At the end of July, John & Ann found themselves in Stavanger with a day to kill before the start of the third and final race of the Tall Ships' Races 2011. What better than an easy short dander up to the Pulpit Rock, one of the biggest tourist attractions in the Stavanger region? We were fortunate to be staying with Karl, who provided excellent hospitality and a handy drive to the start of the walk.
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| Lysefjord, with Pulpit Rock just in the cloud to the L |
Being a Friday we were expecting it to be not too busy but how wrong we were. When we arrived mid-morning we were banished to the overflow car park and that was just the start of it. In common with many Norwegian mountain paths, the route is more of a marked way than anything constructed. That, combined with the number of people and limited overtaking opportunities, made it more of a slowly moving queue than a walk in the normal sense.
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| Busy Busy Busy |
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| Dramatic scenery on the way |
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| Pulpit Rock, and a lot of visitors |
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| Interesting section of the path |
Still, we persevered and progress to our goal was somewhat below Naismith pace. Although only about 4 km and 300 m ascent it took about 2.5 hours. Luckily the early morning cloud had lifted and we got some great views. Certainly worth its status, but loses some marks for being far too busy. Having opted not to take the BASE-jumping kit the route down took about as long as the ascent, but it was great to be out in the Norwegain mountains again after a five year break.
