Follow your nose
Published: 25.03.2021
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A question I often get asked: How cold was the night?
I don't have an exact answer, but since it was clear in the evening and only 3 degrees, I would now claim that the temperature dropped below freezing.
How cold did it feel?
Antarctica. I'm not exaggerating here.
I slept until five in the morning and woke up because I was very cold. All the windows in the car were so fogged up that it was almost dripping. My feet were still warm, but my stomach and back were freezing. I had pulled the sleeping bag over my head and only left a breathing hole in front of my face. The hot water bottle was still slightly warm, but it was not enough to warm me up properly. I considered whether I should dare to crawl out of the sleeping bag and walk to the heated bathroom. The courage to leave the sleeping bag was too great. Besides, I didn't want to spend hours on the toilet and let the sleeping bag cool down completely. So I simply convinced my mind that I could fall asleep again because I would eventually get warm. I think half an hour later I was asleep again and didn't wake up until nine o'clock. Pia was already awake next to me. Unfortunately, it hadn't gotten much warmer. Crawling out of the sleeping bag was such a horror scenario that we finally decided to get dressed inside the sleeping bag. Normally, this is not a problem, but since we had borrowed them, we also had a thin sleeping bag inside, which could later be washed. This inner sleeping bag was so narrow that there wasn't much freedom of movement. It also slipped on the normal sleeping bag, so that you were already tangled and twisted after the first turn to the other side. So we managed to get dressed inside. But it didn't really get any warmer afterwards. So we went out into the cold and made breakfast. Unfortunately, the weather had turned out as predicted: lots of clouds, but no rain yet. Nevertheless, the view of the fjord was still cool. We enjoyed our warm porridge and hot tea. That gave us energy for our internal heating. Then we put the whole car back in its initial state. Since my hands were still icicles, I drove us to the next destination and enjoyed the wonderful heated steering wheel. I'm telling you, it was a dream come true!
Our next stop was the place Steinstø. It is located west of the Hardangerfjord. On the way there, we passed through the Vallavik tunnel and the fancy roundabout again. The road on this side of the fjord was wider and therefore more pleasant to drive. Near Steinstø, we wanted to go on a hike that offered a nice view of the fjord. The Norwegian hiking app Ut ([üt] means out) suggested a route where you could start from the village down by the water. But when we arrived there, we couldn't see a way up the mountain. So we decided to start from a point further up and drove up to the village. There we took a road that was paved but only wide enough for one car. We looked for a place to park the whole way up and were relieved when we finally found a parking lot. A resident had kindly provided a piece of land, but also wanted something in return. We wanted to hike a trail that someone had published in my hiking app. At first, it was simply steep uphill and because the sun had come out, we took off our jackets soon. Coincidentally, it was at a signpost. We followed the path towards Sjusete, which we assumed was the name of the mountain. We hadn't found out its name in Pia's or my app. The other signposts contained the names of the places down by the fjord. So we kept going uphill and eventually crossed the snowline. We always followed the signposts and eventually came to a collection of cabins. And this was called Sjusete. So not exactly the mountain we wanted to find. So we looked in the app and saw that we had already taken a wrong turn at the first intersection. The path didn't make us uncertain because the rest also included similar intersections to the ones we remembered from the original. But it wasn't so bad. We were just a little too far west. So we simply followed the signposts towards Nyasete, which also turned out to be a collection of cabins. After reaching Sjusete, we had basically arrived at the highest level and simply hiked at the same altitude. It was a nice change from the usual ascent and descent of the previous hikes. There was a lot of snow in some places or wet meadows. Since the weather wasn't as fantastic as the day before, we unfortunately didn't have the best view of the fjord. Nevertheless, it was a nice hike. When we arrived at Nyasete, we were able to switch to the desired route and once again followed tracks in the snow and blue dots on trees and rocks. Of course, there was another stream crossing. But it quickly and easily went well. When we reached the highest point, we saw that the mountain was named 'Veten'. Shortly before that, it started snowing, so we saw more clouds than fjord. From there, we simply continued on the path back to the car. When we arrived there, we were undecided about what to do next. We searched our travel guides again, because it wasn't late yet. We didn't really find anything, so we drove back a bit on the road to a parking lot, in the hope of cooking there. While Pia was in the bathroom, I found a waterfall in the travel guide that was further towards Bergen and quickly accessible from the parking lot. So Pia got back in the car and drove us to Steinsdalfossen. By now it was really only raining. The waterfall looked cool, but unfortunately you couldn't walk behind it as usual, because the splashed water had created an ice mountain and ice rink. This made it too dangerous, and it had also been officially closed by Norway. But it was still worth it.
Meanwhile, my fingers were freezing again, so I was allowed to drive. Originally, we thought we would spend another night in the car, but it didn't make much sense being so close to Bergen. So we decided to drive a little further towards Bergen to cook dinner and have the camping food experience once again, hoping that the rain would have stopped by then. The road led us up the mountains again and it started snowing heavily. Coincidentally, I had never driven in the snow before because I was never near a car when it snowed. So we zigzagged up the hairpin turns and the snow piled up on the road. It wasn't dramatic, I drove carefully. On the way back down, the snow became less again. At the point where we planned to cook dinner, it was raining heavily enough to abandon the idea completely and just drive back to Bergen. After the rain stopped, thick fog set in. It was more annoying in the curves than the snowfall. So we had experienced all kinds of weather, except maybe heavy rain and thunderstorms. We arrived at the airport around eight o'clock and packed our things. By the way, the parking lot where we were supposed to park the car was occupied. So we parked on an available spot and luckily there were no problems with the car rental company. We arrived in Fantoft around half past nine and treated ourselves to a delicious meal and enjoyed the warmth.
All in all, it was a cool trip. Sleeping in the car is perfectly fine, but we agreed to do it again in warmer temperatures next time. It was a nice change from university life and made us feel like we had escaped Bergen for a short moment. And three weeks later, I finally managed to finish this trip report.
Here are our tours:
Buerbreen:
Veten:
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