I know that I have not been very good at blogging, and I apologize for that. It's weird to sit and write about life. However, I realize that it's an important skill to start working on over the course of the next few months so that I can keep everyone updated while I travel. More importantly, without further adieu, they say that a picture is worth a thousand words. So, please enjoy and I will work on writing more in-depth blog posts in the near future.
Currently, I am in Norway. I have spent the last month exploring mountains, fjords, culture, and everything else that the country has to offer. I came here to spend more time with my girlfriend Katrine before I leave on the World Race. Katrine and I met in San Francicso a little over a year ago and have been great friends ever since. So, while both of us understand that the coming year will pose a challenge, we are quite flexible and ready for it.
Norway has been fantastic and we have been blessed with amazing weather. We spent the first week at her family's cabin in the Romsdalen area, near Andalsnes. We climbed some tall mountains, played on the farm, and enjoyed time together. After that, we spent a week in her home city of Trondheim before leaving on a 3-week backpacking adventure. Our travels took us to the fishing city of Bergen where we took a bus for 3 hours and hiked up to Trolltunga. From there, we traveled to Stavanger and hiked Preikestolen. We had clear skies and good weather for both, which is a bit rare at this time of year. Next, we headed to Oslo where we met up with my sister Amber who flew in from Poland where she is a missionary and English teacher. To be fair, Oslo wasn't the most exciting city I've ever been to but it did have some great architecture and we really enjoyed our time together. From Oslo, katrine and I flew to the Lofoten Islands in the Arctic Circle to do some real backpacking.
Mountain Climbing in Romsdal
Trolltunga
Sword in the Mountain, Stavanger
Oslo
Preikestolen
We began by taking a ferry from Bodo to Moskenes. We slept for the first night at a public campground and woke up in the morning to begin trekking our way north. We travelled mostly by road through some of the most beautiful fishing villages I have ever seen. Reine and Moskenes were absolutely stunning. We got rained on the second night and enjoyed a glass of wine while keeping warm inside a local fishermans restaurant, which kept us from being overly bored in the tent (we only had one game with us and we had been playing it for a week). In the morning, we packed up and continued on towards Ramberg, where we had heard tales of a beautiful white sand beach surrounded by mountains. The city of Ramberg was extremely small but very beautiful. We got caught in a fair amount of rain again and ended up taking the wrong trail. So, while we ended up at a small private beach, it was not nearly as nice as the one we intended to find. The wind that night was extreme, with gusts well above 60MPH coming in at us off the sea. The wind blew so hard that it bent a couple of reinforces aluminum alloy tent poles and kept us awake most of the night. In the morning, we hiked out in severe wind and headed up towards Henningsvaer, which turned out to be a beautiful little fishing village about 30km to the north. Here we were lucky to find a large cabin for a cheap price where we could have a hot shower, do some laundry, sleep in a real bed, and refill on groceries. Katrine especially enjoyed having a nice, warm, relaxing day to rest :). The next day we hiked out to another beach where I swam in the Norwegian Sea (bordering Arctic Ocean) to earn myself some Viking points. Then, we headed off to the main port city of Svolvaer where we spent 3 days hiking, camping, climbing, and making friends with an Arctic Fox. On our last day, we spent time in the city and stayed in another nice fishing cabin right on the water; which of course meant another good, hot meal and warm bed.
Reine
View from cabin in Henningsvaer
Ready to take my Viking swim
Our fox friend
Svolvaer
All in all, the weather during our trip worked out almost perfectly. We got rained on plenty and had some extremely strong winds, but that was mostly during our travel days. On our actual main hiking days, we generally lucked out with at least a little bit of sunshine. We were also able to minimalize costs by staying with friends, relatives, and fellow travelers.
I hope you enjoy reading this. Please let me know what you'd like to see or hear more of for future adventures. I will gladly write about anything you would like… and ideas are ALWAYS welcome.
God bless,
Dave
