As part of the International Summer School, we get to pick a weekend excursion from an option of about five. I chose to do the Jotunheimen Hiking trip with a reindeer safari. For me, this trip took place last weekend, July 19th and 20th and we could not have asked for better weather! Usually the weather in Jotunheimen is variable throughout the day with sunshine one minute and snow the next, even in July. It was fairly hot out, which is better than pouring rain like it did during the hiking trip that went the first weekend of July.
We left nice and early on Saturday morning at 7:30 AM, sandwiches packed and ready for our first adventure. The first stop was the Valdres Folk Museum in a town called Fagernes, which literally translates and Beautiful Peninsula (according to one of our group leaders). This place is like Sturbridge Village – a reference my family and friends in Connecticut/Massachusetts would get. It’s an outdoor museum that shows what Norwegian life has been like over the last several centuries. The tour guide we had was an awful, bossy Dutch woman. It was honestly the least favorite part of my trip. The day was gorgeous and lunch on the shoreline was nice. However, this was one part of the trip I could have done without.
From there we headed out of civilization and on to our reindeer safari in Statsallmenning. Two reindeer herders met us to take us on our walking safari. As it was very hot (for being up in the mountains), the reindeer were up on the snowpack to avoid the flies. The group that went was able to see the reindeer closer up due to the poor weather and lack of flies. While we couldn’t get close, it was still interesting to see reindeer in their natural habitat. Additionally, I’ve never done a cross-country hike like that before, and it was great to see more of the landscapes that Norway has to offer.
Our bus took us to Gjendesheim to catch the boat Gjendine to get to the mountain cabin that would be our base for the hike on Sunday. After settling in with my friends Victoria, Ira, and Clare, we headed to the dining hall for dinner. While not fantastic (incredibly salty; my dad would have found it inedible), it was still better in taste and quality than what we’re usually served at Blindern. We had salty bread, butter, cabbage soup, roast beef, potatoes, broccoli, and gravy, with a scrumptious pound cake with whipped cream for dessert.
A group of us played some card games after dinner, a girl and a boy playing accordion, singing, and playing recorder interrupted our games for a short concert. While they spoke to us in Norwegian, I’m fairly certain that they are the children of those who run this mountain cabin. After another round of cards, I left before most of the crowd to get enough sleep for the next day. I’m glad I did as a fly kept on landing on me, waking me up around 5 AM.
Breakfast was definitely salty again – the porridge was not great, but I ate it anyway to make sure I wouldn’t get too hungry during the hike. We also had bread, meat, cheese and other sandwich making items to pack for our hike. After packing back up again, leaving non-necessities on the boat to go back to Gjendesheim, we set off from Memurubu to meet up with our stuff. The hike took me about 9 hours including stops. I was wearing a friend’s pair of boots with ankle support so I went slowly as I was getting gigantic blisters and I’d also fallen down and banged up my knees. Our total climb was 700m (2,310 ft) and our highest altitude was 1,743m (about 5,750 ft). As we were out in the sun and higher up in the atmosphere, I made sure to apply copious amounts of sunscreen multiple times. Parts of the climb were harrowing; there was one time when we had to climb up a steep rock wall and to our left was a glacial lake about 100 m down and on the right, the fjord about 500m down. I’ve included some pictures from the hike below.
When we arrived, we had a yummy dinner waiting for us of bread and butter, pork tenderloin, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, and a Norwegian pudding dessert. After all the hiking we did, it was greatly appreciated. We made our tired way to the bus and back to Oslo to start a new week.
The weather here this week has been hot and humid. Today, it is going to be 30 C (86 F) and 66% humidity. Yesterday, it got up over 90 F. Do to all this high heat, I decided to use a pair of sport shorts and a sports bra to go swimming at Sognsvann, an entrance to Nordmarka, the wooded hiking and ski paths in the northern part of Oslo. It was a nice respite from the heat. Thankfully, it’s supposed to cool down in time for our final next week.
Norway Adventure 2014 