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Published: June 28th 2017
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The trolls guarding the areaWe had an early start to catch our shuttle up to Skjeggedal and the road up to a tiny village for the trailhead of Trolltunga. Many others had the same idea as our shuttle was full and the car parks were also nearly full.
We started at the 400m above sea level mark and were set to increase to almost 1200m at its peak. Reasonably rugged up in merino gear, we set off on our 11km uphill jaunt. It was quite steep with steps constructed from rocks that had been transported up by Nepalese Sherpas, uneven but authentic. Zoë and Marcus travelled easily up the first section which was 1.7km and we rose by about 450m- (which was all under treeline). I struggled, I think due to my cold that is still persisting, making breathing a challenge. Still, slowly slowly, we made it up to a relatively flat section which had many huts up with beautiful waterfalls and streams adorning the landscape.
The flat section was no for long- we continued up to the fourth kilometre, which was just under 1200m. That was the bulk of our climb for the morning and we had done it in two and
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Smiling before we start... a half hours. We stopped regularly, having breaks for snacks and drinks. The snow melt provided an endless supply of pristine water, which was wonderful as we did not have to worry about our bottles getting too low at any time.
There were hordes of people walking in both directions, many of whom had camped up the night before whilst others were taking their provisions for overnight tonight. The majority were day hikers, of all ages and nationalities. Evidently there was even an Australian Wallaby (Nick Honeybadger) on the trail as we were returning down.
We had spectacular weather- perfect for hiking. We managed to only have a brief stay on the Troll's tongue as there were so many people, but we had about 45 minutes break up there. I had brought a packet of Tim Tams and Allen's red lollies to share with Marcus and Zoë as a surprise. It was a lovely break and rest stop before the return down, which was much easier as it was a descent.
We had many rest stops throughout the day, and managed to return to the car park at 4p.m. We were pretty proud of that as it
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Are we sure this is what we want to do today? meant it was about 9 hours total, but only about 8 hours of hiking. The recommendation is 8-10 hours.
Unfortunately, we were going to have to sit 1.5 hours for the shuttle, but luckily we were chatting to a pair of South African guys who more or less ran the hike. They had a car and were happy to drop us down the to drop off point of the shuttle bus. We went into the supermarket and bought dinner as we were too tired to go out again for dinner. Our feet have all decided that we are resting for the night.
We have just had a celebratory beverage and chips, will soon eat dinner and then I will not be far out of bed as we have another early start tomorrow as we head to Oslo.
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