…tunga
Wednesday, August 10th: Odda, Norway > Etne, Norway
The goal was to see the sun rise over Trolltunga, but we over slept as the wind whipped outside our tent. When we finally woke up, it was an hour past the time we were supposed to be hiking down to catch the last shuttle from the P3 to P2 parking lots.
We packed up our bags and started making our way down. The weather was great for hiking - partly sunny, 60 degrees with a light breeze. Our legs were fatigued, but at least the trail felt much easier with the downhill terrain.
Along the way, we saw Amy the chocolate lab and helped an Indian girl reattach her boot sole to her boot. Matt wrapped it using a roll of self adhesive gauze from our first aid kit. When he was done, it looked like she had a severe ankle sprain or was getting ready for a football game with spackled cleats. Hopefully, it held up.
We realized we should have packed more food for the return journey. We resorted to chugging cold oatmeal in a shaker cup once we got to the P3 parking / bus stop.
Luckily, on the way down from P3 to P2, there were several wild raspberry bushes to sustain us. We counted the switchbacks at a total of 16 - a few more than our original guesses of 6 and 13.
We felt a combination of victory and starvation when we made it to our car. We lounged in our camping chairs and ate gummy candies before heading out.
We drove back through Odda, stopped at the supermarket and then continued to Etne. We passed by Lattefoss, but couldn’t find a parking spot to stop and marvel at the waterfall. We kept on going and stopped instead at Langfoss - Norway’s fifth tallest waterfall. I contemplated the hike up to the top, but I don’t think our legs would have cooperated.
We got to Etne and memories came rushing back from 2017 when we fished here with Jake from Rugged Creek Outfitters. We stayed at a campground along the Etneelva river, but fishing was reserved for beat registrants only. The campground catered to seasonal renters that all had stationary RVs with built on cabins, and not many tent campers - just us and one other.
We fished in the evening at the same spot in the fjord that we did several years ago. We caught two Atlantic mackerel. We dropped one between the shoreline rocks and made a valiant effort to rescue and revive him. After our best attempts, we decided to keep it for a second dinner. As Matt filleted the mackerel, we saw an Atlantic salmon come thrashing out of the water and a pod of dolphins swimming nearby.
We cooked the mackerel with olive oil, salt and pepper and got ready for bed.
Campground: Etne Camping
