Day 13 Kjeragbolten

Todays breakfast adventure introduced us to brown cheese.  This is can be made with goats or cows milk, but in this case it was goats milk.  The cheese is heated for a long time until I effectively is caramelised.  Our host at the B&B admitted that it isn’t for everyone, but I liked it.  She had also made her own crispbread and they were delicious.  I had scrambled egg and smoked salmon on bread, washed down by good coffee.

brown cheese

This is the first of a few hikes we have planned.  Kjeragbolten is a large chunk of rock that has at some point been wedged between two vertical rock walls 984 metres above Lysefjord.  The idea is that you ignore the sheer drop and certain death if you slip, and stand on said rock and have your photo taken to prove it.  The photos I had seen looked amazing, though I was never sure that I would be brave enough to do it.  We drove about 15 minutes up the switchback to the car park, and paid our 300 krona fee to park for the day.  The walk is about 4.9 km and the estimated completion time is 5 hours return.  

Alls smiles at the beginning.  Behind him is the café that looks out over the fjord

We set off, and the very beginning of the hike was steep steps followed by an incredibly steep wall of rock to climb.  There was a chain to grab onto for support, but it was very step, and in places, we were on all fours heaving ourselves upward.  It seemed to take ages to get to the top, only to discover a valley that we had to climb down into, with another steep climb up the other side.  We bumped into a group of girls coming down that had stayed the night up there, they said it had been great, until the wind got up during the night.  I asked if we were over the worst bit, and they kindly lied and said yes.  It wasn’t the worst bit, and it was a much harder climb than I expected.  Thankfully there was plenty of grip on the rock though I wouldn’t want to do it when it was wet.  The day was cool and overcast, but rain was forecast from about 2pm, so we wanted to avoid that if possible.  The scenery was incredible, mountain tarns, small streams, and rocks, lots of rocks.  Massive boulders, everywhere you looked.  

We repeated the “slog up one side of a rock face, and then pick your way down the other to a valley, and back up the other side” a few times, and it was amazing to see stick figures of the people ahead of us on the climb.  

The girls were right about one thing, the trail evened out a bit towards the end and meandered through gently rolling rock formations once we got close to Kjeragbolten.  The last part down to the rock itself was a really narrow gorge of fallen rocks, which wasn’t easy to navigate, but we got there eventually.  It was impressive, but very intimidating.  We watched a few people climbing on and having their photo taken, and it was obvious from their reluctance to just step out there, that it was pretty terrifying.  But I had come all this way, 15,000km, or thereabouts, to stand on this rock (amongst others).  So with Joe lined up to photograph either the successful mission, or snap me falling to my death, I headed off to do it.  There was no queue, I just rocked on up to the edge of the cliff face to the little ledge in the rock that you step out from.  Except that it isn’t just a step, it’s a bit of a jump, and you are very aware of the 984m drop below.  I tried not to focus on that, and with a little encouragement from Joe (yelling “we’ve come 15,000k to stand on this rock !”)  I did a little jump and I was on it.  The wind whipping down through the gap was quite strong and it was not at all comfortable out there.  He was taking photos on various devices, and I urged him to hurry up at one point as the wind was pushing me back a bit and I had to keep my wits about me to stay on my feet.  Job done, I jumped off and back onto the little rock next to it and sidled my way around the edge of the cliff, unable to believe I had actually done it.  But here's the proof !!

Looking pretty casual for one so terrified

Joe’s turn next, he offloaded his backpack and headed round to the little jumping off ledge.  He tried hard, but his first attempt could only get his feet on the rock, and couldn’t actually make the jump.  He came back, and I could see him shaking like a leaf.  But he was determined to have another go, and off he went.  This time there was a nice young German man who was looking on and could see how nervous he was, so he offered to give him a hand.  Success!!  This time he made it out on to the rock, sitting rather than standing, but that’s good enough in my book !!

This photo shows the access to get on the rock.  To the left of the grass, and underneath the rock is  984m drop to the fjord below.

We celebrated our bravery with a chocolate chip cookie for lunch, man that was the best cookie ever.  We were getting very cold, the wind had whipped up so we were glad of the extra layers that we too.  We’d started out with t-shirt and long sleeves top, I had leggings with shorts over the top and J just had shorts.  As we cooled down from our exertions, we added polarfleece raincoat and a hat.  We scoffed our cookie and slugged back some water, and decided to head back.  By this time there were loads of people streaming in, so the walk back was broken regularly to allow people to pass in the narrow bits.  There were a few spits of rain now and again, but it held off until after we had got back to the car park.  Everyone says going down is harder than going up, I’m not so sure, I find the slog uphill really hard, but I am sure I will think differently tomorrow when my knees are screaming.  Total hiking time, 5 hours and six minutes including all stops.  My average heart rate for the walk was 141bpm, and the max 186bpm.  That gives you an idea of how hard I found it.  Oops.  I’m so glad we had put the effort in to improve our fitness before we left, I don’t think I would have managed it if we hadn’t done that.

We headed to the café near the parking spot for a well earned slice of cake and cup of coffee.  This building is built right on the edge of the fjord and looks down over Lysebotn.  It has a verandah that sits out from the front of the building overlooking the view, so we took a wander around that and then headed back to the car so I could change my socks and boots.

We decided we had earned the “official” t-shirt as a momento, so with those duly purchased, we headed back down the switchback and through the 1.1km tunnel to Lysebotn to wait for our 6pm ferry. 

The tunnel is a bit like the Homer tunnel, but is really only one lane with passing bays.