Day 16 Trolltunga

Rock number three today to complete the set.  We got up at 5am and had a quick snack and schlepped our stuff to the car.  We are staying here tonight too but I had booked an extra night separately so we have to change rooms.  Our ticket to the upper car park is valid from 6am, so we headed up the narrow switch back road to the entrance to P3, and waited for the guy in charge to show up on his motorbike and get organised for the day.  There were only two cars ahead of us in the queue, we had our booking checked and were waved through with a warning that the road was very narrow and we had to be good at reversing if we met the shuttle bus on the way up.  This only panicked me a little.  

But we made our way to the top without incident and without meeting any other vehicles.  It was about 6.30 by the time we set off.  The weather was fine but cloudy, and rain is forecast for today.  The beginning of the walk was pretty easy, a slight incline with a couple of bridges over a wide stream and then basically just walking along the rock.  The track is sign-posted every 1km, and at about the 2km mark, we started to climb pretty steeply.  

Large steps made from boulders, it was hard work and the rocks were wet from the previous days rain and the ground was quite muddy.  

That's me with the orange backpack

Nothing too gnarly, you just had to watch where you were putting your feet.  There were a few spits of rain but nothing worth getting our raincoats out for, and we were in t-shirts for most of the walk to Trolltunga.  The landscape was spectacular, especially when we got a glimpse of the lake below, and all the waterfalls surrounding it.  

Closer to the trolls tongue, there were huge boulders covered in spots of green lichen and moss (hey, I’m not a botanist) and you could just imagine a troll stepping out in front of you.  According to J, this fits perfectly with the description of troll habitats by Terry Pratchett.

Finally we arrived, and we were gutted.  All that way, and it was shrouded in cloud, you could barely see the rock, and definitely couldn’t see any of the lake below or the surrounding mountains.  J couldn’t hide his disappointment, all this way and cloud !!  

So we had a quick snack to cheer him up, and I went down to get in line to have my turn at standing on the rock while J took my picture.  We had heard that there were often long queues, but not so today, possibly the rain had put people off making the trip?  Whatever the reason, we were happy that it wasn’t crowded.

From the place where photos are taken, there are some metal rungs to climb down, and space to wait your turn.  

How you get down to stand on the trolls tongue

There was no-one on the lower level, but seemed to be a queue forming at the top.  I asked one of the guys in the queue if they were waiting, and he said yes, but made no move to go down the rungs as the last person finished posing, so I got myself down to the bottom spot ready to take my turn.  The guy then realised I was queue jumping and raced down, and then to punish me, took his own sweet time, waiting for all 5 family members to move their raggedy asses down to the rock, and strike a thousand different stupid poses.  It felt like ages, and while I was waiting it began to rain quite heavily.  But by the time they had finished faffing, the rain had stopped and the cloud had magically started to lift and we got a pretty good look at the scenery.  Wow.  This cheered J from his grump about the cloud, and he rocked on down to take his turn.  Very little waiting, maybe just half a dozen people ahead of him. 

Joe

By now it had cleared even more, so I decided to go back for another shot with a better view, with the cloud clearing all the while.  Lovely.  The trolls tongue was smaller than I had imagined, but the view was stellar.  

Deb

We pottered around a bit, had our customary celebratory chocolate chip cookie (this time with a hidden centre of salted caramel – yum!) and necked back some water.  After maybe half an hour we decided we would head back, it looked like the rain was coming in again and we were done posing on rocks.

This trip back felt long, and it started to rain before we hit the half-way home mark and rained steadily the rest of the way.  Not bucketing down, just a steady patter.  It wasn’t cold at all, no wind to speak of, but the rocks were wet and slippery and required careful navigation.

We made it back to the car after a total of 7hr 30 minutes walking.  Worth noting that this walk has been the least crowded of the three, possibly because of the adverse weather forecast.  If we’d had unlimited time here we would have waited for a better day, but we had two shots at this, yesterday and today, and today seemed to be the best option weather-wise.  Plus, we were too tired after our previous days excursions.

So, job done.  3 from 3.  Thank you knees for hanging in there, and feet for taking me there and back again.  It’s been awesome.

We headed back to the Hotel to check in again, showered and felt slightly more human.  Ravenous by now, we headed back into town for an early tea, and food never tasted so good.  Burger and chips/fish & chips, washed down with a couple of cups of good Norwegian filtered coffee.

Sated, we wandered to the tourist information office in search of the “been there done that” t-shirt but couldn’t find anything.  So it was time to mooch home and do our best to stay awake until we can crash at a respectable hour.