The record book of people who visited Litlefjellet
Penning down our names in the book - Visitor no 1812 and 1813
A long day ahead filled with lot's of activities. We got up early in the morning and rushed in order to catch the morning ferry which our host Ellsif had warned us about. We were lucky to catch the first ferry of the day and proceed towards our first destination - the Litlefjellet. I still remember Ellsif warning me about running and hiking being different and there was no greater reality check than the short climb of 0.8km which took us 20 min to complete. Once on the top, we knew why she had insisted on making this trek happen. Grand views on both sides of the mountains greeted us and the clean crisp mountain air had us spending almost an hour on top. There was something that we noticed there though - a small post with the name of the hike and a box beneath it - Everyone who visits the trail/hike writes down their name and the city they came from. A much better and cleaner way of keeping a record of I was here.
This really works?? We realized it does in a country like Norway
On our way back from Litlefjellet, we both remembered about a particular toll that Ellsif had mentioned. We had kept searching for someone who would be collecting the toll, but then had seen no one on our way up. While going back, we stopped at what looked like a signpost and a post box put together. Looking at the notice posted there we were shocked that a system such as this could exist. It was our first experience of Norwegian culture. This was a toll booth, where in there were some envelopes and an instruction manual. It requested the person to pay x amount if you are going to be there for a single day and some 1.5x amount if you stay overnight. The traveler was supposed to put the money in the envelope, seal it, put the car details on top of it and deposit the envelope in the box nearby. All of this with no supervision!!! And trust me, we found people doing it religiously. Not one person thought of skipping the toll as there is no one to watch them. So as all good tourists do, we followed the Norwegian tradition and deposited our share of the toll and moved on.
The plan for the day was to drive through Trollstigen, Gudbrandsjuvet, cross Gerainger and reach Laerdal by night. Trollstigen turned out to be more fun than we imagined. The drive itself was great, consisting of 11 hairpin bends taking us to the top of the mountain. One more thing that we realized was that the government ensures that each tourist place is supported with a clean and beautiful cafe, constructed in a way so as to add to the beauty of the surroundings and creatively built view points. After clicking some selfies from the view points, and dipping our feet in the cold Stigfossen waters we decided to grab some grub. Till this day, I can't forget the taste of the open prawn sandwich I had at Trollstigen. One of the best ones. We sat there enjoying the sun and the sandwich, topped it off with an ice-cream, toured through the huge souvenir shop - which consisted mostly of different shapes and sizes of trolls and made our way back to the car. Next stop was Gudbrandsjuvet - a gorge carved in the mountainside due to a gushing river. It was a crazy experience listening to the deafening noise of the river as it plummeted from one kettle bowl to another, crystal blue waters and white foam. There are also a lot of activities around the area, like river crossing and other hikes along the gorge. Since we were in the off season, we couldn't get to partake in any of that.
The rest of the day pretty much consisted of driving through the fjords, mountains and tunnels, halting to click pictures on the way and driving by remote villages. As you proceed towards the northern tip of Norway, you realize that most of the places even eat outs are closed all through the winter. The Stryn Vertshus cafe was an exception and we treated ourselves to some hot coffee, a pizza and some rice which lasted us for dinner as well. Till now we were drawing a blank on finding a place to stay for the night, but luckily we found a campsite which had a room to let. With accommodation sorted, we slowed down, stopping at various towns in between to soak in the atmosphere, enjoy the night settling in and seeing Norway light up. One thing was certain, if anyone ever has to experience beauty at it's best - Norway is the place to be.
What we thought would be an uneventful day (so to say) turned quite the opposite once we reached our hotel. We realized that probably it was one of the days where we might be able to get a chance of seeing the famed Aurora. We scrambled out of bed, only to get locked out of the hotel itself. We finally managed to wake up another tourist staying on the ground floor by knocking on his window pane and asking him to open the door for us. Poor guy was scared out of his wits by two men waking him up in the middle of the night :P.
We even tried to get over ambitious by driving a few kms out of the town in order to get a better glimpse of the Aurora. Unfortunately, the Aurora dimmed down and my tripod got stuck leaving us with no choice but to go back and call it a night.
