Country: Norway
Distance travelled:
Weather: Overcast and raining

Since we were a stones throw from the boat jetty this morning, we felt there was no need to rush. At some stage a bus load of tourists arrived and took the journey across Svartisvatnet Lake encouraging us to wait a little longer, crowds rarely excite us. At about 11am, I walked over to the jetty and found out that the only two departure times were 10am and 12pm so we waited in the van, taking care of a few overdue chores and preparing for the midday trip.

Promptly at 12pm, we were at the boat paying our 150kr each for the 20 minute trip across Svartisvatnet Lake. A sign onboard notified all that the return departure time was 2.40pm or there was a four kilometer hike if you missed it. As we disembarked the bus tour people trudged onboard, some of them looking quite cold and uncomfortable. A warning of things to come or just the exposed wait on the shoreline? We set off with the other people from our boat up the path which rapidly became the downward path of a small stream. Trudging on, we blessed our nearly waterproof boots with every unavoidable puddle.

At the top of the rise, the path took a sharp hook turn to the right and disappeared onto solid rock. Maybe fifty meters away sat a flagpole held up by a pile of rocks. Beyond that in the distance, another. This was going to be a challenge, picking the best path across the folds of rock, trying to keep in the general direction of the flags, sometimes merely sticks, showing the way. It was an hour later when we came around an outcrop of rock and could see the Svartisen Glacier in all its’ glory. An amazing sight. The front face of the ice was down to the edge of the partially iced over lake and although there was no sunshine today, the unbelievable blue of the glacial ice was still visible.

A little more scrambling and we were at the start of the multitude of signs warning against the dangers of glaciers. Mark decided to rest here, we had less than half an hour before we would have to begin the return hike but I grabbed a camera, and setting a timer for ten minutes, tried to get as close as I could to the ice face. I clambered and climbed, stopping for the occasional snap until my timer went off. Surely just a little further? Maybe just over this outcrop? I checked on Mark, to see he had started back with the others as we had discussed. No, better not. Glaciers are fascinating, I could have sat and stared all day but the extra four kilometer hike held no attraction.

Slinging the camera onto my back, I headed in a more direct route to intersect the path since I no longer needed to return to the outcropping where Mark had waited. I caught up quite soon, relieving Mark of my backpack which I had left with him. The return hike was an easy 45 minutes downhill, even with the occasional pause for happy snaps and we were back at the dock with twenty minutes to spare, the boat visible across the lake just starting out to retrieve us.

Over a lunch of toasted ham and cheese sandwiches (got to love that solar power) we decided to go see Marmorslottet, the Marble Palace, an area where a powerful river had carved fanciful shapes out of the limestone rock. We had seen photos in a book on the boat coming back across Svartisvatnet Lake and it looked really interesting. We had no idea exactly where it was so drove back to Mo I Rana to see if we could find some signage. Eventually stopping at an information sign, it was discovered that we had actually driven past the turnoff while on the road from the glacier.

Back out on the same road again, we found the turn we wanted, this time heading west following the path of some river milky with glacial runoff. The road deteriorated to dirt, the river widened to lake then narrowed again. Finally a clue, a sign pointing in the direction we were heading. Then a dead end, no more road. The only information the typical Norwegian guidelines for what was allowed in National Parks, no mention of our destination. We wandered around the bush in the drizzle a bit, following faint tracks and looking for clues and were just heading back to the van when we spotted another path. This was much more established and we could see the tracks of quite a number of people had been here before us quite recently and it appeared quite an easy walk.

Unfortunately as we followed along, it deteriorated somewhat, became more rocky, more climbing, paths became boggy, duckboards appeared across swampy areas. Eventually, to our relief a sign pointing to a branch in the path indicated that the marble palace was definitely here somewhere so we soldiered on. The so-called path became much rougher and eventually culminated in some unpleasantly steep steps to a rock platform with no obvious way further. Eventually I squeezed through a gap under the boulder blocking our path to take some photos with our instant camera while Mark waited.  The carved shapes surrounded by the incredible rock walls and gushing river was truly impressive, and the photo’s taken with our little instant camera don’t do them justice, however there was no way we’d be back lugging our more serious camera gear 🙂

That done we trudged back to the van, wet, cold, muddy and generally miserable.  I cooked up some of our carefully hoarded gammon while Mark had a shower and we sat down to gammon, mash, peas and egg, a little taste of England, and we collapsed into bed exhausted and sore after a day of far too much walking.