Trolltunga (Troll Tongue)- a rock with a characteristic shape located in Norway on the border of the Hardangervidda plateau, 1100 meters above Lake Ringedalsvatnet, east of the town of Tyssedal.
To get to the parking lot under the trail to Trolltunga we have about 35 km. We go, excited, ready to climb, the sign shows 8 km to the parking lot, two turns and … the man in the yellow vest orders us to stop. The car park under the trail is full, here we can leave the car and walk 6 km to the trail or wait for a bus for 50 NOK to take us … We don’t have much choice, we park the car and go to stand in the queue for transport, maybe in an hour we will get on … A bit the whole situation does not fit. In the meantime, there was a commotion and a couple of cars moved to the upper parking lot, taking people waiting in line with them. We will not be worse, let’s do the same, maybe there is a place in the upper parking lot. The guys went, took someone with them, I’m waiting downstairs in the queue for the bus – as if something didn’t work out. In the meantime I meet Poles, who are going to the top to do a wedding photo shoot (!). After 20 minutes, Mateusz comes back for me, I get into the car together with the Poles I met, when the yellow vest of the parking attendant does not allow us to move – “There are no places upstairs, the car must be left here”. A few minutes of fruitless convincing that there is a place upstairs, he told us to leave the pledge as part of only giving people a lift up and back to the parking lot. There was probably only one place for us in the upper parking lot, which the guys guarded bravely and for which we later heard an apology from the “parking people”. Yes, we could leave the car directly at the entrance to the trail, which resulted in saving many souls after returning. When the yellow vest of the parking attendant does not allow us to move – “there are no places upstairs, the car must be left here”. A few minutes of fruitless convincing that there is a place upstairs, he told us to leave the pledge as part of only giving people a lift up and back to the parking lot. There was probably only one place for us in the upper parking lot, which the guys guarded bravely and for which we later heard an apology from the “parking people”. Yes, we could leave the car directly at the entrance to the trail, which resulted in saving many souls after returning. When the yellow vest of the parking attendant does not allow us to move – “there are no places upstairs, the car must be left here”. A few minutes of fruitless convincing that there is a place upstairs, he told us to leave the pledge as part of only giving people a lift up and back to the parking lot. There was probably only one place for us in the upper parking lot, which the guys guarded bravely and for which we later heard an apology from the “parking people”. Yes, we could leave the car directly at the entrance to the trail, which resulted in saving many souls after returning. Which the guys bravely guarded and for which we later heard an apology from the parking attendants. Yes, we could leave the car directly at the entrance to the trail, which resulted in saving many souls after returning. Which the guys bravely guarded and for which we later heard an apology from the parking attendants. Yes, we could leave the car directly at the entrance to the trail, which resulted in saving many souls after returning.
11:15 – we’re moving, it’s late. It’s hard, we’re counting on it. 11 km ahead of us to the “Troll’s Tongue”. 11 km, which have nothing to do with the actual crossing, because they are counted without elevations and bends … The
“first kilometer” is the worst – stone steps … There are many thoughts in the head: I can do it? Where I go? After all, that’s what I came here for. Zero condition…
The first sign emerging from around the bend, so awaited, makes you feel that it will be easier now – only 10 Norwegian kilometers. 1.5 km flat. It’s starting to blow. Another hill, another, descent, another ascent – there is no end in sight. You can only see people walking in the opposite direction, crowds. How are they in shape? What time did they leave? We go further. We pass the sign with “half” of the road. It’s close
The views begin. We’re walking along the lake. The weather does not spoil, clouds, windy, very windy.
More and more people are coming back, less and less are going, probably no one is behind us… We have already covered 9 Norwegian kilometers – 2 left, and for me the worst journey begins – knee pain. Neither bend when going up, even worse when going down. No… too close to the goal, I won’t give up. My backpack is already carried by Adam, which doesn’t help much along the way. We’re slowly getting there. Joy indescribable, we are on Trolltunga! A little rest, smoked sausages eaten. Poles from the wedding session arrived a moment before us, they change into the costumes from the ceremony. We are waiting to take pictures, there are about 30 people, it’s tiny, at noon we waited for about 2 hours, it’s 5:00 pm. It’s our turn, we take a lot of photos and the sun comes out on our summary of reaching this place. Amazing view! As if only for us. More photos, more Poles We are still sitting in this beautiful place for a while, there is practically no one left, the whole rock is for us.
We’re moving, it’s late – 18:00, we know that we will be going down in the dark – we are prepared. The guys secretly hope that the clouds will disappear and the aurora will appear. Unfortunately, we were not given today … We go, the knee does not want to cooperate, tears come to the eyes, after all, it is not far away, what a distance of 11 Norwegian kilometers … On the way we pass pitched tents and a few people walking, in front of us we can only see the outline of a couple from Poland who also return. It is beautiful, quiet and most importantly, there are no people, there is no crowd that we passed before. It’s starting to get dark. It’s time to turn on the flashlights – 4 more Norwegian kilometers. First steep descent, we follow the red ‘T’s drawn on the rocks, stones, etc. I feel like cutting my leg off, nurofen doesn’t help.
On the “second” kilometer we meet a couple from Poland who got lost, and seeing our flashlights, they waited and we go down in a group of six. We reach the stairs – “kilometre” down, so close. We go down carefully, slowly, all of us are tired, and I delay the group, because I can’t go any longer because of the pain – step by step.
We are downstairs by the parking lot, it’s before midnight and we see a “wedding” group from Poland, whose car is 6 km lower. Our Prius is a 7-seater, we take a couple with us and a friend from the “wedding” group – we give him a lift to the parking lot to pick up the car.We drop off a couple at the campsite in Odda. We have to move on, in the morning we have to go to Preikestolen and there are still 240 km ahead of us to the planned camping.
However, time and our bodies forced us to change our plans.According to Norwegian data, the trail to Trolltunga was about 22 km long, endomondo showed 29 km.When you get into a warm car after 12 hours of walking, your eyes close immediately.