We realized early why TrollActive rafting was half the price of other companies.  The length of the river that they use for the rafting is minimal and we even walked back and did the main rapids again.  Nevertheless, it was fun and the guides tried hard to make it fun with games and stopping to jump off a small cliff into the river.  We did have a good time and it really wasn’t our fault that we couldn’t do another rafting trip but the lack of tourists.
After rafting, we drove down to Kristiansand from where we planned on taking a ferry to Denmark the next day.  We checked into our hotel which was pretty much next to the Ferry port.  We went to the grocery store to buy some Norwegian treats such as the brown goat cheese for Hendrik’s parents and “smash” which is a snack like bugles but they are covered in chocolate and also taste a bit of peanut butter.  We then wanted to find something to eat and wandered around the cost which was surrounded by some brilliant apartments, lovely playgrounds, and a beach.  It looked very pretty compared to some of the other parts of town.  We found one restaurant near the marina which had open air seating, a great view, and was reasonably priced, considering it was in Norway.  At least the portions were quite large as well.  Of course we did not have any alcohol or our bill would have been double.  On our way back to the hotel, we followed a walking tour outlined in one of our many guidebooks.  The center of town was rather cute so we were glad we went.

McDonald’s in Kristiansand

When we were about three blocks away from our hotel we saw another playground.  There was no lack of playgrounds in Kristiansand.  There, there  was a swing which was more like a ½ a basket in which you could practically lie. Hendrik swung me on it and I noticed I had to keep my legs stretched out as after all it was meant for children and even though I’m short, my legs would still scrape the ground.  Since it was quite fun Hendrik had a go.  He is quite taller than me and in one swift moment he let his guard down and in one rapid swing he let his legs drop and his foot got bent the wrong way.  I’d never seen Hendrik in so much pain.  I immediately stopped the swing and he just laid there turning a bit green.  Eventually, he managed to make it to a nearby bench with my support, which was a good sign since it meant it was probably not broken.  He sat there and I went to get the car since he would not be able to make it back to the hotel.  I went to get the car and he was able to hop into it on one foot which was impressive.  I didn’t know he was such competition for kangaroos.  In the lobby, I asked if they had ice, they did not.  I quickly went into the store next door and at first couldn’t find ice so I debated getting a bag of frozen peas but then noticed that the ice was right next to the peas.  I was able to buy it just before the store closed.  We iced his foot a while and the next day he was feeling slightly better and was even able to drive his share of the 10 hour drive through Denmark, Germany, Holland, and finally Belgium.

We drove around the Lysefjorden fjord up a very scenic road to a restaurant from which the hike to Kjerag began.  We started the hike and soon realized why the pulpit was more popular.

The trail is marked hard meaning that it leads straight up a sharp rock surface with a chain rope strung along it for support.  I wasn’t having too much trouble since for some reason my Adidas running shoes did not slip while Hendrik’s new shoes were not serving him well at all and he was constantly slipping.  Not to mention that he is petrified of cliffs and this was kind of like a cliff.  If you lost your balance you could have a very bumpy and even deadly ride all the way to the parking lot. We didn’t even make it up the first steep bit since there was a steeper longer bit behind this one and Hendrik did not feel safe we decided it wasn’t worth risking.  Even this little “round trip” took us an hour.  I would love to tackle this hike again and def recommend good non-slip shoes.

Windy road on Lysefjorden

With that settled, we decided to drive to Evje and take the scenic upper route since it was supposed to be prettier.  When we reached the intersection in the road to go left or right we were stopped by a police officer who told us that we could not go left to the upper road because there were 5,000 sheep crossing the road blocking it and that this ordeal would take about an hour.  So we went right instead and passed by the relatively long queue of cars waiting for the sheep.

In Evje we had found a place where we could finally go rafting.  When we arrived we drove straight to the rafting center since they also had accommodation there.  They were all full so we went to a nearby campsite and stayed in a cabin trying to keep out of the rain.

The next day we backtracked a bit to get to the road we were supposed to take and even further back to the place where we saw a gorgeous waterfall.   It had been dusk when we passed it yesterday, but we went to get a better view this morning.  It looked better in person than on photographs.

Then we headed straight to Stavanger.  We were going there to hike up to the Preacher’s Pulpit but first we wanted to visit the famous sculpture of 3 swords which we had seen featured on so many postcards.  We didn’t know where it was so we swung by the center of town assuming it would be there somewhere.  We had to go into a paying lot and when we got out Hendrik was able to pick up a random wireless signal and start googling on his phone while my mission was to go to the tourist office and ask.  There were a lot of people there, unusually since tourist season was over and all and I had to wait for a long time with a number in hand.  After some time when I felt it had to be my turn, Hendrik called saying he had located the swords.  It was in some sort of park by the side of the road near a lake.  I was quite disappointed thinking the three swords were some sort of ancient stone structure made by Vikings in a mysterious way, when in reality they were a new sculpture made out of metal complete with graffiti.  Anyway we could check it off our list, take a fun picture and move on to something more worthwhile.

Sverd i Fjell - the three swords

That more worthwhile thing would be the Preacher’s Pulpit or Preikestolen a perfectly square cliff edge hanging over Lysefjorden.  It is probably so popular because the hike is not too hard as other hikes in Norway, but it is steep at times.  The worst part is the bits over big boulders where I had to think where to put each foot for each step .  They are large and my legs are short so the big steps I had to make were tiring.  Where the path split we took the green route up since we thought it was easier since it is a bit flatter and lower than the red one, thought the red one seemed to be the more popular option probably because people thought it was more direct.  I’m glad we took the green and it was very pretty as well since it took us around the top of the mountain and the view slowly opened up for us.  We were luck to have a sunny day and the view was spectacular.

View from Preikestolen

Unfortunately, the sun also made it impossible to take spectacular pictures of people on the cliff since it made everyone look like a silhouette.  After taking silhouette pictures of each other and another group of travelers we took some more snaps of the view.  Then Hendrik went up on the red trail first to take a few pics of me on the Preacher’s Pulpit from above. I then joined him for a quick picnic of chips, crackers, preservative laden cheese and cookies.  It was harder to hike down the boulders than up them.  The entire trip took 5 hours, but it was well worth it.

Me on Preikestolen

Since I wanted to do the Kjerag hike to the boulder wedged between two cliffs the next day, we had planned on taking the tourist ferry down along the fjord from Lauvvik to Lysebotn.  Since it was now autumn in Norway at least, it was out of season and not running, which was a shame since it was a nice day and would have been pleasant and I’m sure other tourists would have gone too since Preikestolen was quite crowded.  There was another ferry that went there but you had to book ahead of time and their office was closed and it left a 6:15am which was too early anyway.   We slept in a farmhouse that night.  When we passed by we saw a symbol of a bed and went to ask for one.   The owner was not expecting guests at all but was getting the place ready for a big group the next day.  She hesitated to let us stay in lieu of the preparations but she agreed, which was good since it seemed to be the only place for miles.  It was a nice place with a huge living room and dorm style bedroom but we were the only guests so we only had to share the bathroom with each other.

Since the weather was better the next day and there was sun and no rain we decided it would be a good time to see Bergen from the bird’s eye view and go up the hill overlooking the city. We had seen the cable car yesterday which goes from the city, but since it was rainy and cloudy we did not bother.  We wanted to save on a cable car fare so we decided to drive but of course the road was closed off half way since they wanted people to use the cable car.  We started to walk up from the midpoint where we were able to leave our car but it was taking much longer than we had anticipated and we were able to get a good view of the city as it stretched into the sea. We had planned on going to Skundeshaven as a detour en route to Stavenger so we did not want to spend too much more time in Bergen trying to get a better view.

Since we had eliminated Skundeshaven,  we needed a new detour and I had planned on going to another glacier but Hendrik wanted to go to the Fjells.  He said he hadn’t been impressed with the other glacier and I said that we had already seen Fjells as well.  We ended up flipping a coin because we couldn’t squeeze both locations into our itinerary.  The glacier won, which made me happy.  I had actually found the glacier when looking up a place we could go skiing.  The glacier is the Folgefonna Summer Ski area, but unfortunately, the Start of September is too late for summer skiing so we could not ski but I was still curious to see it.  To get to the glacier we had to drive up a very narrow hairpin turn road full of potholes.  This road itself was gorgeous and the higher we drove the more moon-like and awe inspiring the landscape became with aquamarine pools scattered around the sharp scenery.

Once at the glacier, we could see the ski-lift poles make their way systematically upwards.  There were holes and patches of bright blue ice in the glacier so it was clear that it would not be wise to go skiing on it now or even go for a walk.  The most impressive thing about the glacier was by far the intense scenery which surrounded it.  We were the only people there under the glacier after a group who seemed to have gone on a glacier hike or mountain climbing left and it was magical.  It was the most beautiful and interesting landscape we’d seen in Norway.

Folgefonna Summer Ski Centre

On the way back down the narrow windy road we got stuck behind a small flock, or should I say gang of sheep.  They wouldn’t move to the side of the road since there was no place for them to all go and standing one after the other would be too lonesome for heard animals who need to stay shoulder to shoulder which in this case meant blocking the road.   We tried revving the engine and speeding up and though this did frighten the sheep it did not make them move to the side but rather resulted in us almost hitting a sheep in the butt.  We also tried honking which resulted in a galloping heard which I guess is better than a slow moving one.

After the road became a bit wider as we descended we were able to pass the scampering aggravated sheep.  I got out of the car to take a picture of our obstacle and they began walking towards me.  At first I was glad that they were coming closer for the picture but their pace was steadily increasing and soon enough they were galloping towards me full speed ahead – a flock of charging sheep.  I dashed into the car and before I could even close the door Hendrik had taken off.  He didn’t want them to overtake us again.  I didn’t want them to make me into a chew toy.   He was also laughing hysterically at my near death experience as my heart pounded out of fear.

Charging Sheep

The peninsula on which the glacier was located was also the area of the most fruit production in Norway.  They grew all sorts of fruits apples, plums, pears and cherries.  Plums were in season and as we drove around the peninsula to the ferry port most every farmhouse would have a fruit “stall” or in other words a tiny rickety table with a few boxes of plums on it and an honesty box.  We bought a box of plums from a charming farmhouse.  It was quite possibly the cheapest food we bought in Norway as we left the suggest price in the honesty box.  They were perfectly sweet and ripe and quite possibly the best plums I’ve ever had, especially since I’m not too big of a fan.

Taken from a ferry heading to Kinsarvik

We left the peninsula on a ferry to Kinsarvik and from there drove along the edge of the fjord.  Along it, all the while we could see the glacier on the fjord across the water on top of the mountains like a white pie filling rising from its crust.  After passing through Odda, we began to be a bit restless about finding accommodation and our GPS did not have anything in it for another 50 kilometers in our direction.  It was a bit of a shame because then we were surrounded by waterfall after waterfall and it was getting a bit too late to enjoy it.  Earlier, we had tried our luck at “wild camping” which is legal in Norway if you are a certain distance away from a house.  The problem was that any place like this was far from a road and here either we were next to a house or the road was surrounded by a steep incline, which is definitely not fit for tent pitching.  We also passed by a campsite with cabins which was closed.  We decided to head off our rout towards Roldal.  Since that was a ski area, there were cabins and soon we came across one.  We were happy when a lady appeared next to the cabins we had pulled up next to as besides that it looked like the previous campsite – abandoned.  Of course we took the accommodation and were pleasantly surprised how large it was and it had a bathroom attached so there was no comparison between a cabin near a city and in the middle of nowhere.