Parry Sound

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My friend Charles wanted to go on the Island Queen out of Parry Sound. I drove us up, we stayed overnight, and caught the island tour the next day.

There's some beautiful wind swept landscapes -- Group of Seven kind of views.

Stavanger

June of 2012 found us in Stavanger, Norway for Kate's annual KBS conference. Here's a photo album of our visit.

Stavanger is an old port city on the south west coast of Norway. North Sea oil fields are nearby and account for some of Norway's financial stability. There's a lot of industry here to support the ships on the oil fields. We had been to Bergen (another old port city) and Oslo on another visit many years ago but this time we flew in and out directly.

We stayed at a Havly Best Western near the city port. Kate's conference was out of town a bit at the university. Around the hotel and port it's mostly a pedestrian mall of quaint older buildings with a rabbit warren of lanes to explore. There are some new modern buildings and shopping malls interspersed but most of my pictures are of the wooden buildings - often painted white, often painted in colorful pastels. We were lucky to arrive during a Music Festival so there's quite a few band pictures. On the other side of the port from us is an even older part of town called Gemle and there are mostly white washed homes there.

I did lots of hiking around the town while Kate was at the conference.

One adventure/hike that I went on was to take a ferry to Tau (a short ride away), then a bus and then a strenuous hike over rought terrain up to Pulpit Rock (Preikestolen in Norwegian). It's quite a long hike but a stunning view when you get to the rock. It's a flat square of level rock (approximately 24m or 82ft square) which stands over 600m (1,982ft) straight down to the long narrow fjord below! Some folks would sit on the edge of the rock, or peer over the edge. I couldn't compel myself to get anywhere near the edge. It scared the bejesus out of me! Since then I've found clips on YouTube of people base jumping off the rock with a wing suite and flying down to the fjord below. That scares me even more!

I found the hike up a bit strenuous with the shoes I was wearing. I suspect the poor arch support made it all the more difficult. Some of the KBS conference group went there for the Wednesday afternoon social adventures and I understood that someone twisted their ankle on the hike and had to be carried out -- no fun! For the KBS banquet event we took a boat up the fjord to see Pulpit Rock from below.

There's another famous rock over a fjord to hike to in Norway -- Kjerabolten is a small rock wedged into a crevice some 984m (3,228ft) straight down to the water below! It's a way further north, not near us at all.

The small harbor is often busy with a couple of cruise ships stopping here as a port of call while exploring the fjords. The "Costa Fortuna" (is the sister ship "Costa Lotta"?) is the funniest name I've seen on a boat.

Pulpit Rock

June of 2012 saw us in Stavanger Norway for Kate’s KBS conference.  It’s a pretty historic harbour town with lots of pedestrian friendly areas. That’s Kate and I at lunch at left – note that we’re dressed for the cooler weather. Nearby I went on a boat trip and hike to “Pulpit Rock” (Preikestolen) which overlooks this huge fjord (Lysefjord) Preikestolen (The Pulpit Rock) and the Lysefjord Preikestolen (The Pulpit Rock) and the Lysefjord, Norway Photo: Terje Rakke/Nordic Life 2011Preikestolen (The Pulpit Rock) and the Lysefjord, Norway Photo: Terje Rakke/Nordic Life 2011Preikestolen (The Pulpit Rock) and the Lysefjord. The rock is a viewpoint of about 30m square that sits 600m over the fjord with a sheer drop down to the water. Lots of folks would sit on the edge of the rock; others would stand near the edge or lie on their tummies and look over the edge. I could do neither; the vertigo was too much for me.  I did find several YouTube videos of fellows doing base-jumps off the rock. Very scary!  Friends tell me there’s an even scarier spot you can visit further up the fjord. There’s this big round boulder (called Kjeragbolten) stuck in a crevasse that you jump onto (sic!). It’s 1000m over the fjord so if you miss the jump you’re toast.... I can’t imagine doing that.

The hike to Pulpit Rock takes about 2hrs each way. There’s a vertical rise of 300m (you take a bus to a lake side resort in the mountains) over a distance of about 4km. Most of the hike is over rough scree that’s very hard on the ankles. When I came down off the hike my knees and ankles were exhausted. Of course there’s several pretty Norwegian 20-somethings running up and down the trail as you stumble along. They’ll be sorry some day when their knees and ankles wear out prematurely.

Stavanger is a pretty historic town. I have posted a photo album if you are interested.