Never stop exploring the World: All the way up to Preikestolen, Stavanger, Norway

Oslo for a rest
Visited Oslo, Norway on 8th Nov for a whole day. Walked around the city and took a look in the Viking Ship Museum. I was really impressed by the Norwegian's boat/ ship manufacturing skills. They were born to live near the sea or the water.

The Oseberg ship

The weather was, beyond my expectation, so good that made my trip to Oslo even more great. After a whole day resting in the city, enjoying the sunset, It was time to prepare myself to Stavanger, Norway. The fourth city in West-coast of Norway. I checked serveral web pages and realised that the public transportation to the must-visit attraction in Stavanger ceased because of low season. However, I decided to give it a try and hope to make it.

Sunset in Oslo 1

Sunset in Oslo 2

Stavanger for a great journey
Everyone coming to Stavanger, hope to have a glance at the Lysefjorden. And the famous attractions are Kjerag and Preikestolen. It is impossible to do two hiking trips in just one day so I chosed to give a visit to Preikestolen if I still could.

Preikestolen, also known as Pulpit Rock, is actually a flat rock 604m above the Lysefjorden. Make it simple, it is a cliff. However, it is cool in the sense that it offers a breath-taking view when one try to view the Lysefjorden from 604m vertically downward!

City center of Stavanger

Again, the weather was so good that I never thought of. This encouraged me to strive my utmost to visit Preikestolen otherwise I wasted the weather prepared by God.

Shopped some food and water. Waited untill 9:00 am so as to ask questions in the tourist information center. The staff told me in fact I could still visit there however it was not recommanded to go in this time as it was extremely slippy due to the melting ice. Also, the staff warned me it was my own responsiblity for my safety and I was went at my own risk. On the one hand, I was excited to know that I can still take the chance to start my hiking to Preikestolen. However, It made sense that it will be or it really was dangerous. I doubted for a while and decided to try to go as far as possible. I calculated the time and set the target time to be back regaredless whether I could make it to the end or not.

It generally took 4 hours for a return trip for the only 7.6km track. I catched the 9:15 am ferry and was on the bus at 10:15am. So I was in Jørpeland at around 10:30am. As I won' t took a taxi by myself I had have to walk from Jørpeland to Preikestolhytta which is approx. 7 km.This distance normally takes me 1.5 hours. So as the earliest, I will be at the starting point around noon.

However, after getting to Jørpeland, I further took the same bus to Jøssang(kr.25) because the driver agreeed to give me a ride. Then I started my hiking from Jøssang to Preikestolhytta(5km uphill) and Preikestolhytta to Preikestolen(3.6km).

Ferry to Tau

Bus to Jørpeland and to Jøssang

Route availabe in winter time/off season are as follow:
Ferry from Stavanger to Tau( kr. 42), Changed bus to Jørpeland(kr.30) and should take a taxi to Preikestolhytta.

Peaceful feeling in Jørpeland

Harbour of Jørpeland

The bus stopped at the harbour of Jørpeland for10 minutes and I grabbed the time enjoying the calm atmosphere as later on it will be several hours exhausted trip which required mentally 100% focus.

On the way to the Preikestolhytta

4km left

Started to see the snow along the way to Preikestolhytta

It was not so easy to walk uphill for just 5km and finally it took me 1.5 hours to get to Preikestolhytta from Jøssang. But anyway, the time was exactly noon when I arrived the Preikestolen Fjellstue (mountain lodge). Quite close to what I expected. Asked a few questions, took a few photos and had a 15 minutes lunch break and started the tough trip!