Kinabalu

"Do many people cry?" was Susie's question to our guide Richard. She was looking forlornly at the trackside sign telling her she still had 4kms and a lot of vertical metres to go before she was off the mountain. "Yes" came the answer.
At this point we were 10 hours into our 14 hour second day on Mt Kinabalu, Sabah, Borneo. Susie was pretty much running on empty by this stage, but just gave a big sigh, sucked it up, and kept going. I was pretty proud of her.

The catalyst for this little jaunt had been an invitation early in the year from my long time mate Cath Stephens, who would be turning 50 in October, to "do something different" with her to celebrate her big milestone. She was organising a trip to Sabah, Borneo, with the main aim being to climb 4095m Mt Kinabalu. I had been keen to do it for years, but never got around to it, so after a quick conference with Susie who said "Yeah, why not?", I said yep, we're in.

So we flew into Kota Kinabalu on the evening of Oct 11, got up before the sparrows next morning for a quick breakfast, and the 8 of us were piled into a couple of vehicles and driven 2 hours up into the mountains to the start of our adventure, Timpohon Gate, at 1866m. After checking in at Park Headquarters and getting our climb authorisations, we set off at a bit before 10am for the day's destination - Laban Rata, a guest house at about 3200m.

Our group of 8 plus 2 guides fairly quickly became 3 groups with Cath, Scott, Mark and Mick leading the way, followed by Sue and Lisa, with Susie and me bringing up the rear. This part of the climb is mostly in quite dense forest, steep and rough, with big step ups. There are a number of Pondoks, or shelters along the way at roughly every kilometre, which are increasingly anticipated as you get higher and the air gets a little thinner! We all arrived, tired but exhilarated at Laban Rata at various times between 4 and 5 pm.
 Dinner was served at 5:30, and we were all in bed by 7 - 7:30 with alarms set for a 2am get up.
There were 8 of us in bunks all in the one room, but I don't think it hindered our sleep too much. Not mine, anyway!

At 2 we were up, got dressed with a few more layers for the cold of the summit, had a light breakfast and were out the door at 2:40 headed for the summit, hopefully by sunrise.
Thinner scrub quickly gave way to just bare rock - mostly walkable except for a few bits where there were ropes in place to pull yourself up. We climbed initially with head torches until the gradually increasing light from the east allowed us to go without. Occasionally I looked back down the mountain to see a winding line of little lights coming up behind me. Our little pools of personal light gradually gave way to tremendous views as we looked down and across acres of granite to a carpet of cloud way below. Climbing on in the beautiful soft light of early morning, Susie and I reached the summit about a half hour after our younger cohorts, at around sunrise (The sun was up, but still below the cloud on the horizon).

It was cold at the top once we stopped moving, so after the mandatory summit shots and 20 minutes or so admiring the view, we started back down to Laban Rata, getting in at 9 for a large breakfast.
By 10 we were on our way again, with 6kms and around 1400 vertical metres of descent to go.

The steps became bigger, our legs became more tired, and the time to cover each kilometre increased!
And so we came to the site of Susie's question. As we continued on, Richard told us about the Guides' method of getting people off the mountain who just give up and won't go any further. The Human Taxi! A half dozen of them come up and take it in turns to piggyback said tourist down the mountain. The cost is 350 Ringits (about AU$128) per kilometre, rising to 500 Ringits if the punter weighs more than 90kgs!

Susie and I walked through the Timpohon Gate at 5:10, had our names ticked off by the Ranger, and had hugs all round with our fellow climbers.

We did some other pretty cool stuff in Sabah - visited Poring Hot Springs, flew to Sandakan and saw the Orangutan Sanctuary, the memorial park on the site of the infamous POW Camp just out of Sandakan, Turtle Island where rangers are in a battle to save the endangered Green Turtle, and 3 days at a you beaut 5 star resort on the beach where we just hung out, swam, ate and drank.

But the mountain was the main goal. It was hard work, and it took us a good 3 days afterwards before we could walk down stairs, or even a gentle slope, without wincing.
Was it worth it? Hell yeah!         

Hurtigruten, Preikestollen, and back to Oslo

We steamed out of Trondheim at 10 am on the good ship M/SNordlys, a Hurtigruten ferry bound for Bergen - a 28 hour overnight trip down the Norwegian coast.
We constantly cruised inside and close to lots of islands, so the scenery was always great, and we basked on the back deck in warm sunshine, soaking up a bit of shipboard life. In the evening a crowd gathered in the ships conference room for the World Cup Final. Lots of cheering, mostly for the Germans, and exasperated groans at the near misses

Back in Bergen, we overnighted and next day were on a bus to Stavanger, gateway to the famed Preikestollen, or Pulpit Rock. First up, we did a walking tour of the Stavanger Old Town with a young history student named Erik (natch!), then next morning a ferry and bus got us to the start of the walking track to Preikestollen and we set off with a few hundred of our best friends for the top. A steep hour and a half later there we were - on one of the world's best lookout platforms. I love that there are no steel guard rails stopping people from getting too close to the edge. Australian authorities would have had a bloody great safety fence all around the edge and completely ruined it. Not in Norway. If you're dumb enough to get too close to the edge and fall off - whose fault is that?

That day's outing completed the fjord riven part of our Tour de Norway, but we still had a little to do. A train the next day to Oslo took us through the first relatively flat, or rolling hills type farmland we had seen in Norway, and once there we had in mind some places we hadn't had time for a couple of weeks previously.
First stop was the Holmenkollen Ski Jump. First built for the 1950 Winter Olympics, it has been improved and heightened a number of times since, and is still used for top level competition. Standing at the top, it's a loooong way down! We gave ourselves a small taste of the flying feeling by ziplining off the top to the finish. A speedy way down! There was also a great ski museum, and a simulator in which you could do the Olympic Downhill at 130 kmh, and a couple of runs down the ski jump. Pretty cool!

Then we jumped back on the Metro to Vigeland Sculpture Park, where there are heaps of sculptures by one guy, Gustav Vigeland, who spent 40 years putting together the body of work which forms the park's attraction. All human forms, based around families and relationships. It was pretty good. After a minor false start on our return journey - went one stop in the wrong direction - we found the right tram/train combination and made it back to Central.   

That evening we wandered around looking at old timber boats of all sizes, checked out the WW2 Resistance Museum next morning, and then boarded our train to Malmo to visit Susie's son Thomas and his girlfriend Sofia.

Norway - land of Fjords.

Oh Wow. It's hard to find enough superlatives for this visually stunning country! I'll have to settle on Gobsmacking!
Fjords, more fjords, waterfalls, mountains, and beautiful towns sitting on spectacular waterways.

We entered Norway by train, on a very scenic ride from Stockholm to Oslo over the mountains with lots of lakes, snow patches and gorges to look at, arriving mid afternoon and checking into our Thon Hotel Opera, a stones throw from Central Station and overlooking Oslo's new Opera House.
First activity - we went straight out and climbed all over the Opera House. It's quite stunning. Right on the water's edge and built to look like an iceberg, it's all straight lines and angles. Visually very different to Sydney's curves, but equally as striking.
Then went walking, checked out the Fort - seems every town in Europe has one!, sussed out ferry trips for next day, and found dinner.

Next day was a biggie, with a cross harbour trip to visit to the Viking Ships Museum, the Fram Museum, featuring the sailing ship built by the Norwegians and specifically tested by allowing it to be caught and stuck in winter ice in the Arctic. This place also detailed all Amundsen's many adventures. Then around the corner to the Kon-tiki Museum, featuring the well known adventures of Thor Heyerdall, and back across the harbour to pick up our evening cruise down the Oslo Fjord on the lovely old gaff rigged Helena.

The morning had us on a train again, heading over the mountains to Bergen. A great trip, with lots of beautiful mountain scenery. It was cloudy and damp on arrival, but the rain held off long enough for us to catch the funicular up to the top of the mountain from the old town for great views of the city.
Susie talked us into a bit of culture next day, and we visited the house and now museum of Norwegian composer Edvard Greig. The visit included an excellent piano recital of some of his music.
Back to town we grabbed a quick feed before jumping on a cat for a 3.5 hour trip up Sognefjord. It was cold out on deck with occasional light showers, but the scenery was just magnificent.

Now the fun driving started. We picked up a car from Mr Avis in the morning and motored out of town in bucketing rain with Sheila's erratic help (Deadset - just like most women, she sometimes says right when she actually means left!) on our way to the Flam Railway. This was a much anticipated journey, and didn't disappoint - a steep climb from the town of Flam up a glacier made gorge to the mountain village of Myrdal and back, with a stop at a raging waterfall where we all jumped off the train and got soaked in spray while getting pics.
Back in the car for another spectacular 3 hour drive to our evening's destination - the beautiful old Walaker Hotel in Solvorn, right on the water's edge on Sognefjord. By the time we arrived the sun was shining and the water looked inviting, so we had a swim! Bracing, but very refreshing. The 4 course meal that evening in the lovely old dining room in the hotel was memorable, and all the more enjoyable as it was on the company! A walk after dinner in the soft late evening light completed the day.

A visit across the other side of the fjord to a 12th century heritage listed Stave Church kicked off the next day.  The major timbers of this church are all amazingly still in place, largely due to to the way the original builders prepared the timber.
On our way to the spectacular (sorry, I keep using that word!) Geiranger Fjord, we stopped at a Museum of Climate Change and Glacial Studies. Biggest memory from this place was the video of the largest carving event ever recorded. Don't remember what glacier it was, but the event involved an area of ice way bigger than NYC, and went on for more than 15 minutes. Truly awesome and frightening. Checked out the snout of a real glacier shortly after that, before driving onto a car ferry for an hour long trip up the Geiranger Fjord to the little town of the same name at the end of the fjord.
Postcard beautiful town on deep, blue waters, surrounded by steep glacial mountains, with a raging waterfall coming down through it's centre. Get the picture?

It got better. In the morning we went for a hike 3 kms up the mountain to a waterfall - Storsaeterfossen, and were able to get right in behind the roaring falls as the water plunged over the lip above. Lots of big grins and Woohoos! Then checked out some old summer pasture huts with turf roofs. The history of some of the farms which cling to the steep mountain slopes is fascinating.
The drive out involved lots of switchbacks up the mountain, but the views back over the fjord - Wow!
More mountains, driving, and ferries brought us to the Trollstigen. The Troll's Ladder. An amazing piece of switchbacking road down the head of another glacier gouged valley with raging waterfalls and high peaks all around. Drove on to Alesund for the night, where there was a boat festival on. Good atmosphere, with people and boats everywhere.

Next major attraction on our route was the Atlantic Road - a fabulous road connecting lots of little rocky islands and skerries with numerous bridges and stops for pics. The ocean was totally benign for our drive. Almost a pity, because they say the road is at it's most spectacular (sorry!) during a good ol' Atlantic Storm. The north end of this "world's great" drive is Kristiansund, where we stopped.

What's the attraction of a few houses clinging to a low rocky islet 45 minutes out into the Atlantic by fast cat? Dunno, really, but it was really nice. This was the tiny fishing island community of Grip. Really only a low lying lump of granite with a couple of concrete groined harbours, and a collection of houses, it has a long history of cod and halibut fishing. What a hardy bunch they must be to live there year round, and I can only imagine what the place would be like in a fierce Atlantic storm. Once again, for our visit, the ocean was very calm.

Then on up the coast to Trondheim. Another ferry crossing and another beautiful drive alongside another fjord. Stunning.
We spent 2 nights in Trondheim. Nice town. Nice hotel next to the Old Town.

We rode bikes, ate some nice food, did a walking tour of city highlights including the obligatory Cathedral, and this morning boarded the Hurtigruten M/S Nordlys for our overnight cruise back down the coast to Bergen, and the next phase of our Norwegian adventure.