5 June 2018, Tuesday
After the thrilling hike to Preikestolen yesterday, I was left wondering what I could do with another spare day in Stavanger today. When drawing up my itinerary months ago, I originally planned to do another trek to Kjeragbolten, which is not too far from Stavanger, about 2.5 hours’ drive away.
Kjeragbolten is a boulder wedged in Kjerag mountain’s crevasse, suspended 1,084m above Lysefjorden. In case you’re wondering what it looks like, here is a picture of the money shot:
The hiking season for Kjeragbolten is during the summer months between 1 June and 30 September, but public buses to Kjeragbolten start running only on 9 June 2018 (just four days away!). From 1 to 8 June, you can still hike to Kjeragbolten but you will need to join a guided tour. I tried looking for tour companies but they were all fully booked. Such a pity! Nevertheless, this just gives me another reason to come back to Norway in the future.
With my Kjeragbolten plans scuppered, I decided to sleep in and take it easy today. At about 11am, I made my way to the city centre and went to Vågen harbour to buy my ticket to join a 2.5-hour Lysefjord cruise trip. The cruise was operated by Norled and it cost 460 Kr (S$78.61).
At 12pm, we started boarding the ship. It was quite a large cruise ship but there were only about 20 of us today. At 12:15pm, the cruise departed Stavanger and sailed towards Preikestolen.
We sailed past the island of Tingholmen, Ådnøy, Lauvik and Oanes before reaching Forsand, a rich municipality with substantial revenues from taxes levied on electricity power stations. It is also notable for exporting large amounts of sand and gravel. Next, we sailed past Landa, Lastabotn, Skreddaren, Eiane, Fantehola and Refså.
The ship also made a brief stop for the crew to feed some goats by the shore. The goats belonged to a man who lived on the shore opposite this rocky slope. Apparently, it was a daily routine for the goats to be let out and fed by the crew as the cruise sailed by.
Soon after that, it was the highlight of the trip as we sailed by Preikestolen. Actually, if there was no announcement being made, I wouldn’t even have spotted Preikestolen as it was really quite unremarkable and I wouldn’t even have noticed it just sailing by. From this vantage point, the 25m by 25m flat-topped rock buttress looked just like the other fjord cliffs. Having been up there yesterday, the view from above was definitely much better than the view from below. It was a bit of a letdown.
After that, we continued sailing forward to Hengjane before turning back to Stavanger. Near Preikestolen, the ship stopped briefly at a small waterfall and the crew used a bucket to collect some water for us to sample. I tried some of the water and it tasted just like tap water, i.e. tasteless. Which was good I guess!
After taking one last look at Preikestolen, we headed back full steam to Stavanger. Despite the sunny weather, it was super cold when the ship moved fast and the wind was blowing hard. I decided to escape from the bitter cold into the seated area below and bought myself a waffle and a cup of hot coffee (82 Kr / S$14).
We pulled in to Vågen harbour at 2:50pm. I felt a little underwhelmed by the cruise trip. I think it was mainly because I had already hiked to Preikestolen and experienced the thrill of seeing the astounding view from above, so the view from Lysefjord paled in comparison. Furthermore, yesterday’s hike was quite physically demanding and exhilarating, whereas sitting on a cruise ship for 2.5 hours today felt lazy and uninspiring.
The scenery en route was so-so. I had expected the fjords to be more dramatic, with steep rising cliffs flanking a narrow passageway. The water channel turned out to be quite wide and the cliffs were vertically steep only in a few sections. Nevertheless, the cruise trip was an easy way to pass time for 2.5 hours and also give my legs some rest, which admittedly, were aching a little from yesterday’s hike.
For the rest of the afternoon, I occupied myself by writing some postcards to send to my loved ones back home. I then hung around the city centre and visited the Bibliotek, a library located in the same building as a cinema. I then walked around aimlessly, capturing street scenes and exploring alleyways I had missed during the past two days.
By 5:30pm, I was back in my hostel room as there was really nothing else to do in Stavanger. I succumbed to World Cup fever and bought the official Panini sticker album. I felt like a kid again as I unwrapped the packets and pasted the stickers onto the album. I then realised that there were a total of 671 stickers to collect and I was not going to make it because it would simply be too expensive to get them all.
At 7:45pm, I headed down to Café Morgenrød at the lobby again for dinner. I had a nice baked white fish (159 Kr / S$27.17) and ended my day early. Compared to yesterday, it was much more uneventful and laid back today. One of the lull days before the excitement starts again soon. After three nights in Stavanger, I’m itching to move to a new place tomorrow – Odda!