Our second hike in Norway was to the famous Trolltunga or troll's tongue, we'd seen lots of photos of people perched on the edge of the rock jutting out across the fjords and were excited to see it for ourselves although I was a bit nervous whether i'd actually have the guts to go out onto it when we finally got there!
This hike was a lot more challenging than Priekestolen, it's 23km in all and it ended up taking us 9 hours altogether including a lunch stop, time on the rock and A LOT of photo stops!!
We had decided to get an early start as we'd heard it could get pretty busy once you got to Trolltunga and drove from Odda to the car park at the start of the walk - there is a pay machine where you can pay by card (I think it worked out as something like £18 for the day) as well as toilets and a little cafe.
As the funicular steps have now been closed the first 1.5km is now up a steep and very muddy track through the woods...this was definitely the worst part of the hike and as it was raining it turned into a bit of a mud slide...a bit like that scene in the film romancing the stone,I had visions of plummeting back down to the bottom several times!! Needless to say, coming back down was even worse! The worst sections have ropes and chains that you can hang on to which helped a bit but I was glad when this bit was over and we headed out onto a broad open plain dotted with little cabins.
The trail is really easy to follow as there are red painted T's every few metres so you always know if you're on the right track, there are also posts every km telling you how far you've come and how long left which are really helpful too.
The scenery all along the hike was amazing, like a crazy lunar landscape and I must have taken a photo about every 2 seconds, it was just breathtaking I had really never been anywhere quite like it. The sections with views down onto the fjord were just stunning! We passed plenty of people on the way but everyone was quite spread out so it never felt like the Preikestolen hike and I really enjoyed the feeling of solitude on the way there.
We passed a few little tents where people were camping up there which looked cool, we saw lots more on our way back later in the day heading up to spend the night at Trolltunga which must be an amazing experience.
The hike itself wasn't too difficult for the most part, after the initial steep couple of kilometres it evens out and is really pleasant walking.
It took us about 4.5 hours to reach the tongue itself and it was fairly busy but not too bad, judging by the amount of people we passed on the way back I was glad we'd set off early to avoid the queues! My initial thought was "OMG I'll never be able to walk out onto that!" it was awful watching other people walking out and sitting on the edge - although the people taking the photos were making me even more nervous, running up and down along the edge seemingly unconcerned about the sheer drop below...one wrong step and it would all be over! There was also a guy being lowered out over the edge on a climbing rope while we were there which did nothing for my nerves!! Chris took some photos for an irish couple and then they returned the favour as we headed out onto the tongue. We didn't have to queue which was great and we headed down some little ladder steps and over a boulder onto the rock....and you know what? It was actually Ok, there's something about being on it rather than looking at it that meant I felt really safe, we even went to the edge and put our heads over and finally did a little jump in the air too!! I actually found it less scary than Preikestolen which I really wasn't expecting, very proud of myself for being able to do it!
Jumping for Joy on Trolltunga!
Once we'd had our photos taken and watched a few other people heading out onto the tongue it was starting to get a bit cold so we headed back along the track the same way. We passed lots more people on the way back and it was pretty easy going apart from the last bit down the muddy path which was way worse than on the way up, slipping most of the way down...we were a sweaty muddy mess by the time we finally got back to the bottom!!
We were pretty exhausted by the time we finished but it was such an amazing day, one of the best day hikes I have ever done and something I will remember forever!
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