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.

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.

Throughout the night, I woke up numerous times to pelting rain and by morning it was still going. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take a “rain day” because we had a schedule to keep. Solemnly we headed down the Southern Route and when we reached our first scenic stop – Waipapa Point, the rain had miraculously stopped. It was a beach where fur seals came to rest, but our expectations were not too high since we had been unlucky to see many animals on our trip. We were pleasantly surprised to see quite a few fur seals, and I had never seen the animal so up close and personal before.

By the next stop, Curio Bay, it was partly sunny.  It was a petrified forest and it was not only interesting for the fossilized wood but also for the many penguins which lived on it.

Right next to Curio Bay was Porpoise Bay, where ironically there weren’t any porpoises but the bay was famous for Hector’s Dolphins which came to play there. They didn’t come to close but we were able to spot their fins occasionally popping out of the water. We did see another seal there to which we got a bit too close, and he chased us away barking. It was pretty scary to see an angry seal.

One angry fur seal

Again ironically, we stopped by a waterfall in Niagara and had lunch there as well. Unfortunately we could not go to the Cathedral cave since it was only opened in low tide and we came by too late. Our last stop was Jake’s Blowhole, and I don’t know who Jake is but I concluded he couldn’t have been very important.

"Niagara Falls"

It was quite a hike to get to the hole through sheep pastures where we had to avoid sheep droppings with every step. The hole was deep but very unspectacular and not worth the hike. I think there would have to be a hurricane, tornado, or tidal wave to make the hole blow the 50 promised meters, and in that weather I wasn’t going to hike to it.

I thought this could be a set for a horror movie.

The scenery was pretty nice and we got a few close-up snaps of sheep, which is a necessity for a NZ tourist. Then we were off to Dunedin.

Awwww

Since I really wanted to see the blowhole in action we drove back to the blowhole in the morning but it was equally pathetic as the day before. So we headed off and drove to the Illawarra tree top walk. It is a new skywalk in the temperate rainforest of the Southern Highlands. The road which led to it warned that no vehicle over 10 meters should drive on the road. We didn’t know how long we were but I “measured” it with our electrical chord and decided that we were only 9 meters long. We decided it’s a go and Hendrik drove up the mountain as the path got narrower and narrower. At the most sharp, steep bend we had a car behind us and one going the other way towards us so I just held my breath and prayed that we wouldn’t stall because the engine was making gurgling sounds as if it was going to crap out at any second. I don’t know how the engine managed to pull up through the bend, but it did. That was the hardest part of the road and we made it to the treetop walk.

View from the treetop walk

The treetop walk was new and the tracks from the construction of the structure were still very visible so we thought it was pretty ironic that they had signs everywhere saying how they preserve the nature considering they had to rip the nature out. It was nice but it wasn’t worth the money they charged.

We planed to get to Canberra today and had to continue driving. On the way we drove through Gouldburn and saw the big merino which is a type of sheep regarded as having the finest and softest wool. Personally, I thought this was the most impressive big thing we had seen.

big merino

The scenery on the way was beautiful and at one point we drove along this huge valley with sheep and cows grazing in it. We pulled over at the lookout and a sign said it was Lake George. I thought it was funny to see sheep grazing on a lake but apparently it empties and fills on a cyclical basis. It was a very impressive sight, probably more so than it if was filled with water.

Lake George

We found a campsite near Canberra but did not go into the city because it was already evening so we just had a relaxing night.