Norway. Home of the fjords. I was lucky enough to see the amazing fjords on the Oslo-Bergen route three years ago with Cynthia, and for this trip, Kine suggested we could go to one of the most famous tourist attractions- Preikestolen aka The Pulpit Rock near Stavanger. This is one of the most popular fjords in the south and the huge rock rises up almost vertical 600m above sea level. It looks like a pulpit hence the name.
Gearing up for our day trip! It's gonna be a long day ahead.
Kine getting driving directions from her dad and we just took random pics hehe.. I climbed into this cart thingy which her dad uses to bring home chopped wood for use in winter.
Some sights along the way. We passed by so many lakes and I am always mesmerized by mirror reflections in the water. Kine grew up swimming in lakes near Sogne. Aww how nice!
Being huge in land, their perception of "far" is different from us Singaporeans. To get there from Sogne, we had to travel 7h to and back. She drove 3h and we had to board a ferry with the car to take us to the other side, before driving another 20min to the foot of Preikestolen.
Taking a toilet & snack break after more than 2h in the car. I love how her mom packed yet another bag full of drinks (tea/ coffee) and food for us, something Kine says is "very Norwegian". We stopped by for a coffee each and some biscuits under the warm summer sun. It was another beautiful day, thank You Jesus!
By the time we started our walk, it was close to 4pm. We were told it would take us 2h to walk the trail.. and can I say that it is nowhere close to a walk! O.M.G. is all I can say. 0_0
It was proper mountain climbing! We had to climb up rocks and seriously Bel felt like she couldn't do it anymore. The trail itself was 3.8km and multiply that by two, we trekked and climbed 7.6km that day! My knees never felt that strained ever in my life, and we were not prepared for it. We had no water with us :(
The sights along the way.. and by that time I felt like dying already..."Are we there yet??"
K and I were struggling, ok more of me I know.. especially on the return route, I think we painted a really bad picture of us city dwellers. Seriously, we are just not prepared for such a strenuous activity... it was so embarrassing. Kine was in front the whole time, virtually skipping along the way and stopping ever so often to wait for us, well, more for me. She was good! I always thought she is a very mentally strong girl, but nono, she is physically strong too. But being the ever patient girl she is, she just smiled and encouraged me along the way. I felt like burying my head in the sand, or rocks for that matter.
We finally made it at a little past 6pm with squeal of "We did it!"
The view of the Preikestolen was breathtaking and on our left was the fjord. And everywhere below looked so pristine, quiet... peaceful.
The fjord is the body of water
In fact wait, we realised we climbed much higher than the Pulpit Rock!
And so we had to climb down... grr.. :(
Perspiring in the 13deg temperatures.
People on the rock were doing silly jumping stunts which made our knees go weak looking at them.
We started our descent at 6.30pm and finally emerged from the forest at 8.30pm. Thank God it was still bright, and with my trembling knees, I heaved a huge sigh of relief and limped towards our car where we had a bottle of water waiting for us. We had a little toast among us and cheered for ourselves and then gulped down at a speed like I've never drunk water before. I didn't realise water could be so delicious. I looked at my shoes which were badly damaged - yes I'm not joking - and decided to leave a souvenir for the pulpit rock. My damaged shoes and dirty socks!! hahaha They were super muddy and very much beyond repair. You definitely need proper hiking shoes for this "walk", don't say I've not warned you ;)
Starting our descent.. sun going down, gotta hurry Bel!
And back at the foot of Preikestolen, three cheers for us, hurray!
Kine still looks so sweet and composed, no sweat literally! And see my hands were so dirty from climbing.
Almost immediately, Kine said we had to go coz she was worried we might miss the ferry back. And so this strong girl jumped into the car, and started the 3.5h drive back home. On a manual car. Really applaud her. And she looked at us sweetly saying "Honestly guys, I am ok. I'm not exhausted at all." Incredible.
Greeted with a beautiful sunset on the way back.
My legs ached so badly after the trek and the next day her parents were laughing at us because they say in Norway, it is so unusual to see young people like us groaning in pain from a walk such as this. Sigh, I know.. what to do, we never grew up in such surroundings... and went so unprepared. I thought it would be a proper walking path but never imagined a trail such as this... we now laugh at ourselves for going thru it and were glad we did it (altho it was definitely not the case during the climb haha)
What an adventure! Would I do this again? Err let me think about it. hehe okok I might.. next time I will bring proper shoes and a bottle of water.
Gearing up for our day trip! It's gonna be a long day ahead.
Kine getting driving directions from her dad and we just took random pics hehe.. I climbed into this cart thingy which her dad uses to bring home chopped wood for use in winter.
Some sights along the way. We passed by so many lakes and I am always mesmerized by mirror reflections in the water. Kine grew up swimming in lakes near Sogne. Aww how nice!
Being huge in land, their perception of "far" is different from us Singaporeans. To get there from Sogne, we had to travel 7h to and back. She drove 3h and we had to board a ferry with the car to take us to the other side, before driving another 20min to the foot of Preikestolen.
Taking a toilet & snack break after more than 2h in the car. I love how her mom packed yet another bag full of drinks (tea/ coffee) and food for us, something Kine says is "very Norwegian". We stopped by for a coffee each and some biscuits under the warm summer sun. It was another beautiful day, thank You Jesus!
By the time we started our walk, it was close to 4pm. We were told it would take us 2h to walk the trail.. and can I say that it is nowhere close to a walk! O.M.G. is all I can say. 0_0
It was proper mountain climbing! We had to climb up rocks and seriously Bel felt like she couldn't do it anymore. The trail itself was 3.8km and multiply that by two, we trekked and climbed 7.6km that day! My knees never felt that strained ever in my life, and we were not prepared for it. We had no water with us :(
The sights along the way.. and by that time I felt like dying already..."Are we there yet??"
Somehow the pics don't do justice to the kind of steep terrain I was trying to paint... and then you see Kine walking as if it's the most natural thing in the world. We marvelled at how sure-footed she was, and her dad said later "just like a mountain goat". hahaa
K and I were struggling, ok more of me I know.. especially on the return route, I think we painted a really bad picture of us city dwellers. Seriously, we are just not prepared for such a strenuous activity... it was so embarrassing. Kine was in front the whole time, virtually skipping along the way and stopping ever so often to wait for us, well, more for me. She was good! I always thought she is a very mentally strong girl, but nono, she is physically strong too. But being the ever patient girl she is, she just smiled and encouraged me along the way. I felt like burying my head in the sand, or rocks for that matter.
We finally made it at a little past 6pm with squeal of "We did it!"
The view of the Preikestolen was breathtaking and on our left was the fjord. And everywhere below looked so pristine, quiet... peaceful.
The fjord is the body of water
In fact wait, we realised we climbed much higher than the Pulpit Rock!
And so we had to climb down... grr.. :(
Perspiring in the 13deg temperatures.
People on the rock were doing silly jumping stunts which made our knees go weak looking at them.
Look at these crazy guys!
People actually die falling off this rock; in fact we saw three white candles and some white flowers laid on the rock, most probably to remember someone who died there recently..
The strong Norwegian girl
We started our descent at 6.30pm and finally emerged from the forest at 8.30pm. Thank God it was still bright, and with my trembling knees, I heaved a huge sigh of relief and limped towards our car where we had a bottle of water waiting for us. We had a little toast among us and cheered for ourselves and then gulped down at a speed like I've never drunk water before. I didn't realise water could be so delicious. I looked at my shoes which were badly damaged - yes I'm not joking - and decided to leave a souvenir for the pulpit rock. My damaged shoes and dirty socks!! hahaha They were super muddy and very much beyond repair. You definitely need proper hiking shoes for this "walk", don't say I've not warned you ;)
Starting our descent.. sun going down, gotta hurry Bel! And back at the foot of Preikestolen, three cheers for us, hurray!
Kine still looks so sweet and composed, no sweat literally! And see my hands were so dirty from climbing.
Almost immediately, Kine said we had to go coz she was worried we might miss the ferry back. And so this strong girl jumped into the car, and started the 3.5h drive back home. On a manual car. Really applaud her. And she looked at us sweetly saying "Honestly guys, I am ok. I'm not exhausted at all." Incredible.
Greeted with a beautiful sunset on the way back.
My legs ached so badly after the trek and the next day her parents were laughing at us because they say in Norway, it is so unusual to see young people like us groaning in pain from a walk such as this. Sigh, I know.. what to do, we never grew up in such surroundings... and went so unprepared. I thought it would be a proper walking path but never imagined a trail such as this... we now laugh at ourselves for going thru it and were glad we did it (altho it was definitely not the case during the climb haha)
What an adventure! Would I do this again? Err let me think about it. hehe okok I might.. next time I will bring proper shoes and a bottle of water.
Comments