Into Blue Ice

After a quiet day of taking care of business (ATM [aka mini bank] & groceries) it was time to return to excitement. We had signed up for a trip with Ice Troll where we would kayak across a lake, hike to a glacier, then have a while to explore the glacier before the return hike and kayak. The glacier, Tunsbergdalsbreen, is Norway's longest valley glacier, and is fed by Jostedalsbreen, the biggest glacier in continental Europe.
We had a relatively early wake up (for those of you not on vacation, we will not specify what early means to us) and yet another beautiful drive into a wild valley

where we met our guide, Carlos. Joining us for the trip were our host at Eplet and a friend of his, a guy from Germany working here for the summer, two Dutch guests and a Belgian couple who met us there. Carlos, as you may have guessed by the name, was not Norwegian, but Argentinian, from Tierra del Fuego.
So, we headed out on two person kayaks for about an hour and a half, paddling along a glacial lake with steep walls and waterfalls everywhere.


We left the kayaks on a beach at the far end of the lake and started our walk to the glacier, first on glacial silt mudflats then up a gorge carved by the raging glacial melt.



After an hour or so of hiking, plus a lunch stop, we reached the glacier and donned ice axes and crampons. One of our first interesting glacial feature was a blue ice cave


and we continued on stopping to look at other interesting features.



Our return trip followed the same route, although we may have gone a little faster inspired by the thought of dinner when we returned to Eplet.

Today was another quiet day, partly due to the expectation of bad weather. We also hadn't spent much time looking around town, so we wanted to see some of the old port buildings.


We made our way to a beach a bit outside town and rested there for a while, hoping the rain would stay away. When we got back to town, we sat down for lunch at the cafe, and the sun came out, and would remain that way the rest of the afternoon, which we spent reading on the grass of Eplet. A nice way to spend our last day in this beautiful part of Norway.