Norway 3: Kayaking, glacier hiking and us

It felt like a movie when I woke up in the morning and opening the cabin’s door. In front of me was a large and beautiful lake, next to it was a huge and wide mountain. Some early sunlight got through the water just created a perfect scene.

We had a typical roadtrip’s breakfast with slides bread, ham & cheese on a picnic table chair on the grass in-between the cabin and lake but it felt like eating wonderful food because of the view. “Meal with a view” is a common phase we used in our trip. Just stopped by somewhere, took the sandwich out, and you’ve got an amazing view to accompany your meal. Back to our breakfast, while we were silently admiring the nature, an active lady was kayaking on the lake. The view of her, the water tail created by the kayaking and the kayaking itself made a perfect morning picture.

This is the first time I stayed in a cabin so its completely a new experience. Later on the trip we stayed over 3 more cabins and they were also different. But I would describe it as a small studio made from wood (because its Norway, they have a lot of forrest ;) ) in the middle of a camping area with kitchen without water (water are mostly brought from outside), tables and bedrooms (1/2) of bunk beds for at least 3 people. The first one we stay had 6 sleeping places. The bathroom and toilet are usually outside (the last one we had was luckily fully incorporated)

After the breakfast it was a bit rush because we needed to be at the place for the kayaking & glacier hiking tour by 10am. The road was more at the valley, beautiful as usual, and we passed by quite some farmlands, which I was surprised to see. Somehow we made it at 10.05am there, where there were 3 more couples, 2 from Netherlands and 1 from Germany join us on the tour. For glacier hiking you can’t do yourself for safety reason. We drove our own cars following the tour guider around 20mintues to get higher up to the mountain Stygavatnet to the starting point of the kayaking. That was a lake on top of the mountain. It got cold quite quick up there, with a the rain at the beginning, the lake became more misty, and no internet connection.

The kayaking was an amazing experience. We were quite confident kayaking because back in Utrecht I’ve done several times in the canals around. HOWEVER, it was tougher than we expected, because others boats were rowing so fast and we had to keep up with them, with the cold, also the kayaking boat was larger. I had to cover myself with the hood, the scarf, and the gloves. (J. Didn’t enjoy his gloves so much) Nevertheless, I enjoyed seeing the huge, green colour water lake while padding, seeing the rock mountain surrounding the lake which some even has the shape of a tent that confused me and J., especially seeing the view of glacier that was closer and closer as we paddling.

After helping each other pushing the kayaks, we just stopped quickly for lunch and then continued to walk to the glacier. Here the tour guide showed us the special equipments, the attachment to the shoes so we can walk on the ice.