Hello from Peru Again!

Day 3: Pulpit Rock

Updated: August 17, 2017

Our hotel in JÃƒÂ¸rpeland 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 JÃƒÂ¸rpeland 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 MÃƒÂ¸belringen — could sell us a SIM card. But, it turns out that “MÃƒÂ¸belringen” 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.

Day 2: Lysebotn/Kjerag

by Joanna

Updated: August 31, 2017

5 Comments

Arriving at the hostel at 3am, and having put in some nap time during the Amsterdam delay (suspect nap quality notwithstanding) we decided it was best to lounge around the room and relax for a couple hours rather than actually sleep. By 6:30am it was time for breakfast, and we walked outside to find ourselves surrounded by glowing fjords and cliffs that were hidden by night during our arrival. Like we just appeared in Norway or something.

Didn’t see em last night, but woke up surrounded by these giant cliffs!

We geared up for our hike, filled up on food, stocked up on snacks, and drove up the switchbacks to the start of Kjerag. It was quite different than driving under the cover of darkness, but we still pitched a perfect game in encountering zero traffic going the opposite direction (which is nice on 1.5 lane switchback roads).

Sunshine fighting to break thru on the way up switchbacks to Kjerag hike

The hike started off harmless enough – for about three minutes. Then it immediately confirmed it’s “advanced” status by challenging hikers with crazy steep and slippery rock faces requiring chains to help you up (and down).

Starting a “hike” in Norway must be a pretty loose term

Kjerag Mountain, as well as the other Fjords in Norway, were created by glaciers carving out the land, then retreating. The resulting mountain surface is mainly smooth, and composed of large boulders with smaller rocks filling in cracks.

The hike features three main uphill climbs/scrambles — the first two of which are followed by equally challenging downhill climbs back into valleys. Eventually, you reach a flatter area on the top of the mountain. Then you then walk another two kilometers to Kjergbolten, the hanging Boulder wedged between two cliffs.

Clearing first summit of Kjerag hike, onward to the second!

Scaling the second major climb was gneiss

Long rise up the third and toughest portion of the hike

So… we made it up, down, up, down and up again to the top of the third rise. However, the weather report and ominous clouds (and a couple other hikers concurring) did not give us a good feeling about making the flat run to the Kjeragbolten and adding another two hours to our round trip. Going down the mountainside was going to be tough enough; we didn’t want to risk tackling it with wet rocks. And yeah, while we didn’t see the hanging rock or get a chance to test our nerves by stepping atop it, we did completed the hardest part(s) of the hike!

But on the bright side, having made it up all three major rises, we did get all the great views along the way!

View of Lysebotn from the trail

View looking north from the south side of Lysenfjord

Lots of people brought their sherpa dogs

While the sheep hanging around the area didn’t seem to have any problems traversing the terrain, it took a while for a couple Midwest-based humans to get the hang of it. Going uphill got easier with practice, but my favorite method for downhill was holding onto the chains and repelling backwards, or the classic butt-scoot action.

What goes up, must come down

Making the final descent before it turns into a slip-n-slide

In the end, we stayed dry the entire way back. We hoped we didn’t make a mistake, but then, shortly after driving back to Lysebotn, the rain arrived. We would have definitely still been on the mountain had we continued, so even though we didn’t see Kjergbolten, good call by us.

Sheep on the pasture! And Remember! Leash!

Returning to the hostel in Lysebotn to finish checking out, we drank some coffee and relaxed before getting on a ferry via Lysenfjord towards Jorpeland.

Enjoying the rain showers from the turisthytte lounge

Driving the car onto the ferry was a fun new experience. No rental company’s insurance will cover a car when it’s on a ferry, but thankfully we didn’t get Titanic’d… this time. Phew.

In lieu of a 4-hour drive, let’s take the Lysenfjord ferry!

By the time we sat down, I was ready to pass out. Matt, on the other hand was somehow still functional and was ready and able to take pictures of the beautiful fjord and surrounding mountains. Fun fact: You can spot Kjergbolten from the ferry, so I think we can cross that off our list anyway.

If you look very close, you can see Kjeragbolten from the fjord

Heading west to JÃƒÂ¸rpeland, our next destination

Back on dry land, we drove a quick 15 minutes north to our hotel in Jorpeland to shower (finally!!) and get some much needed sleep. Zzzzzzzzz.

Day 1: Amsterdam/Lysebotn

by Joanna

Updated: August 31, 2017

3 Comments

We left Chicago on Friday ready to spend the next fifteen hours traveling to Norway. Before even boarding our flight, the standard trek through the airport turned a bit more exciting than usual when we stumbled past some free giveaway booths on the way to our gate. Starting with some sparkling smart water, we also received t-shirts, snack bars, Leinenkugel beer samples, and a glass of Titos vodka lemonade.

Thanks random O’Hare promotion! Don’t mind if I do…

Obviously, this is the right way to start a trip. We even ate Juicy Lucys at Twinburger during the layover in MSP to honor the local culinary traditions. Eventually, we boarded the most Minnesotan international flight imaginable (accents & mannerisms) as we took off for the second layover in Amsterdam.

Our favorite circumpolar constellations at MSP will also be showing in Norway (sans Adler tails)

Well, the universe seems to have a way of balancing itself during out travels, and after a great start with smooth flights leaving on time from ORD and MSP, we were bumped from our flight from Amsterdam to Stavanger. This is because Delta’s website doesn’t have a freaking clue how to function properly when a flight involves their “partner airline” KLM — from displaying the right prices, to letting you select seats. Not having assigned seats for the oversold KLM flight made us the bumpees.

Here’s the plane — and our bags — Delta & KLM incompetently kept us from boarding.

In response, a handful of nameless KLM ticketing agents did what they could to help (we noticed they don’t wear name tags when they work in the “we f’d up” division) and we were eventually re-booked on a 9pm flight. One thing they don’t do to compensate bumped passengers is let them into the KLM lounge (I guess that might ruin the mood, ha), so instead we found some awesome bean bag chairs in a makeshift rain forest-themed area without the monotonous “final and immediate” gate announcement for the whole of Belgium. Naps and planning adjustments for the next seven hours!

Relaxing in the tropical forest lounge at AMS and adjusting plans

We used half of our “apology” food vouchers at the airport sports bar before finally saying goodbye to dreary and rainy Amsterdam. They didn’t put dates on the other vouchers, so we’ll give those a shot in a couple weeks when we return.

See ya rainy Amsterdam!!!

Things clearing up as we approach Norway

Finally landing in Stavanger at 10:15pm, we collected our bags and surprisingly didn’t have to go through customs again (which we figure was either an EU thing or some sort of Stavager airport oversight, and we’re leaning toward the later). Thankfully, our trusty Hertz man Tor stayed open late for us, and we were still able to pick up our swanky hybrid rental car.

We have the (eco) power (to drive around)!

The upshot in all this schedule havoc is that we drove three hours to Lysebotn on completely empty roads. The only other creatures out and about were the free-range sheep that felt they owned the place. We had our first taste of crazy switchbacks (that may be more common than I think) and we survived just fine. Driving in the dark actually made it a little easier, and less scary. We also had a great view of the stars at 2:30am in the morning.

Counting sheep

How we experienced the switchbacks to Lysebotn at 3AM…

…vs how we will experience the switchbacks tomorrow!

It was a somewhat rocky start, but we successfully caught up with our planned itinerary. We contacted the hostel earlier and they agreed to leave a side room open for our 3am arrival. Seeing as how the sky was already getting brighter for impending dawn, we decided our naps in the Amsterdam airport would have to do. Hey, let’s pull an all-nighter! Update the blog, lay down for about 30 minutes, and then off to eat breakfast.

Don’t fall asleep! Don’t fall asleep! Don’t fall asleep!

Here’s hoping for a smooth hike and travels tomorrow/today! #WhoNeedsSleep

Getting Ready for Norway

by Joanna

Updated: June 28, 2018

4 Comments

Welcome back!

It’s summertime, which means another trip and another blog. Get ready for two weeks of tantalizing text, fabulous photographs, and general travel goodness. This time we are headed to Norway. We planned an ambitious trip packed with hikes, flights, drives, and boats, as well as a stop on an island near the North Pole where we will make our second attempt at dog sledding.

If you zoom in on map above, we are starting at the bottom in Stavanger, then driving our way up to Trondheim during the first week. After that, we’ll fly waaaaaaay up north to Svalbard, before flying back south to the Lofoten Islands and finally exiting via Oslo.

Svalbard is that little yellow island nearly obscured by the top of the globe

With my days finally free of teaching and graduate classes, I’ve been packing and preparing, anxiously awaiting the start of the trip and ready to share it with you. We fly out on Friday, arrive on Saturday, make our way to Lysebotn, and start with a bang by hiking Mt. Kjerag on Sunday. Hopefully going up and down the stairs in our building has sufficiently trained us for this:

The path on Kjerag

Just kidding, Mom.

Check back for daily updates on the adventures of Matt and Jo.

Day 13: Auckland

by Joanna

Updated: July 24, 2016

Day 12: Hobbiton

by Joanna

Posted: July 19, 2016

1 Comment

We’re going on an adventure! With one day left in New Zealand it is finally time to step out the door and visit Hobbiton.

We met Vic, the owner of Red Carpet Tours, outside the hotel at 8AM. Another lady from Germany was on the tour, and the four of us were on our way. Vic drove us about two hours from Auckland to the town of Matamata (where Hobbiton is located). On the way, he shared plenty of great stories about the filming of the LOTR and Hobbit movies, and showed us some props that were used in the movies.

Replica of Bilbo’s contract with the dwarves

Vic explained how he capitalized on his fortunate opportunity to start Red Carpet Tours. When filming LOTR ended, they started tearing down the Hobbiton set. Bad weather interrupted the demolition, months passed, and days before the crews were about to return, Vic contacted the farm owner and they both agreed to call off the bulldozers.

To find customers, they teamed up with a local who was well-known in the LOTR fan community for sleuthing out the filming locations (and racking up several trespass citations in the process). She began to let other die-hard fans know that Vic could arrange tours to what was left of Hobbiton and other filming locations.

Today, the Hobbiton tours are more official

As a result, Vic was offering LOTR tours to Hobbiton for several months before New Line Cinema formalized an agreement with the owners of the farm to start Hobbiton Movie Set Tours. Of course, there are still lingering concerns from the Tolkien Estate and other rights holders when it comes to the current operation at Hobbiton, but nobody looked to be handing out cease and desist orders when we arrived, so I think we’re in the clear!

Welcome to the Shire!

In 2011, the Hobbit movies were made and the set was rebuilt with permanent materials for the purpose of bringing in tours once filming was finished. Today, these tours are popular for Tolkien fans and non-fans alike. As a new fan myself, (I still haven’t seen The Hobbit yet, oops) it was easy to see the appeal of Hobbiton.

Technically not LOTR, but I’ll allow it

The view up toward Bag End

Impressive attention to detail at each Hobbit hole

It’s an actual farm

This place is more than your typical movie set — it is a living set! Sheep and dairy farm operations carry on nearby. The grass, plants, birds, etc. are all real and living (with the exception of some prop potatoes and the tree on top of Bag End). It is the largest purpose-built set ever used in cinema.

Hey Annamarie, you’d probably like working here

As tour groups walk the paths, gardeners and farm workers can be seen doing their regular farm jobs in and amongst the set. Sheep and cattle can be seen just over the hobbit holes. All this work yields an amazing level of natural detail on the set. For the record, I would totally live in a hobbit hole, given proper height.

Get off my Hobbit lawn filled with art supplies!

Bagshot Row and the Green Dragon across the water

And what about very old friends?!

The view from Bilbo’s porch

Sam’s residence

Entertaining community board hear the Watermill

Entertaining community board near the Watermill

Our tour ended in the Green Dragon where we enjoyed some SouthFarthing fine ales and lunch. Warner Brothers isn’t really the company I think of when it comes to beer, but whoever they contracted to brew these Hobbiton ales did a great job.

Cheers!

More fun notices and frosty beverages

Appropriately decorated with a carved Green Dragon

After a trip to the gift shop, we got back in the van and headed to Auckland. Matt continued chating with Vic while I napped. We made it back to the hotel and said goodbye to Vic who provided an excellent tour.

Red Carpet Tours was a good choice

Oooooh! Let’s go to Hamilton!

We located a Mexican restaurant near the hotel for dinner and headed back to the hotel afterwards to relax. Visiting an iconic destination in Middle Earth was a pretty good way to spend our last day.

Day 11: Waiheke Island

by Joanna

Posted: July 18, 2016

Day 10: Mt. Potts

by Joanna

Updated: July 18, 2016

1 Comment

We woke up this morning as soon as it was light enough out to get hiking. With coffee consumed and gaiters securely fastened, we used the key Brad gave us last night to open (and re-lock) the gate into the deer park behind the lodge, which is where we started on the trail to the Pyramid.

Deer send-off!

Adventure on the trail begins right away

Top gate out of deer park

Pyramid Mountain lies to the north of Mt. Potts Lodge and rises to an elevation of 1748 meters (it is about 550 meters at the Lodge) with a snow-capped peak. The terrain below the peak is a series of ridges and drainage gullies that snake their way up the hills to 1000-1100 meters, supporting a full array of alpine bushes and grasses.

The Pyramid

No trails up here!

There were mixed reports on exactly how long the full hike would take, with Brad suggesting six hours, and another brochure mentioning eight. Either way, when we started we knew we probably didn’t have the full day needed for the whole enchilada. After putting in about two-and-a-half hours to reach the 1100-1200 meter range, we declared our own summit on the top of a ridge after navigating the first major rockfall with snow cover. We celebrated with peanut M&Ms and dried mangos. The view was tolerable.

Reaching the snowy and rocky elevations

We declared this our summit

Thanks to Mariko, we knew which plants to avoid while tramping through the unmarked terrain, and which plants were safe to step on. This came in handy when the alternatives were mud or ice. Of course, I still fell once on the ice, but that was pretty much expected.

Navigating the way down

The lodge is back in sight

Mt. Sunday (aka. Edoras) in the distance

We made it back to the lodge on schedule, stopped to check in with Brad, and drove a few minutes down the road to the trailhead for Mt. Sunday, our other planned hike for the day.

Brad giving us pointers on how to jump electric fences

Not jumping any fences

The purpose of hiking Mt. Sunday was, of course, the main reason we ventured to a backcountry station located in the upper reaches of the Rangitata Valley in the first place — to see the home of Edoras from LOTR. It was also a fun coincidence that we ended up hiking Mt. Sunday on a Sunday.

On yeah, this is cool

Yep, that works

Details on the side of the mountain check out

Rohan!!!

After having fun at the top of Mt. Sunday/Edoras, we hiked back down and returned to the Lodge. We packed up and make lunch in the kitchen. Today’s menu was tasty gourmet cheese omelettes paired with other random snacks we have been collecting (such as Amarreto shots, peach jello cups, and sour cream chips).

After saying goodbye to Brad, we got back on the road for a three-hour drive out of the high country. Next stop: Auckland!

So long Edoras and Mt. Potts!

Well, technically, the next stop was Christchurch airport, but that’s not very exciting. We waved goodbye to our trusty car at the airport, waited out a short flight delay on Air New Zealand, and eventually made our way via Super Shuttle to the Sky City Hotel in Auckland.

Friendly Air New Zealand crew

Kind of a big deal in Auckland

The big city hotel in Auckland is quite a change from the high country lodge we had to ourselves in Rohan last night! Looking forward to sleeping in and putting the espresso machine to work tomorrow whenever we get up.

Day 9: Mt. Cook/Mt. Potts

by Joanna

Updated: July 18, 2016

Day 8: Mt. Cook

by Joanna

Posted: July 15, 2016

2 Comments

“Hooker Valley is the last place I would want to be tomorrow!” These encouraging words were spoken to us by Tom the bartender last night as he contemplated the weather forecast for our day’s plan to hike the Hooker Valley track. When we woke up, it was still raining/snowing, so we suited up and prepared for the worst.

At 9AM, we met our fantastic guide Mariko. The weather improved as soon as we stepped outside and hit the trail. There was still some icy/slushy/snowy patches on the path, so Mariko gave us YakTrax to use, and they were amazing. How do I not own a pair of these?!? Walking with ease on the slippery path, we made our way through they valley.

Mariko is the best!

Snow chains for your feet

Onward past Mueller Lake

With the Southern Alps on our left, and the Mt. Cook Range on our right, we saw plenty of glaciers. Mariko pointed out the Stocking Glacier (which looks like a stocking) and some hanging glaciers. We passed over the Hooker River three times on suspension bridges that reminded me why I am not going bungee jumping.

Glacier in the sky

Joanna loved these suspension bridges

Southern Alps

Stocking Glacier

The river water originates from the glacier, and is milky-looking because all the schist rock in the valley creates a fine grey powder via mechanical erosion. As the river flows further, it feeds into lake Pukaki, where these same sediments create the brilliant turquoise color we saw yesterday.

Mt. Cook dialed in

Snow blowing off peaks in the Mt. Cook Range

Soon, Mt. Cook came into full view. As the highest mountain peak in New Zealand, it is easy to spot. Following the glacial moraines on each side of the valley, we made it to Hooker Lake, with Hooker Glacier on the opposite shore.

Clear view!

With today’s warm northerly wind (yeah, this is the Southern Hemisphere!) the icebergs from the glacier had congregated at the southern end of the lake.

Ice on Hooker Lake from Hooker Glacier

We stopped for lunch, and Mariko even busted out a portable stove to boil water for coffee and tea. She told us the Maori legend of Aoraki, which is their name for Mt. Cook. Two brothers took a canoe across the lake to visit their father, the Sun God, and his new wife, the Land Goddess. During their assent to the sky, they messed up their frequent flyer chant, and didn’t get into the priority club access lounge. Instead, they froze in the mountains, and you can now see the face of one of the brothers in the peak of Mt. Cook.

After eating and marveling in our surroundings, we scrambled over some larger rocks to see the headwaters of the Hooker River, which was rushing strongly thanks to the precipitation in the previous 24 hours.

On the return trip, we learned about the flora. Even though there are 200 days of precipitation a year, the valley is very dry. Many of the plants look like they belong in a desert. Some have fun names including the Face Slasher, the Wild Spaniard, and the Bloody Irishman. The British liked to name prickly plants after groups of people they didn’t like. Subtle.

First algae, then moss, then tiny plants

Old Man’s Beard, aka. lichen

The Wild Spaniard, with leaves sharp as knives

Another cool phenomenon were the hidden cascades. Waterfalls flowing in and out of the mountain — disappearing and reappearing all the way down to the river.

Holy schist!

Given the location of this LOTR scene, Hermitage Hotel is the White City of Gondor

With Mt. Cook behind us, and the Hermitage in front of us, we completed our hike. Next up was to head over to our favorite bar for dinner, drink more Monteith Black beer, and gloat to Tom.

There were pockets of clear sky, so we checked with the stargazing group to see if they were heading out to the telescopes. The clouds were moving too fast, the moon was a bit too bright, and the wind was too strong, all making telescope viewing pretty mediocre. Alas.

However, we held our own stargazing tour by walking around the hotel in the moonlight. No telescope, but I think we did alright.

Won’t see the Southern Cross in Chicago

Thanks, Mt. Cook. You did good.