The hike starts out at a farm about 300 m above sea level, crosses through some sheep pastures, then makes a turn through some technical hiking to climb a total of 400 m (bringing the total to around 700 m above sea level.) The last part is along a plateau to the actual lookout, and the views are OUTSTANDING!
There are a couple of the "dangerous" places to creep out on. This one is just before the end of the hike, and with the wind today gusting around 25 mph, we decided it wasn't safe. You can just see the road down below on the other side of the fjord.
We did go out on the Shoemaker Point to take in the view. The sound of the wind blowing against the sheer rock face was beautiful. Legend has it that a shoemaker was sentenced to death for a crime, and in order to have his life spared, agreed to go out on this precipice and sit. He was there sitting when he became enthralled watching a new beautiful bride row her way across the fjord below. He went to stand to get a better look at her, lost his balance and fell to his death. The legend also says that should seven sisters wed on the same day and all row across the fjord together, the Shoemaker Precipice will fall from the mountain into the fjord below. There are cracks in the precipice, and they (like the ones on Preikestolen) are measured regularly to make sure they aren't getting bigger.
On the way down, we encountered this little toad. I am actually quite surprised by the number of toads we encounter here in Norway above the treeline, but I guess the warm summer sun (a relative term) and the pools of snowmelt water make a nice home for them.
Another note here - nobody got injured on today's hike, as seems to be a regular occurrence for us, but I did rip my jeans. The bad thing is they were one of the few pair I brought from the U.S. with me that didn't have a hole worn in the rear end!
The beauty of the hike today, as well as the reflecting on all that we have been able to do since moving to Norway have really reminded us of why we came here. As Diane Akerman said, "I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I have lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well."
And a note from Kimber. We had a Team Building for work on Thursday to provide the Maersk and Marathon employees opportunity to meet each other. It was a great event. We started out with a tour of the Oil Museum. After that a scavenger hunt around Central Stavanger. There were 11 stops on the hunt, some of which required team work to solve puzzles or do small tasks and several that involved food or drink. The third stop was an opportunity to see what the other teams had done on their scavenger hunt by looking at everyone's pictures. The final stop was a Mexican Fiesta complete with Mariachi Band, fajitas and sombreros. But the best part for me was the realization that although the event was to meet people I didn't know, I knew everyone (about 95 people) there. How awesome is that?
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