Our second day started rather lazily - not due to jetlag, but more because the earliest we could have breakfast at our hotel on a Saturday was 8am. We were quite thankful for the lie in after the previous day's long drive and a breakfast of largely raw and pickles fish, bread and meat was very welcome indeed!
This set us up well for our activity - a hike to Trolltunga (Troll's Tongue). Arriving at around 10:00 on a Saturday meant that the top car park was full, so we parked in Tyssedal and caught a pricy "Maxi Taxi" to the start point in Skjeggedal.
The walk was described as an 8-10 hour journey to a stunning viewpoint. The advertised 22km journey started with a very steep and muddy incline - the sort that is challenging to go up but much worse to come down - before levelling off to a rocky plateau cut up with trickling streams. We crossed the plateau fairly quickly, aware of our late start, and headed up the next climb onto a saddle area. At this point we came upon a reasonably large group of people and took confidence from the fact that we weren't the last heading up!
At this point the gradient and the clouds came down a little, giving some respite before another climb and the inevitable rain from the following clouds. As soon as the waterproof trousers were on we were able to enjoy the views of the lake that were being presented to us through gaps in the clouds.
The terrain now was wet and rocky but lightly undulating, carrying on like this for the last 3 km or so before we reached Trolltunga. Arriving at the rock, it was most spottable by the queue of people waiting to walk onto it. We promptly joined the queue and cracked out the sandwiches which we'd saved for this very moment.
The clouds also appeared to have saved some "treats" for this point and the half hour or so spent on the queue was increasingly cold. However, I did think this was better than a free for all and came to be very thankful to those that went for a group photo and hence sped up the process. We even witnessed a proposal on the rock (lovely, but they definitely took up more than their allocated "rock time" and I'm pretty sure the random guy they gave their phone to for photos completely missed it...).
Photos done, we left the rock around 15:00, well aware that the "Maxi Taxi" left at 18:00. This made for a speedy traverse across to the plateau, although the last kilometre of mud slowed us severely, leaving just two minutes to spare!
Driving onwards from. The car park led us right up the side of Hardangerfjord on a beautiful road, before we took another very scenic road to Vasel Gard, our cabin for the night. This was a typical Norwegian cabin, with a small kitchen and eating area but no running water or bathroom. The setting was idyllic, with ponies grazing nearby and a lake area to look over.
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