Norway Day 2 – Romsdalseggen Ridge and the Trollstigen.

After an evening of wild camping we drove to Andalsnes to be begin our day hike up Romsdalseggen ridge. Unfortunately as we were getting ready to set off the weather came in and it chucked it down with rain! After the rain passed we looked up at the ridge and saw it covered in low cloud. The weather forecast said it should clear so we decided to set off and see what happened with the weather.

The path climbed steeply through the forest and we made it up to the Rampestreken just in time to get a clear view. The rampestreken is a metal platform sticking out over the valley giving you a panoramic view of the mountains and town below. Apparently on a busy day you can wait for hours to get onto the platform to see the view. Fortunately for us, there was no one there! One of the blessings of visiting a place while other countries are in lockdown.

We continued up into the cloud on the ridge but after an hour or so it completely chucked it down with rain, so we ran back down the ridge to the camper and dried off! It will have to be a walk to go back to another time.

We then set off on the drive over the Trollstigen (the Trolls path). Again the cloud was low but that just added to the drama of the scenery. The Trollstigen is a winding road, full of hairpins that goes past two raging waterfalls. At the top there is a visitor center, shops and cafe. There is also path you can walk along to look back down the valley over the road, but it was a complete white out with mist so we didn’t get that view.

We continued down highway 63 to towards Valldalen, stopping off at Gudbrandsjuvet, which is a deep ravine with several waterfalls. When we got to Valldalen we stayed at Vika Camping just east of the town. It’s a great campsite running alongside a number of large greenhouses. A very short walk to the side of the fjord led to an excellent evening view looking back towards Valldalen.