Norway: Second Backpacking Day

I though the first day of backpacking couldn’t be topped. Well, what was in store for me on day two was incredible.

After a filling breakfast of cinnamon oatmeal and a little bit of cleaning up, we were welcomed into the fresh, Norwegian mountain air by some welcome sun. The day before our views were somewhat obscured by fog, but not today. No! We had blue skies and it was warming up considerably. Good thing too, because our hike took us further up and there was snow everywhere. It was kind of funny seeing us in shorts and tee shirts hiking through the snow, up mountains and across snow fed rivers, but it was also incredibly gorgeous.

Every so often we would have to fill up our water bottles. If you have been backpacking before, you might know about these little things called iodine tablets. Iodine tablets are what make water potable when you are in the middle of nowhere and can’t boil it. Well, for those of you know what iodine tablets taste like (essentially you are drinking pool water), you will be very jealous to know that the water is so fresh in Norway that you don’t have to use these. Nope! We just filled our water up from streams. It was cold and fresh, the best I have probably ever had.

Well, after a few hours of trekking through some of the most indescribably beautiful scenery we made it to our second cabin. This cabin was the cabin a famous Norwegian actor would build. It was huge! Room for thirty people to sleep, a gigantic kitchen, leather couches, fire places, a drying room, a dining room with several long tables for family style dinners. Seriously, nice. Well, we weren’t staying here, but we did enjoy some bacon cheese from a tube on bread and cookies in the company of some other Norwegians and their dogs before heading to our day’s goal, Langfoss, or Long Falls for all of you who can’t read Norwegian.

It was sometime between the morning and our hike to the falls that I realized, there are mountains stacked on these mountains. Day one was full of uphill hiking and I thought we reached the peak. Day two was more uphill hiking. What? Where did that mountain on top of the mountain I just hiked up come from? Did I mention that Trygve said that we would be going downhill after lunch. This is when the second realization of the trip hit me, the downhill is Norwegian for more uphill, and then some downhill, but mainly uphill. Tricky bastards.

Well, the Norwegian downhill was well worth it. After many hours of tough hiking, we finally made it to the top of Langfoss. Let me tell you, it was the best view of the trip by far, and probably my life. I was looking down upon a sun-filled fjord nestled between two mountain ridges. Waterfalls and streams poured down the sides of the mountains. It was perfect. Picturesque is too weak of a word to describe it.

A photoshoot later we headed down along the side of the falls. I thought downhill (the real kind) was supposed to be easy, but this was one of the hardest parts of the day. We had to descend 600 meters of essentially near vertical terrain. I was trying my best not to fall or slip on the rocks, but also take in the views. Sometimes, while I was staring at my feet trying not to misstep I would look up and be reminded of what surrounded me. It was a bit of a pity I had to pay so much attention to not dying.

At the foot of the falls we took in the surroundings some more while Trygve and Cecilie hitchhiked back to the cars that we left on the other side of the mountain. We enjoyed some kebap in the town of Odda for dinner and then set up camp near the point of our next adventure. If you like the pictures from this day, you won’t believe the ones from day three.