Norway (pictures!)

The camping was much cooler than I thought. Definitely way better to see the region and explore some more off road places (wild camping). Pity tough that some campings had campers and didn't separate them from the tents. We had that 3 times, but only one time it was really a turn down, the other times we could "park" close to the water or have fun at a camp fire.

The nicest thing was waking up with some of the best views ever ... in extreme low temperatures.

I am not sure i'd put the "extremely low temperatures" in the same sentence with "nicest" but still, i am confident that it's both a very special experience that you have to live in order to understand and it's not apprehended via standard words!

What exactly does wild camping mean? Bush = toilet?

Seriously Bregt, your pictures made many of us enthousiastic about Norway! I'm wondering if the things you did can be done with children as well, I mean the climbs and kayaking and everything? I think it would be cool. I get cranky when I get too much sun anyway...

Talk them into going to Cambodia Bregt, I've never been but it would be fantastic!

NEW ZEALAND is one of the best places I've ever been, gobsmacking scenery ( most if not all of us have seen it in the LOTR films ) though it's a long, looooonnnng way away ( unless your name is Michael, Atham, DavidOC ).

I wouldn't recommend Everest anyway, firstly because it's a tough dangerous trek and secondly because Nepal is politically unstable at the moment. The best trek in Nepal is actually the Annapurna Circuit / Sanctuary which hikes through jungles, waterfalls, Indiana Jones style rope bridges, gorges and right up on to the Tibetan plateau, all on an unbelievable scale. Definitely worth thinking about one day?

Oi! Leave Kate's good name alone!

i did know who you were refering to

Alright, I returned from my hike up Norway's highest mountain, Galdhøpiggen (2,469 meters), yesterday. Report:

My friend and I drove from Oslo on Friday at about 19:30, and arrived at Lom, a small village/town about 5-6 hours North from the capital, at appr. 1:00 at night. This lies just at the edge of Jotunheimen, the massive mountain range and national park that hosts two of Norway's highest tops and several glaciers, among other things. We spent the night in a cabin at the tourist centre. Curiously, we arrived so late at night that the reception was closed, but we walked into the pub nearby (also at the tourist centre) and the bartender helped us out. He even gave us a higher-standard cabin for the same price as the lower-standard ones! That's what you get from travelling off-season!

When we woke up on Saturday, we were greeted with strong winds and rain. We understood quickly that a hike up Galdhøpiggen was impossible today, but we decided to drive out to the cabin area inside the national park anyway. This was a 30-40 minute drive from Lom, at a place called Spiterstulen. So we settled in there, and since it was late at day and the weather was bad, we decided to just take a shorter "test hike" (about 2 hours) up a smaller "hill" and save the big one for Sunday (to test equipment, our general shape etc.). This was fine enough....the colours this time of year (strong dashes of yellow, red and green) are truly spectacular. We relaxed in the "peisestue" (don't know the English term...it's the living room area for all guests) and went early to bed.

When we woke up on Sunday, we found out that Winter had suddenly and unexpectedly arrived! It had been snowing during the night - not heavily, thank God, but combined with winds, it was certainly cold enough. That did not deter us, however. We decided to trust the forecast, which promised better conditions later in the day, and started walking at about 9:30. For people in normal condition, you have to expect 5-6 hours up and 2-3 hours down. The first "climb" is incredibly steep and heavy. And then it just gets worse. Even though there is the occasional glacier to walk on, it is mostly tons and tons of small rocks and stones that you have to climb over and jump across. Since it had been snowing, many of these were covered in snow, which not only made them slippery...you could also step BETWEEN them! Still, we went on, with only occasional 20-second stops to catch our breath. After about 4-5 hours, only ONE hour from the top and just 20 minutes from the first (of three) "main" top, a sudden and merciless snow blizzard slapped us off our feet. Minutes later, we encounted a steady stream of perhaps a dozen people that had to turn back due to the sudden shift in weather. "It's even worse at the top", they said. After talking about it for a couple of minutes, we decided to do the same. Underestimating the mountain is a very, very dangerous thing to do - even though both of us were in good shape, not feeling cold or hungry or thirsty. It was not worth it.

So we turned back. Kinda disappointing, but I'm hellbent to try again...perhaps in the Spring or Summer when conditions aren't so unstable.

Anyways, it was a great trip! My friend took some pictures on his cell phone, and I'll be sure to post them here once I get them from him.

Just stunning pictures - thanks so much for sharing them.

OK, I have a few pictures up of our trip last month:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7 … amp;ref=mf

By the way, can non-facebook users see these pictures or do I have to paste them in one by one?

P.S. Bregt, I see I forgot to answer your question earlier. We were just 150 meters or so from the top when we had to turn back.

Or copy the link from the bottom of the page that says "share with people that are not on Facebook".

Thanks for these pictures Thor. The one where you're looking towards the mountain valley is incredible. Out of this world!

Loved the pics Thor, I doubt it'll surprise you when I say this is so totally my scene


I'd love to show off some of my pics ( Bregt and the rest of the Bristol meet crew saw a handful of prints ) but 99% of them are on slide film, I can transfer them onto disc but this costs money and an awful lot of sorting through thousands, literall, of frames.

That is simply breathtaking.

You're not that far away from breathtaking landscapes yourself D, both in Greece and nearby countries.....it can be yours too if you dare