A day of hiking in Seljord

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On Saturday, July, 22nd, Pierre-Étienne, Thomas, Yoënn and I decided to to go on a hike in Skorve, near Seljord. The site visittelemark.no promoted a “challenging hike” with “great views” and the possibility to see a plane wreck from the 2nd World War. A great day in perspective.

On the 21st of July, I came and picked up the keys to our rental car in the Hertz concession, in Hovensgata : a silver grey Golf, all equipped, perfect to guide us to our destination. On the Saturday morning, we all gathered in the parking of the Rema in Hovenga Center at 10 AM, joined by Matthieu, one of our friends currently doing his internship in Oslo. After shopping what we needed for lunch, we headed right to Seljord, at approximately 95 km Northwest from Porsgrunn. In the car, the playlist was playing some rock while we were discussing of how our internships were going and remembering the mess that was our residence back in Paris.

After 1 hour and 30 minutes of driving, we finally see Seljord, boarding the Seljordvatn, a huge lake. The water was very still, giving the impression of a mirror in which the landscape was reflecting. We entered the town and started to head towards the beginning of the hiking trail, following a very narrow road in the forest, to finally stop in a small parking lot. After we took our bags, we finally started the hike.

The beginning of the trail was extremely steep, consisting in a trail of sand and gravel going uphill for approximately 700 meters, changing after this in a small trail in a forest area. After one hour of walking, we arrived in a small glade where with a small house – a shelter for hikers that wanted to camp here. We decided to eat there (it was already 13:30 and we were famished !). At the menu : bread, egg salad, meat, some crisps and as a dessert, bananas (a regular lunch at Kelda !).

We continued our way uphill through a very small path, with few indications. Every 100 meters, a red mark reminded us that we were on the right way up. We stopped several times to enjoy the view on the Seljordvatn, which is absolutely stunning from the heights, and we kept on walking until a crossroads. We had the choice : on the left, we could go and see the “Flyvrak”, the plane wreck, but it was only a one-way path and we had to turn our back once arrived there, and on the right the path to the tip of the Goysen, the highest mountain of the area, at 1370 m. After a small consultation, we decided to head to the Flyvrak – it was still early in the afternoon, and we would decide what to do next.

The Seljordvatn

The path to the Flyvrak was not very steep, and we could enjoy the landscape, which was made of plains with some small ponds and streams. After half an hour, we started to spot several pieces of the plane, and finally, the small plate commemorating the event, right next to the plane wreck. We had to chose what to do next : either we could turn our backs and go to the Goysen, or, like the adventurers we are, we could go off the paths and try to join back the trail later, exploring the area.

 

The remains of the B-24

As true Kelda Vikings, that is what we decided to do, and we started to climb uphill to see what the area had to offer. We climbed, we stopped to enjoy the view, we kept on climbing, and at some moment, the vegetation became sparser and we arrived in a rocky environment, meaning we were closer to the heights. After a last part of “climbing”, we finally see the altitude lakes that we saw on the pictures of the hike : good news ! And finally, the red marks, that we lost quite some time ago, showing us which way to go. We start to follow the trail, enjoying the sun, that finally decided to show up. After an hour or so, we saw a small path going to the top of the Nordnibba, one of the peaks of the trail. Since it started to become late, and we wanted to finish the circuit, we decided to keep on walking and not go on top of it.

The lakes on top of the Skorve

At this moment, we lost (once again) the trail, and we started going downhill, trying to find back the path, but unsuccessfully. After some time we ended up quite down the mountains, without finding back the trail. We saw something that looked like a path, on the other side of the valley, quite far from where we were – and where we parked the car, so we decided to climb back the mountain to join back the beginning of the trail. And it was here that things became a bit tricky : we were far from the trail (actually we didn’t see anything that looked like it from where we were), on the mountainside, which was quite steep. Yoënn went first scouting to see if we could find a path that was passable. The one he found was “okay-ish” (on his own words), and with Thomas and Matthieu, we decided to climb uphill to find another way around the mountain. At some point, we lost contact with Thomas and Pierre-Étienne (who decided to follow Yoënn), and with Matthieu, we climbed straightforward to the top, to get a better view of our comrades. After half an hour of steep climbing, we reached the top of the mountain, where we could see Yoënn and Thomas, waiting for us in the distance, quite below where we were, and Pierre-Étienne, who was below them and trying to climb back. We shouted at them, Thomas and Yoënn saw us, but not Pierre-Étienne, deafened by the wind and the echo. After some time, we lost eye contact with him, and kept on trying to join Thomas and Yoënn, who were sitting on rocks, near a small path.

When we finally joined them, we still had to find Pierre-Étienne, who was nowhere to be seen. Yoënn turn back on his steps to see if he was stuck downhill while Thomas, Matthieu and I were shouting his name to see if he was not further on the trail. After half an hour of searching, we finally found him, waiting for us not far from one of the lakes we previously saw. After everybody gathered, we understood that we were back exactly where we were three hours earlier, and we decided to climb down the mountain, to the parking lot. Near the plane wreck, we ate some raspberry cake to get our forces back and finally, finished the hike to get back to the rental car, waiting for us where we left it.

Then, we headed straight to Porsgrunn, the car was quiet, everybody was resting from the day, and we could enjoy the view of the warm color of the sunset on the Seljordvatn and the cliffs around it, as we left Seljord.

Back to Porsgrunn, we ordered some pizza and ate it near the river, not far from Pierre-Étienne’s, gave back the keys of the rental, and headed straight to our beds, tired after this long day.

To sum up, the trail was approximately 14 kilometers long and meant to be done in 7 hours, 8 if we took our time. It took us nearly 9 hours, we did about half of it, but we enjoyed some great views of the valleys of Seljord, and we blazed our own trail, as true Kelda Vikings !

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