After a restless night I woke up to sunshine. It didn't help my mood, though; the boring (latter half) of the drive the day before was still on my mind. It didn't help that there was only one point of interest between me and my destination for the day, at least as far as I knew. I also had no idea where I would be sleeping the next night; I hadn't been able to make any reservations what so ever.
I turned my thoughts to the point of interest for the day; the Besseggen ridge alongside lake Gjende. As one of the most popular destinations in Jotunheimen, there were a lot of images of it online. The issue was that the ridge itself is 17 kilometers long, with a 760m height difference at the tallest point. That tallest point is about 5 kilometers in to the trek from Gjendesheim Turisthytte where I'd park my car. The view seemed awesome, though, so it might just be worth the trek.
The route for the day; Besseggen is just above the distance marker.
As I mentioned in the last post, I wasn't feeling fully well the day before, and I did still have a strange feeling, like I was getting sick. So I decided to drive down to the Gjende lake and see what to do when I got there. I might walk up the ridge, I might not. I packed my things and started driving; I made it a coupe of kilometers when I saw a sign of a roadside attraction, Ridderspranget (The Knights Leap). Since I had some time, and no other points of interest before Gjende, I parked my car and took out my camera.
The attraction is pretty much in the middle of a forested area, so you have no idea what you'll get before actually seeing it. Almost. In this case, it was clear to me when I got out of the car; this was a waterfall or rapids of some sort. Why not, I thought, let's take a look.
Ridderspranget.
Close up of the gorge itself; the hole is about 5 meters deep, 10 meters long and about a meter between the rocks in the narrowest place. The water flows through it quite violently, and the noise was something else. The stone in the foreground is completely smooth.
The rapids were quite a nice surprise, even though they were small by Norway standards. The name apparently comes from an old story from the 1300s; a knight rescued the daughter of an opposing family, and this is where they got away from their pursuers by jumping the gorge, and then stopping anyone else getting to the other side by pushing the ones that tried down the gorge. True or not, I would not like to try swimming in that current.
I continued my trip, and soon got out of the woods and up on the highlands. The terrain was similar to that going up to Geiranger; more flat, though. I stopped at the Øvre Sjodalsvatnet lake to get a few pics:
View across Øvre Sjodalsvatnet
I could spend a few days here, sure.
The drive to Gjende wasn't that long and I soon arrived. The sun was still out, but the clouds were gathering; still, there were quite a lot of trekkers on the parking lot and the ferry dock, that took them to the other end of the lake (and the other end of the trek). After having lunch I still wasn't feeling too well. You could chalk it down to laziness, man-flu, or me being a chicken, but I decided not to walk up the ridge. In the end I'm glad I didn't, I wouldn't have had time to get to my rest stop for the night if I had. I did walk up the start of the trail and snapped a pic, though:
Lake Gjende, with Besseggen on the right. The trek follows the top of the ridge. I will go back some day.
Horsie!
Not walking up the hill gave me a few moments to check out the river running into the lake, as well as some of the surrounding mountains.
Sjoa river, Besseggen in the background. I should have positioned myself a meter to the left, now that I see the image... Oh well.
The view from a kilometer further on the road, back towards Besseggen. The mountains and lake frame the Besshø mountain that is beside the trek. It's covered in clouds, naturally.
The view flattened as I drove along towards Utladalen, my destination for the day after. The Utladalen valley is home to three big waterfalls, and I wanted to get as close as possible to minimize the driving the next day. Since I hadn't found any available beds on the route, I was basically winging it. I just decided to drive towards the valley, and stop at a random place with a hytte sign. After all, I had seen those signs all over the place, so I figured I'd find some on the way.
The terrain was surprisingly flat, with no vegetation higher than a small bush here and there. The road goes along the east side of Jotunheimen, which is a plateau of sorts; all the mountains are on the Jotunheimen side, but you cant really see any of them from the road. I really struggled to find interesting places to stop at.
Vinstre lake and my view to the east. The village is more than a kilometer away; not a tree in sight.
The road slowly makes its way downward, and soon I was beside familiar looking lakes and valleys. The clouds from before had made a comeback, and it started to drizzle.
Driving along E16; this is the Vangsmjøse lake.
I was getting close to Utladalen now, so I started to look for a place to sleep. As the rain intesified, I drove on and on; not a hytte in sight. I even drove past a vacated hotel, typical. Then, finally, I saw a sign for hyttes at the side of lake Tyin; tyinstolen tourist hyttes. I parked my car, and went inside; the place was closed. Of course. Luckily, it hadn't been closed for many days, and the caretaker was still tidying up the place after the season had ended. He took pity on me and gave me one of their hyttes to sleep in. I gratefully accepted, and took shelter from the rain in my own grass-roofed hut.
Luxurious, no?
A rainy look at the campsite lagoon.
After settling in and having a dinner consisting of muesli bars and a coke, I took a quick look around and snapped a pic of the shore. The weather wasn't very inspiring, so I decided to go to bed. Although the day had been a dissapointment, tomorrow would be much better I said to myself. According to the forecast, there would be no rain, and the waterfalls looked great on paper. I didn't even mind the 5 kilometer hike I had to do to get to the biggest one. And the map even promised some nice views on the way there. As it turned out, it really did make up the boredom of the previous day.