Traveller's Tales: Norway's Fjordland with the Mather-McCaw Family

"We have been enthusiastic expeditioners for more than 30 years," say Australians Kerry Mather and Lachlan McCaw, who embarked on our Fjordland walking holiday in Norway with their daughter Darcie. In recent years they have undertaken a wide variety of walking throughout Australia, including mountains, coastal areas and the remote arid interior of Western Australia. Living in the south-west of Western Australia, they regularly explore sections of the Bibbulmun Track. Their overseas walking exploits have included an extended trek from Kashmir into Ladakh, the Milford Track in New Zealand, and multi-day walks in the Pyrenees and the Dinaric Alps of central Bosnia.

Why did you choose to walk in the Fjordlands?

Our travel plans included visiting friends in Denmark, exploring southern Norway and Sweden, and spending time in Finland for a professional conference. Past experience has confirmed that including a challenging outdoor activity in our travel schedule adds greatly to the enjoyment and understanding of the country we are visiting. Western Norway is renowned for its stunning scenery of mountains and fjords, and the opportunity to stand on the summit of a sub-arctic mountain and gaze across glaciers and icefields was a strong drawcard. The Walkers' Britain & Europe Fjordland self-guided walking holiday offered a variety of walking experiences with interesting accommodation venues linked conveniently by public transport.

"The long mid-summer days in the Norwegian mountains were a special treat."

How did you prepare for the walk?

The travel pack provided by Walkers' Britain & Europe was informative and a useful guide to what to expect during the walk and the level of fitness required. The walk is graded as moderate to challenging and we found this to be an accurate description of the terrain, track conditions and weather. Our daily life activity programme includes regular swimming, walking and moderate cycling, which ensured we had a good level of fitness to enjoy the walk. The trip did include some relatively long days on mountain tracks.

What was your favourite destination?

There were so many beautiful places on our Norway walking holiday that it is hard to pick a favourite. We relished the challenge of walking from Finse up to the summit of St Paul's Peak (1700m) across deep, hard-packed snow. The view from the summit was spectacular, made all the more atmospheric by an icy arctic wind and snow flurries. Our reward at the end of this summer day was hot chocolate and dinner in the warm and comfortable hotel at Finse, complete with a cosy library presided over by a solemn reindeer head mounted on the wall.

The following day we walked 21km from Myrdal to Flam down the beautiful Flam Valley, basking in warm sunshine. The steep and rugged Aurland Valley provided a stunning setting for the final day of walking, and our visit to the isolated stone Sinjarheim farmlet perched high above the river made the last day even more memorable.

What about the food and drink?

All the hotels offered an excellent buffet breakfast that prepared us well for active days in the mountains. Evening meals were of a uniformly high standard, well presented and tasty. Wine is expensive in Norway, but beer, cider and lunch supplies can be purchased at reasonable cost from small supermarkets in most of the overnight villages. The award for the most innovative dish goes to the chefs at the Vestlia Resort in Geilo, who prepared a luscious dessert of pannacotta, fresh berries and cream served on a traditional slate roof tile.

"The award for the most innovative dish would go to..."

What was your biggest surprise?

While in Aurland we took a shuttle bus up to the Stegastein lookout, located high on the side of the valley with stunning views of the fjord and the town below. It is well worth the visit. The long mid-summer days in the Norwegian mountains were a special treat.

What did you find most challenging?

Heavy spring snowfalls had resulted in one of the deepest snow packs for several decades, meaning that the higher elevation walks were across continuous snow cover. Routes were generally well marked and easy to follow, but boots and snow gaiters were essential to keep our feet dry and comfortable.

The track from Osterbo to Vassbygdi traverses rugged gorge country and is steep and challenging in places, but well within the capabilities of fit and well-prepared walkers. In several places we encountered small waterfalls and had to zip up our waterproof jackets and run the gauntlet through a shower of icy water.

"The travel pack provided by Walkers' Britain & Europe was informative and a useful guide as to what to expect during the walk and the level of fitness required."

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