One of the most iconic photos taken in Norway is the Trolltunga. A spear of rock way up on the cliff side reaching out over the edge. You can walk out upon it, if you dare, for a gravity defying photo. However, its popularity is such that there are long queues of over an hour, despite an 8 hour round trip hike! I’m quite social, but when in nature I enjoy the solitude so a gaggle of cruiseship gawpers is not ideal. Aimi just hates everyone. We therefore opted for a mini version called Himakånå.
Himakånå, is the name of a crone, a female troll, who lived in the mountains with piles of gold and silver. When the locals were building their church, it was taking a long time as they were not very wealthy. They struggled to keep a roof on the church let alone install bells so they asked rich Himakånå if she could help.
She agreed to put bells in the church but warned they must not be rung whilst she lived. The next day the most beautiful bells anyone from the seven parishes had ever seen were hanging in the tower.
Months and years passed without the bells being rung for funerals, weddings or baptisms as Himakånå yet lived. That is, until the priest’s daughter died and, overcome with grief, he rang the bells at her funeral. Never had such a beautiful sound been heard. Clear and loud the bells were heard on land and sea across the parishes.
Himakånå was taking a cauldron of porridge to a neighboring crone when she heard the bells. Enraged, she threw the porridge towards the church. But it only hit the bottom step leaving a hole called the Grautambaren.
The beautiful chime of the bells turned the crone to stone and there she remains, in the mountains to this day.
We looked all around but did not find the crone nor the piles of silver and gold. But we did find the mini Troltunga and take turns scaring ourselves sitting on the edge whilst the other got a photo.
There was also a Geocache up there which I dutifully collected and signed my name. There was also an overt post box at the top with a log book to sign. I prefer the secret one! This is the 3rd Geocache of the trip. 1st was at a monastery ruins where we stopped briefly yesterday and the national monument outside of Haugasund. We should be doing a decent amount of walking this holiday so I hope to be collecting a lot more.
Just before heading down, some Americans from the cruise ship arrived on a walking tour. They looked a bit haggard but made all the right noises about the spectacular view. I asked and no one minded so i popped out the drone for another flight. Again the GPS took ages to find satellites and then kept losing them for some reason. But I got a good fly around before a less than graceful landing.
After a sweaty walk down I could not resist, and made for the coast. The water had been looking invitingly at me all day so I stripped off and with the full conviction of a Viking, strode onto the water. That was until it got up to my plums and made me shriek like a school girl. It was incredibly refreshing and washed off a lot of the grit and sweat before getting back in the car, icecream in hand.
We still had 3 hours of driving to our next place. If I skip describing the landscape please don’t think that’s because it was not beautiful. But notably, we got another ferry and found out how to pay for this one. (We expect a bill from the first one after not working out the system) And then fully skipped Stravanger using their network of road tunnels under the city. Mid way thru one of these it looked like we emerged on the bottom of the sea, which was a bit crazy!
Aimi had chosen this next Air BnB. Way out on a small island it was wonderfully remote and quiet overlooking the sea. Everything about this cabin is about the sea view. Huge windows and a glass edged balcony invite just sitting and watching the water. But they also have a hot tub so we spent a while in there with some drinks to finish off the evening.
