Preaching into the mist

Our campsite in Stavanger was in a really great location. So great in fact we almost wish we had stayed a bit longer. It was right next to a huge open air swimming pool, which was very modern and completely spotless and apparently only a short drive from some of Norway’s best beaches. But unfortunately we didn’t have time for swimming, because as always we already had a full itinerary.

First on the agenda was the Stavanger parkrun, which as it would happen we could see the start from our camping spot. The course was a lap of the lake that was in the same park.

It wasn’t a particularly fast run, but it was a very pleasant route mostly under tree cover and with a bit of a hill towards the end. We all ran together for a change, which we all enjoyed.

After taking full advantage of the campsite showers, we headed off to our next destination. One of the best views in Norway is from Preikestolen (or pulpit rock), which is on the north side of Lysefjord. Unfortunately when we arrived at the car park to the trail it was raining quite hard, so we made ourselves some tea and sandwiches to consume before setting off.

But as you can see the rain had only eased slightly when we set off. It was a quite challenging route with a fair bit of climbing but enough flat bits to get our breath back quickly.

The cloud got thicker as we got towards the top and the rain did stop every now and then but not for very long. As the edge started to narrow we knew we must be getting close.

So when we finally got to the top, there wasn’t much of a view to see. Although the drop off into misty nothingness did give an amazingly eerie feeling. We waited around for a gap in the cloud, but there was no sign of any appearing, so we reluctantly headed back down.

As our misfortune would have it, the weather did get better the closer we got back to the car park. So potentially we missed out on the view, but we did console ourselves with Strawberry ice cream from the gift shop and a postcard of the view we couldn’t see!