jules picturesque places - the original since 2007: Second road trip in Norway

Due to last-minute analysis and preparations that had to be done for the meeting in Tjärnö (see previous post), our Easter holidays were spent mainly at home, in Oslo. That sounds somehow bad - but it wasn't at all! The sun sent their seemingly endless sunbeams directly onto our balcony and made working at home almost feeling like beach vacations. ;)
In addition, we spent a lot of our easter-time on turning our new car into a proper camper van! The new car is not as big as our New Zealand "Nightfury", and has no table, couch, nor a bookshelf fitted inside. But we now have a flat wooden board, 1.80 m long, that can be split in three parts of 60 cm for driving and otherwise is long enough to comfortably sleep on it. Underneath is also a lot of storage space for longer trips and all the outdoor gear... . Of course, we had to test our new rolling Yeti-bed with stargazer-roof as soon as possible! And we did so with a bouldering-trip last weekend to the southern tip of Norway.

After driving for about 8 hours we arrived at our first stop, the nice coastal road between Flekkefjord and Egersund. According to the guidebook this road should offer an amazing landscape to drive through. Unfortunately, it was already night and we just saw dark trees and sometimes glittering bits of lakes. So we decided to sleep on the spot and continue driving the next morning when it's light and we can see something. This was our first night in the car, a bit glamour-less on a parking lot in the little fishing-town Åna-Sira, but with a clear sky and stars during the night and birds in the morning on power lines above us. We slept very well! And it was a good decision since only a few kilometers further we passed by the Jøssingfjord Helleren, two small houses from around 1800 that stand well protected under an impressive rock-roof. There are bolted climbing routes right and left of the houses but we didn't bring our climbing gear, so we couldn't test them.
We followed the road a bit further, leading through a moon-like rock landscape, full of flat rocks, but more to scramble and walk on than for bouldering. After Egersund, we came to the first "designated" bouldering area: Sirevåg. We chose the biggest sector "The Fortress", close to an old German bunker. Although the boulders were not bad, their roundish shape reminded us pretty much of the boulders in Castle Hill, New Zealand. We did some moves here and there, explored the tunnels of the bunker and felt like Justus Jonas und die drei Fragezeichen, but then continued to the second bouldering area on our list: Gloppedalen.
Along the way we passed by the "Ruggestein", a boulder weighing around 70 tonnes that can rock. If you push hard on one side, it starts to move and rocks. Amazing! I can move a 70t boulder! ;) I wonder how that was found out.. . Of course we also didn't miss to actually boulder on the rocking stone. What fun!

Jøssingfjord Helleren

Open door of the Helleren.

Spring blossoms!

Linerle (Motacilla alba)

Brave and very cute lambs!

Rocking the Ruggestein!

Ruggestein

Bouldering Ruggestein.

Gloppedalen

Preikestolen

Gloppedalsura is a big granite rockfall area (scree) and according to Wikipedia the largest in Northern Europe. A lot of potential for a bouldering paradise! Unfortunately, there are so many boulders above each other that it is super hard to walk through and to find a block with an acceptable landing area. After some exhausting walking and some scary bouldering, we decided to call it a day and sleep on the parking lot just in the middle of these boulders. We had a BBQ with a nice view of the lake, the boulders and mountains around us, a Shisha for desert, and a wonderful night (in the small wagon) with the constellation Ursa Major (der grosse Wagen) above us.
The next morning we had breakfast on our bed-camping-table with the same beautiful view and then followed the advice of the guidebook to check out the boulders around the lake. Best advice ever! Awesome boulders with a perfect landing area on the white sandy beach and crystal clear water to cool down from the tropical heat. And yes, we were still in Norway ;)
After Gloppedalen, we continued to Oltedalen, another area with some very good boulders. But also here, we just visited one sector and did some nice routes before driving on to cross Frafjord and reach the area around the famous "Preikestolen", the big flat rock 600m above the Lysefjord that is so famous for being on almost every tourist picture. We found a fine spot right along the fjord for the night, had a swim in the sea, and a dinner on the beach. Hach.... so nice this outdoor life!

Sirevåg, almost like Castle Hill!

Preikestolen peak boulder.

Gloppedalen beach boulder.

Gloppedalen beach.

Night between boulders and stars.

Breakfast! Same spot.

Mini-BBQ!

Gloppedalen beach.

Preikestolen

In the German bunker.

The next day we queued up with a lot of tourists and walked up to Preikestolen. We thought we would be almost alone because it was so early in the season, but not a snowball's chance in hell! There were soooo many tourists already! However, it was also a lot of fun to watch them. Amazing how many dare to go right to the edge, sit with their feet it the air, or lay on the belly and look down to the fjord. When I did that, a strong cold wind blew into my face and the fjord appeared so far down that I got dizzy and laying on Preikestolen suddenly felt like sitting on the Ruggestein. ;) We also hiked up a bit further to the actual peak of Preikestolen at about 700m, which offered a nice view to the sea and some more boulders ;)
After running down the mountain again, we had another refreshing bath in the sea and then started a long drive back to Oslo, crossing another fjord (Jøsenfjorden) and snowcapped mountains at the Haukelifjell.