Preikestolen, Stavanger and Brufjell Caves
Publicatu: 30.05.2021
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Spontaneity is everything!
It's Sunday evening, April 24th. I'm coming back from beach volleyball and on the way back, I'm chatting with some fellow students about their plans for next week because the sailing trip from the university unfortunately got canceled. Turns out, they want to hike the Preikestolen and visit the city of Stavanger, just like Maike and I. We decide to go there together on Tuesday. When we get home, we check the weather forecast and see that it has changed a bit, and Monday and Tuesday are supposed to be the sunniest days at Preikestolen. At 10:00 p.m., we make the decision to leave tomorrow morning, so we pack our hiking backpacks and food for the week.
A fascinating rock formation: Preikestolen
The next morning at 10:00, Maike and I meet up with Debby, a friend, and three other fellow students. Maike and Debby ride with me, and the other three ride in their car. After four hours, we arrive at the parking lot for the Preikestolen hike. The parking lots for popular hikes are quite expensive here in Norway, it costs 25€. We get ready for the hike. We hike with big backpacks because we plan to stay overnight at Preikestolen and have brought our tent, camping stove, etc. The hike to Preikestolen is relatively short and easy, only 4 km. Despite the heavy backpack, going uphill is quite tiring and makes our legs ache. There is still some snow on the hike. After about two hours, we arrive at Preikestolen.
Although Preikestolen is the most famous hike in Norway and usually one of the most visited tourist attractions in Norway, today it is luckily deserted; we only encounter two other people up here. Preikestolen rises 604 m above the Lysefjord, which is why the view of this fjord from here is simply magnificent. The rock itself is also spectacular, as it drops vertically more than 600 m into the fjord. The rock plateau itself is about 25 m x 25 m in size. We enjoy the unique view for a while and then look for a suitable area to set up our tents. We walk a few more minutes up the mountain behind Preikestolen, where we find a bit of grassy area between all the rocks. We set up our tents here. Camping here at Preikestolen is actually prohibited, but shh... From here, we can see Preikestolen from above! While Maike and Debby set up our tent, I make a fire.
In the evening, it gets pretty cold, and without a fire, it's hard to stay outside for long. The six of us sit by the fire, cook, and chat for a while.
Then we go into our sleeping bags. We set the alarm for 5:40 a.m. because we really want to see the sunrise tomorrow morning.
When the alarm goes off, we first open the tent. Although the sky looks veiled, I crawl out. The sun rises above the end of the Lysefjord, and the sky already looks more promising there. I walk to the edge of the rock, and after a few minutes, I see the sun rise.
In terms of scenery, this is certainly the most spectacular and beautiful sunrise I have ever seen. The others also crawl out of their tents, and together we walk down to Preikestolen to watch the rest of the sunrise from there and take some photos.
At 9:00 a.m., we all get up and have breakfast together. With a wonderful view of Preikestolen, the Lysefjord, and the surrounding mountains, in bright sunshine, and still sitting in our sleeping bags, we enjoy our porridge.
Then we slowly pack up and get ready to continue hiking. We hike a bit inland along the 40 km long Lysefjord and plan to stay another night there.
Our destination is a meadow right by the fjord in the village of Bratteli. Since it is too far away to reach it in one day, we turn back in the late afternoon and find a sleeping spot. We set up our tents by a lake, make a fire, cook, and then go to sleep not too late.
When we wake up the next morning, it is super warm in the tent because the sun is shining on it. I convince the other two to jump into the lake with me. When we leave the heated tent, it is quite chilly outside, but we go through with it anyway. After the refreshing dip in the lake and breakfast, we hike back to the cars. We arrive at the parking lot around noon. We have lunch, freshen up in the sanitary facilities, and then drive 40 minutes to Stavanger.
Stavanger
We park the cars in a parking garage and walk into the city. In the city, we visit the famous street with the colorful houses ('Fargegaten'/'Øvre Holmegate'), the shopping street 'Kirkegata', the harbor, the fish market 'Fisketorget', the old town 'Gamle Stavanger', and the cathedral (Norway's oldest bishop's church). The street with the colorful houses is truly extraordinary, but I prefer the old town with its traditionally white wooden houses and charming narrow streets.
We buy ice cream and enjoy it at a small viewpoint in the city.
Then we drive to the outskirts of the city to take a look at the 'Three Swords in the Rock' ('Sverd i Fjell') directly at Hafsfjord.
After a few hours in Stavanger, we continue driving along the west coast, as there are supposed to be some beautiful beaches just past Stavanger, and we want to stay overnight at one of these beaches. The third beach we visit, Vigdelstranden, is finally chosen as our overnight spot. We park the cars, repack our backpacks, and walk through some dunes to the beach. It's beautiful here!
Since it is still warm when we arrive, we all run into the crystal-clear seawater. A little bit of fresh water is good for us on such multi-day trips. The water is only about 8°C, but it feels much warmer than the lake this morning. After this refreshing experience, we wrap ourselves up warm, cook, and set up our camp.
Today, we camp without tents because we are much more protected here than, for example, high up on Preikestolen, and it is warm enough without a tent. I want to enjoy the incredibly beautiful scenery. Unexpectedly, we witness a perfect sunset here. The sun sets over the water, and the colors are intensely beautiful.
As soon as the sun has completely disappeared, I crawl into my sleeping bag so I don't get cold.
But the sunset is far from over, as even after 11:00 p.m., the sky is still bright orange! I lie awake for a while, looking at the orange-red sky and the water.
With the sound of waves, the noise of some seabirds, a ship in the distance, and of course, the sky still reminiscent of the sunset, I fall asleep.
The next morning, the sun shines in our faces. Although we are all awake, we stay in our sleeping bags for another hour and enjoy the sun on our faces and the morning at the beach.
After a relaxed breakfast, we pack up and walk back to the cars.
West Coast: Obrestad Lighthouse, Brusand Beach, Sogndalstrand, Helleren
Today, we want to continue driving along the west coast. A few weeks ago, I looked up all the spots along the coast between Stavanger and Kristiansand that I wanted to visit, and the others are fine with it. Our first stop is the lighthouse in the small farming village of Obrestad. The place strongly reminds me of the German North Sea coast.
Our next stop is a large beach with dunes, Brusand Beach. Here we sit on the beach for an hour and have lunch.
Afterwards, we drive to a harbor village called Sogndalstrand. There are old wooden buildings from the 1700s and 1800s here. Otherwise, it is rather unspectacular and not really worth seeing.
A few minutes away from the village, one of the most beautiful cultural monuments in the country is situated: Helleren. These are two small houses built under a huge rock. The huge rock provides natural roofing for the houses, so they don't have a proper roof. People have been using this rock for thousands of years; both houses date from the 19th century, but parts of the buildings are even older. It is believed that the site has been continuously inhabited since the 16th century. The houses and the landscape are a unique experience!
You can even go inside the houses. Immediately, you feel transported back in time as there are still original objects on display. However, only four people are allowed inside at a time, as the houses are not designed for more people. Behind the red house under the rock, there are two metal buckets that have been used for centuries to collect water drops for thirsty travelers from a seep in the rock. We fill our water bottles here because the water is said to be very mineral-rich - it tastes great!
The last thing we want to see on the southwest coast on our way back from Stavanger to Kristiansand are the ice age caves near the town of Åna-Sira in Hauge i Dalane. However, since you have to hike there, and it is already afternoon, we decide to find a sleeping spot now and do the hike tomorrow. We don't want to walk too far since it is already past 7 p.m., but we have seen that there is a bay, Sandvika Beach, about 2 km away, and hope that it is a good spot for overnight camping.
So we pack our large hiking backpacks at the car and start walking in the evening sun.
The surrounding area is beautiful, and we enjoy the pleasantly warm evening sun. After three-quarters of an hour, we arrive at the bay.
Although it is a rocky beach and not the most comfortable surface, the bay is well protected from the weather, and we have our sleeping mats with us anyway. When we arrive, we go for a swim, which has almost become our ritual. By swimming, I don't mean actual swimming, but rather going into the water, submerging briefly, possibly braving the cold for a few seconds, and then running back out.
Afterwards, we spread out our tarp and put our sleeping mats and sleeping bags on it. We cook our dinner and decide against a tent again. It is chilly after the sun has disappeared, but relatively mild compared to other places. And since we will go to sleep soon anyway, the temperature doesn't bother us. When I fall asleep, the sky is still too bright to see stars or anything else. But when I wake up in the middle of the night, I see a sky full of stars, and I can even see the Milky Way.
In the morning, the sound of seagulls and crows wakes me up, which echoes incredibly in the bay. We have breakfast, pack up, and start hiking. The hike is not quite so easy, as it is sometimes very steep and the rocks we walk on are round, so we don't have much grip. The trail is a circular route, and at the halfway point, we have to climb down the coastline to reach the caves. Since this section is black, meaning very difficult, and we have to climb back up here to continue the circular route, we leave our large hiking backpacks up on the circular route. The path leads down to the coast using crampons and steel cables.
There, we admire the caves and take some pictures inside the most beautiful and famous one.
After we climb back up and reach our backpacks, we take a short break, eat our lunch, and then continue the circular route back to the car. We load the heavy backpacks into the car, have some cookies, change clothes, and then start the journey back home to Kristiansand. We arrive home after two and a quarter hours.
It was a spontaneous but incredibly adventurous and beautiful week! So far, one of my favorite trips!
In three days, on Monday, we will go on a canoe trip from the university. You will learn more about it in the next blog post!
Until then, Sara
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