Still overwhelmed from this great weekend!!! Wow, nature at its best!!!
…but – a little bit back… Friday, late evening – everything is packed and ready to go to Gaustatoppen. “Gaustatoppen, which many claim to be the most beautiful mountain in Norway, towers majestically above the town of Rjukan at an altitude of 1,883 metres. Around 30,000 people make the trip up to the summit every year to enjoy the fantastic views from the top. On a clear day, you can see all the way south to the coast and east to Sweden. You can see one sixth of Norway from here.” More info: www.visitrjukan.com
Christian told me that the lifts open @ Gaustablikk on Saturday, so I thought – well, I have enough space in the car, why not take them with me… Actually he wanted to join but had a seminar on Sunday, so he couldn’t.
I was prepared to leave early in the morning on Saturday but things turned out differently. Well, a party at the neighbours house caused that the leftover people from our house came back around 1.30 a.m. and started to play so loud music, that I was awake and thought, well, I won’t be able to sleep here, I don’t want to join the drunk people downstairs, okay, so I’m off… I started my trip @ 2 a.m. 3 hours later I got to Heddasvatn, starting point for the morning. On the way there, snow was greeting and the road conditions were icy – so perfect for my summer tyres…;-) – but the mountain road was “apent” and not STENGT;-)
I had a couple of hours sleep in my car (@ minus temperatures…) before I got “kissed” by the sun – the sun was rising…
What a cool view! After breakfast I started my hike to Gaustatoppen. The higher I got up to the peak the more the beautiful scenery opened up… 2 hours later I reached the top… Quite astonished that so many people were up there because I was one of the first ones who started from the parking lot. Just 2 mountainrunners overtook me… Later I found out that there is a cog railroad to the top… Also in winter – this mountain is great for off-piste skiing… Up at the top I was requited by this marvelous view!!!! 360° mountains and nature…
In the afternoon when I went down there was an “invasion” of people hiking up the mountain… “Kind und Kegel” was carried up to the top… You could see everything, from the perfectly equipped people to the ones in sneakers and jeans… Just like back home in the mountains – the variation of people who know and who don’t know how to manage getting up and down the mountain in a safe way…
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