Day 3: Pulpit Rock

Our hotel in Jørpeland had a wonderful view this morning. The weather looked nice and the breakfast was delicious. Then shortly after finishing breakfast, the weather turned (it seems to do that quickly) and started to rain. But, our handy-dandy weather apps foretold the rain would only be a problem until about 8:40am. So no need to cancel today’s hiking plans!

What a pleasant morning view! Will be cloudy and raining in about 10 minutes.

Norway does breakfasts right

After driving to Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock) and waiting out the last of the rain in the parking lot (for about twenty minutes) we were ready to start!

Having seen Kjerag yesterday, we felt a-ok ignoring this warning. Take that, sign!!!!

Compared to yesterday’s Kjerag hike, today was a breeze. There were still three large inclines up a rocky surface, but there were usually rocks along the trail offering decent footholds.

Halfway up

Rain clouds and mist breaking up in the sun

After a couple of hours of hiking, Preikestolen could be seen! A sheer cliff standing 694 meters high, looking over the edge was a bit dizzying, but the view of Lysefjord and the surrounding mountains was spectacular.

We made it

So lets just say I was sitting on the edge of Pulpit Rock, ok!

The view over the edge of Pulpit Rock

Great view of the Lysenfjord from up here

Hiking back down made us thankful for starting when we did. More and more people started to flood the trail, making the walk crowded. Plus, the rain came back an hour later.

Part of a future art exhibit called Jo hikes down stairs

Yikes! If you don’t start early, at least you’ll get practice dealing with Black Friday crowds

Returning to the car after a successfully completed hike, we drove back thru Jørpeland to pick up some outlet adapters (ours broke) at the local electronics store appropriately called “POWER”. Next, we were going to see if the store next door — called Møbelringen — could sell us a SIM card. But, it turns out that “Møbelringen” has nothing to do with phones. They sell furniture. Finally, we ducked into the REMA 1000 grocery store and stocked up on snacks for the drive. Then we ran back to the car in the rain and plotted our route to Odda.

Norway has several stretches of roadway specifically designated as “scenic routes.” How they decide that one is more scenic than another seems a bit of a mystery, but the Ryfylke Scenic Route to Odda is one of them!

Driving the Ryfylke Scenic Route (Hwy 13) north to Odda

The day’s drive in one photo, including rain, waterfalls, tunnels, fjords, mountains and sheep.

On the drive, many scenic views were indeed seen, but the rain persisted and some of the views were obstructed by the heavy clouds. Even so, we passed countless waterfalls, fjords, cliffs, rustic looking things, etc. The road itself was a bit of an engineering marvel, as tunnels had to be built for many sections. Many, many, many tunnels. And, of course, toss in some sheep on the road for good measure.

Big waterfalls entering the Hardanger region… with drinkable water according to sign

Heavy rain making the roadside waterfalls much stronger

Odda is a quaint town. We managed to find our AirBnB on the side of the hill, overlooking the fjord, and made another quick stop at the grocery store to prepare for dinner and breakfasts, etc. We’ll have to survive without our hotel-provided piles of cheese and peppered meats for lunch the next couple days!

Our AirBnB is the yellow house with some crazy narrow parking in the back

One more thing… they have bread loaf cutting machines in the grocery store here!!!

The rain looks like it wants to stick around, so tomorrow’s planned hike waits to see what the weather gods have to say.