Walking in Norway

Coal Fish

Summit of Freikoll ('Frei' being name of island 'koll' meaning not hill, not mountain)

Grousse

Sweet Revenge!

So for the last three days we have been putting our poor little legs through the ringer by walking, walking and more walking....

Our first trip was to a 'good' fishing spot just out of town close to an old german fort, which at that stage we where not allowed to inspect as it was just the two boys and myself and Cathrine wanted to share that trip with us at a later date... Sooo the walk and location was very nice... as for the fishing I will just say the boys caught one fish each and will leave it to your imagination as to what size the fish were, all I will say is it was not worth carring them home! I did not fish so much but tried to hunt the fox's that live around those parts and try to steal fish sitting on the rocks... I had about as much success at that as the boys did fishing!

The next day Andy decided it would be a fun idea for us to climb a mountain. So we packed a picnic lunch and headed out into the unknown of Norway. Our instructions as to where exactly the path was were quite outdated and so we didnt quite find it. This excited Andy as he likes to 'forge his own path.' This may sound simple but let me tell you its not so much! First we had to walk through a tick infested swamp land at the bottom of the mountain with moss that sunk every step you took making hard progress. We finally found a resonable location (one that was not a sheer rock face) to start the climb, and climb we did. It was almost vertical, and you hand to use all four limbs at all times to scramble up the mountain. This was hard work but turned out to be lots of fun, however a word of warning when Andy tells you that "it's not too much further", well IT IS! We stopped somewhere up the mountain to have a nice lunch of risotto (which by the way we forgot forks for) and sweet melon to a beautiful view. We headed off again and came across more rock face. This time we were too far up and decided to navigate the rocks! Andy tells me that he now has a new way of thinking, he does not think of the way he would go but of the way Sharon would like to go... Im a bit stubborn when it comes to scary rock face climbing..which is quite resonable (I think) considering the high risk of death and/or disfigurement! So we managed to ascend this part without incident thinking that the top was near but mountains when climbing them seem to just get higher and higher argh... We did however get to see a cute bird and found snow where I was finally able to get my revenge (see the pictures attached)! Up and Up and Up and Up and then finally when my legs where going to dropp off we where at the top to find an awesome view yay!!! It was great up there and I could sit down too ahhhh.

But as I was soon to find out, there is no rest for the wicked or those with the wicked (Andy being my wicked) and when up a mountain one must also climb down. Which by the way is in itself was another huge event! We decided to walk along the 'small' ridge, (which is me being sarcastic as that ridge was huge) and climb down the other side. All I can say is by the end I found it hard to stop myself from falling over as my legs had turned to jelly and by that stage I had lost all care for by wellbeing!! Sooo you would think that was the end right, well wrong! We got on the bus to get home and the stupid button for stopping did not work so we ended up miles from home and had to walk (again) all the way back... lets just say I was not a happy tramper at that stage!

As for the next day we went fishing again, which turned out to be more successful then the other time but still the fish where not worth the carrying, so happily returned to the sea to be caught by another annoyed fisherman. The walk was nice (even though I was tired) as nothing could be as bad as the day before!

Oh yes and that night we got to eat whale meat, mmmmm yummy!

Now after reading this I suggest you all go and experience the fun of 'forging your own path' up a mountain... oh go on just do it!

Sharon