Day 21 Geirange to Trollstigen & Rampestreken



We had a leisurely breakfast of muesli and instant coffee (needs must), showered and bade farewell to our wee cabin at Geiranger.  
J washing breakfast dishes, camping style

Today we are driving to Trollstigen, or The Trolls Road.  It is a valley with massively high peaks on each side, and a narrow switchback road that winds down to the valley floor.  The Norwegians love their switchbacks.  I feel a bit like a broken record, but the scenery was pretty good.





We are staying tonight at the Trollstigen Camping ground, which as the name suggests is in the Trollstigen valley.  We were way too early to check in, so decided on a side-trip to Andalsnes and a walk up to the Rampestreken, which is a metal platform that juts out from the hillside, offering fabulous views.  The reviews said it was steep and hard going, but should be a 3 hour return trip.  We are pros at this we said, so off we set.  Man, it was HARD.  It has been surprisingly hot here, and today it was about 29 degrees when we were climbing this piece of rock.  We were sheltered by trees, but it was steep and I just could not get enough oxygen into my lungs.  I had to stop and sit down a couple of times because I felt like I was going to pass out.   You really don’t want to do that as you could topple off the edge in places.  

The target is in sight, only another 100m to climb!

Poor J got sick of waiting for me so he went ahead, and sent messages of encouragement, that it was worth it etc etc.  It wasn’t just me that was struggling, everyone else was a lather of sweat as well and all the chaps had their tops off, and most of the women!  It was disappointing that you had to watch your feet the whole time, as there was some serious eye candy to be had, for both men and women.  I snailed along, stopping frequently to get my breath back, and eventually made it.  Wow, totally worth it.  The climb is 530 metres, and the reward is stunning views for about 180 degrees.


Looking back up the Tollstigen valley






Downtown Andalsnes, we've walked up from sea level

We pootled about taking photos, with everyone courteously waiting their turn, and knocked back some water to rehydrate.  No celebratory chocolate chip cookies this time, it was a bit of an impromptu hike.  Then it was time to go back down.  Thankfully this was much easier than going up, but still hard on the knees ankles and feet.  The trail is mostly through tree roots, so you really have to watch your footing.  Finally at the bottom, we collapsed in the shade for about 15 minutes to recover a little, and take our boots and socks off.  My exercise app tells me it took 3 hours for the round trip, so despite my whining, we still managed it in a reasonable time. 



It was about 4pm by now, though with the sun so high in the sky it’s still tricking us into thinking it’s about 2 hours earlier than it is, so we headed back to the camp via the supermarket for an ice cream and some cold drinks.

We have another cute wee cabin, this time with it’s own shower and toilet.  


the view from the camp site, taken just outside our cabin
Our cabin.  Love the grass growing on the roof.

And most importantly, the camp has a laundry !  So it’s washing day at the pa, we have laundry hung up everywhere outside, hoping that the one payoff for the heat of the day is that our stuff will dry overnight.  The washing machine instructions were all in Norwegian, with no translation offered, and even though we both selected the same cycle for our two loads, one seemed to be done at 50+ degrees and the other at 18.  So hopefully I haven’t shrunk t-shirts with my hot load.  Ah well.



We realised at about ¼ to 7 that the restaurant here closes at 7pm, so we scooted over to get dinner.  Too late, the kitchen had already closed for the night.  We were able to get lunch leftovers from the cabinet, but no proper dinner for us.  It was a bit annoying, because a tour bus had just unloaded all it’s passengers there for a snack, so they were catering to those tourists, just not those staying at the camp.  We could have driven back to Andalsnes and had dinner there, but it all seems too hard at this point.  This is something we’ve come across a bit here, and we could understand when we were off the beaten track a little, but this is the main tourist highway, and the restaurant closes at 7pm in summer.  Odd.  I might write a letter of complaint to the King and Queen of Norway.

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