or Pulpit Rock, and by the old local name Hyvlatonnå (“the carpenter-plane’s blade”), is a massive cliff 604 metres (1982 feet) above Lysefjorden, opposite the Kjerag plateau, in Forsand, Ryfylke, Norway. The top of the cliff is approximately 25 by 25 metres (82 by 82 feet), almost flat. The cliff was formed during the Ice age, about approximately 10,000 years ago, when the edges of the glacier reached the cliff. The water from the glacier froze in the crevices of the mountain and eventually broke off large, angular blocks, which were later carried away with the glacier. This is the cause of the angular shape of the plateau. Along the plateau itself there continues to be a deep crack. The cracks show that the plateau will at some point fall down, but all the geological investigations have revealed that this event will not happen in the foreseeable future, and the geologists have thus confirmed the safety of the plateau

it was a beautiful walk and the few is stunning, but there is for sure a down on this spot. tourist and tourists and tourists. i should not say anything because i have been there as well but there are just too many of us. the track is a bit like a autobahn and not really a challenge. still you if you are in this area you should do it, its a pretty cool plateau.

 

mystic

on the way down. that was the first time that i could get rid off my raincoat ;-)

the few down towards the sea

 

 

 

after all the hikes and not much people around we decided to visit bergen the most rainy town in norway. the world is just funny. we have been on tour since almost 3 weeks and in bergen we did have the most beautifully weather on the whole trip. you have to love things like that.

 

on the way to bergen with the ferry

see food. that was so yummy                                     could be mine ;-) old, worn out but cool


Bergen is a city and municipality in Hordaland on the west coast of Norway. As of 10 November 2012, the municipality had a population of 267,200 and Greater Bergen had a population of 392,900, making Bergen the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers an area of 465 square kilometers (180 sq mi) and is located on the peninsula of Bergenshalvøyen. The city center and northern neighborhoods are located on Byfjorden and the city is built around the Seven Mountains. Many of the extra-municipal suburbs are located on islands. Bergen is the administrative center of Hordaland and consists of eight boroughs—Arna, Årstad, Åsane, Bergenhus, Fana, Fyllingsdalen, Laksevåg and Ytrebygda.
Trading in Bergen may have started as early as the 1020s, but the city was not incorporated until 1070. It served as Norway's capital from 1217 to 1299, and from the end of the 13th century became a bureau city of the Hanseatic League. Until 1789, Bergen enjoyed exclusive rights to mediate trade between Northern Norway and abroad. The remains of the quays, Bryggen, is a World Heritage Site.
Bryggen (Norwegian for the Wharf), also known as Tyskebryggen (the German Wharf) is a series of Hanseatic commercial buildings lining the eastern side of the fjord coming into Bergen, Norway. Bryggen has since 1979 been on the UNESCO list for World Cultural Heritage sites. The name has the same origin as the Flemish city of Brugge.

the back parts of the bryggen. small alleys with little bridges from one house to the next. on the roof of the houses you can see the opening where they haled up the fish to dry it in the roof spaces.



Jostedalsbreen (English: Jostedal Glacier) is the largest glacier in continental Europe. It is situated in Sogn og Fjordane county in Western Norway Jostedalsbreen lies in the municipalities of Luster, Sogndal, Jølster, and Stryn. The highest peak in the area is Lodalskåpa at a height of 2,083 metres (6,834 ft).
Jostedalsbreen has a total area of 487 square kilometres (188 sq mi). The highest point is Høgste Breakulen at 1,957 metres (6,421 ft) above mean sea level. Branches of the glacier reach down into the valleys, for instance Bøyabreen in Fjærland and Nigardsbreen, both at 300 metres (980 ft) above sea level. The thickest part of the glacier is 600 metres (2,000 ft). Jostedalsbreen has a length of a little more than 60 kilometres (37 mi) and covers over half of the national park which was established in 1991 and covers 1,310 square kilometres.

i wanna go there to do a bit of ice climbing. to late in the season and there have been just other tours available. so we decided to take the kayak and make a little hike on the glacier. ice cold water and kayak just seemed to be the right thing to do. cool bananas. it was awesome even i still have the opinion that you should not book tours.

it was an 1.5 hours paddle over the glacier lake

 

 

 

until we hit the bottom of this massive ice.

it was very impressive

 



 

short brake

and than preparing for the walk

 



 

 

first i took a quick flight over the glacier just to make sure we will be safe ;-)

 



 

a couple of the crevasses are big enough to hover with an helicopter in it. at least that was one of the stories the guide told us. yeah sure. what ever.

looks cool but is just a little hole at the side of the glacier where probably every tourist gets in to take one of these pictures where it looks like you are mr ice ;-)

direction lom we drove over the sognefjell pass. it was already dark when we hit the highest point of the pass and actually i did want to camp on the other site a little bit more less an altitude. just cruising along the way up on a very small pass road the wheels start spinning. ice, ice, ice. it was one icy mirror. not a chance to go further. the worst thing was i could not just stay there. so did have to back up all in reverse. half an hour driving, it was more a bit gliding, down the hill. and once more on this trip my heart beat went up. 20 cm at the time. break, sliding. stop. 20 cm, break, sliding. by the time we have been on a spot where i could actually turn the car i was exhausted and ready for cigarette ;-) no more further. our campsite probably 1500 m above sea, cold windy and the worry we could get stuck here for a couple of days. mike with his blue eyed thinking didn't have even snow change with him. one more lesson learned. don't go without a winter equipment on tour in norway even when its summer ;-)

 

nice and icy

 

 



Lom Stave Church (Norwegian: Lom stavkyrkje) is a stave church situated in Lom municipality in the Gudbrandsdal district of Norway. The church is a triple nave stave church that uses free standing inner columns to support a raised section in the ceiling of the main nave. This type of church is amongst the oldest Stave Churches. The church was first situated in a sub valley to the valley Gudbrandsdal in Oppland County, some 60 kilometers (37 mi) west of Otta.

The church dates to approximately second part of 12th century, but was rebuilt into a cruciform church during the 17th century. The chancel was decorated in 1608, and the nave was enlarged towards west in 1634. The cross section was added in 1663, but this was made in stave like frame work. A complete restoration took also place in 1933, and a smaller one in 1973. This stave church is actually one of just a very few stave churches of which the original medieval crest with a dragon head still survives

last stop was the Arctic circle. where i could build another memorial for one of the sponsors for my donation idea. thanks HELGA.  i will spend your money well further down the track.

 

art at the Arctic circle ;-)



it was a cool trip with shit loads of cool things we have done. thanks again to my visitor jasmin ;-)

happy days



tour de norge 1

tour de norge. theme: superman and chilling

 AND
                       SUPERMAN
 

this time i have a visitor with me. Jasmin. funny story. she was hearing about my travels from a friend of ours and followed my web page. after a few thoughts she was sending me a massage and asking if she can join for a couple of weeks                                                                                   CHILLING
 on my trip. gotta be a interesting women tho if she wants to sleep with a complete stranger for 4 weeks in a car. it turned out to be fun, surely it was not easy for the both of us on such a small space. at the end i can say it was definitely worth it and thank you jasmine for being a cool chick, even we had our differences.

 

the plan was hitting the rout 17 down south from bodo, but like it turned out the weather was not on our side and it was constantly raining and cloudy. the desision was made quickly and instead of taking it easy the way down we flew in 5 days to my old made markus in kristiansand. and again markus you are an awesome man. thanks again.

 

first stop was  Saltstraumen. it has the strongest tidal current in the world. Up to 400,000,000 cubic metres (520,000,000 cu yd) of seawater forces its way through a 3-kilometre (1.9 mi) long and 150-metre (490 ft) wide strait every six hours, with water speeds reaching 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph). Vortices known as whirlpools or maelstroms up to 10 metres (33 ft) in diameter and 5 metres (16 ft) in depth are formed when the current is at its strongest. The Saltstraumen has existed for about two to three thousand years. Before that, the area was different due to post-glacial rebound The current is created when the tide tries to fill the Skjerstadfjorden. The height difference between the sea level and the fjord inside can be up to 1 metre (3 ft 3 in).

 

 

 

on the way down with a couple of pics where we did stayed the night

take chill pill my friend. i love it when you just stop when you are tired, eat when you are hungry and chill when...pretty much always ;-)

 

 

 

in kristiand sand my mate showed us an perfect spot to stay for a couple of days. we graped his kayak and took a 2 day tour through the islands and camped on one of them. my island and when i say my island i mean it. its mine( breavehaert, the irish dud)

there are thousands of this little island. ha would be sad if everything went perfect. i have been so exited to get out there and cruse around that i looked way to late back to remember the little fiord we did come from. and i can tell you if you looking back and you see this coast line, it looks all the same. every 100 m another inlet and another island and another dead end. on the way back we paddled for good 4 hours in and out of these little inlets and couldn't find it any more. we ended up to paddle to a little harbour and i took the taxi back to the car. what heroes we are ;-) lesson learned ;-)

it was pretty windy out there and i tried to stay in the wind shadow of the islands, but here and than we have been pretty much on open sea and gladly it was not heavy sea. still a strange feeling in ice cold water and now one around.

what can you do on a island. fishing of course. haven\t been doing it for long but on a spot like that it is more relaxing than chilling in a hammock

 

cleaning, gutting, and to fillet. for cooking i have to rape my coffee cup,  because my lovely visitor took the pan out of the back in the morning thinking, we don\t have any steaks with us why the pan and did get rid of the heavy pan ;-) but she was sweet. after i started fishing she looked at me and sad: mike i think you gonna kill me, i took the pan out this morning. hhehehehehe macgyver. took the inner layer out of my aluminium coffee cup and whoop i did have a pan. yummy

little nap after a hard day work ;-)

 

 

the harbour

the hotel

 



and a awesome few

 

 

next target was bortelid. a friend of a friend lifes there and she had invited us to stay at her house and check out the region around. what a great adventure it turned out

 

one day to early(is not happening very often in my life) we took a side valley of bortelid and started a 2 day trip from ljosland to a little hut in the mountains. norway has a perfectly working net work system with little carbines where you can stay overnight up in the mountains. it is all made of a basis of trust. there is no one there to check. so you just write down what you have taken out of the food box and how many nights you stayed, fill a form out and pay by credit card. it is such an awesome system and it seems to work. not sure if something like this would work in other countries. thanks norway that's is pretty cool.



it is so peaceful out there. you hardly meet someone, you don't have to take water with you, its everywhere. little streams, paddles, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, here it is all about water and mountain.

that didn't make it more easy to hike. sometimes we sunk up to our knees in to the mud. it can wear you out after a couple of hours hiking and you are more than happy to chill in one of these beautiful carbines

that was our first cabin lakkenstova

just a little fire place and to the right time to hide from a little storm










this was a 2 days trip and pretty much a little warm up. now we decided to go for 6 days in a row from cabin to cabin. approx 20 kg in the backpack, card and compass and the tour stared rolling.

playing superman

up the mountains, down again, old bridges, no bridges, pretty much always raining, muddy, windy and totally fucking AWESOME

 i would guess the total run was 50-60 km. it doesn't seems a lot , but in these conditions and with the backpack we had i am damn proud of us and i would do it anytime again. the compass and the card was my best friend, if we did get of the track which is easily done up there we have to choose our own way. and in the evening if you tired and wet there is nothing more pressures than drying you close and put you legs up for the rest of the day. 6 days and it was such fun, i can't wait to do more

FREEDOM BABY

 

 



nina thank you so much it was honor to meeting you. and i hope your dreams will come true. THANKS, THANKS, THANKS.

TO BE CONTINUED