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HIKING IN THE HEART OF NORWAY 12-17th August 2009

On the day my mother left, Mr. and Mrs. Matheson, Diana's parents arrived. I was glad to have this new distraction, as I was very sad to see my mother leave. After all this time of living away from her, I still get teary eyed to see her go.

The Mathesons had just been in London, so thankfully they were not not overly jet lagged. This is a good thing too as their daughter wasn't going to be any kinder to them than I had been to my mother.

On 13th August, we loaded up the car and headed to Flåm. That same day, after 5 hours of driving, we headed up the famous Flamsbana railway to Myrdal.

Unfortunately, a cruise ship had docked just before our arrival, so we had to wait a while for our train. This ended up being pretty fortuitous, as during our wanderings we came across the most incredible rainbow on the other side of the fjord. It was climbing the hill. This was one of those sights that you almost couldn’t believe. And, we could so easily have missed it.

The train ride was enjoyable, not something I love, but it was definitely quite a view along the way. The oddest part of the trip was when we arrived at an amazing waterfall and all passengers were allowed to get off to take pictures.

Music started, and suddenly this woman popped out half way up the waterfall. I am not sure who or what she was supposed to be, but this incident made me think of two thing: Ireland and, strangely, the movie "Chucky!"

The next day we drove over the mountains along Aurlandsfjorden and årdalsfjorden to Leardal. Than, we hiked up to a farm, and a little further on we came across Norway's "usually considered" (that is how it is described) "highest free falling waterfall." It was a good hike, although a little too uphill to be very relaxing, and took us about 4 hours to complete. The Mathesons, as I already knew but had forgotten, don't just go to look at things. They like to be up close and personal, and this was true of the falls. We hiked along a narrow strip of rocks until we couldn't go any further, and then we took in the whole view. This included taking in vast amounts of spray that the falls shot at us. We were more than pleased to stop in at the farm on our way down, for a cup of tea and some famous Norwegian waffles and jam.

The following day we took the boat from Aurland, where we were staying, down the Nærøydalen fjord. This is Norway’s narrowest fjord and we followed it to Gudvangen. Most people take the boat and then continue on by bus through the mountains, and I now know why they do this.

We thought we could waste time in the town before the next boat came, but it turned out that this town had virtually nothing in it at all. We did manage to find one strange and interesting place though: A little antique shop selling… well basically selling junk. It was run by a German lady and on the shop sign it mentioned that they could serve tea and waffles. When we asked about this, she pulled up four of her “antique” chairs and placed them around the tiny room with a bench for a table. What an experience.

Once we got back to Aurland we headed up the mountain to Ostebø, where we would be staying for two nights. It is a hiker’s lodge and this is exactly what we were going to do.

When we left for the hike the next day, it wasn’t pouring rain, which it had been for the two previous days; Great news. However, it turned out that the weather was playing a cruel joke on us, by allowing us to get a good two hours into the hike before opening up the skies and thoroughly drenching us.

Even with this though, the hike was glorious. What I mean by this is that the views were ones that I shall never forget, even in dreams……. or nightmares. The views we saw were out of this world. We may have been soaked through, but if the weather had not been wet and cloudy, we would not have seen the thousands of waterfalls which appeared. Nor would we have had to hike through rivers that appeared down the hiking trails, taking the fastest way to the sea.

I found it funny that for the first 3-4 hours we had really tried hard to keep our feet dry. After the rain started, no one gave a hoot anymore. It was a good thing too, as nearing the end of the hike, we were forced to literally walk through waterfalls coming over the path. There was no other choice.

I am pleased to report that everyone kept excellent attitudes and good humour throughout; it would have been very easy to become tired and miserable. Again, like me, D tested the very limits of parental love. And, I think that all came out well on the other side. I think it helps that D ran ahead at the end to stop the bus leaving without us. The hiking lodge provides a shuttle service back to the center.

The senior Mathesons now have two days to roam and explore Oslo, I have decided to stay home and make sure the couch doesn’t float off. It will be sad to see them leave tomorrow; the apartment is going to seem to empty now our visitors have all headed home. Luckily for us D’s sister and brother will be coming at the start of September. It is always good to have something to look forward to. I can’t wait to see what new adventures are coming our way… I am looking forward to a little recovery time as well.