Norway Quest Travel Blog, Day 10: Trolltunga
Today is my travel blog and mental health blog rolled into one, as this whole journey was heavily related to mental health.
Today I’m going to do what I came here to do. I got up at 6am (ouch) and ran to the bus as I was late, luckily the bus was also 3 minutes late! Rode from Tyssedal to Skjeggedal which lies close to the bottom of the mountain. Here I met our tour group led by the most friendly guy you will ever meet, an awesome Norwegian called Kim.
I’d brought many snacks and prepared well, but didn’t manage to train for it. It’s described as anywhere from ‘challenging’ to ‘expert’. Amy felt that passing on the hike would be sensible, as she couldn’t bare the thought of stopping me from achieving the quest. The hike up lasted about 6 hours, it was hard but not ‘expert’, I think it’s mainly about having good equipment with regular breaks, snacks, blister plasters, and drinking the fresh stream water (which was ice cold and delicious). I slipped on some mossy stones like 10 minutes in and could’ve sprained my ankle, so I was super careful not to rush after this, as a sprain/break could’ve meant calling an air ambulance, which would’ve stopped Norway Quest from happening, when I was so close. There were many streams, bridges, and boulders to cross and climb.
Weird Viking & Lord of the rings coincidences: The atmosphere was very Tolkienesque, beautiful in an epic way, but the climb up was actually quite a harsh, rugged landscape. It was a challenge. It felt like climbing Mount Doom whilst carrying James’ ashes in my necklace, like Frodo carrying the ring, especially because of how demanding and emotional the journey became, and how battered and exhausted I felt carrying it by the end. There were 9 of us in total; 2 Aussies, 2 Brazilians, 2 Norwegians, me, and our 2 guides. The same amount of members in the fellowship/company of the ring, which I fantasized about being a part of as we were climbing the epic mountain. The ledge of Trolltunga also reminded me of the ledge that Frodo has to release the ring from.
It gets weirder as Mount Doom is also known as the ‘mountain of fate’, and ‘Amon Amarth’ in Elvish/Sindarin, and Amon Amarth were one of James’ favourite metal bands. A member of this band very kindly gifted me my Mjölnir necklace in 2017. A week after being gifted this necklace, I then looked for a new job in York, where I wished to live in order to train in sword fighting, the very first job that came up was to work as a Viking for the Jorvik Viking Centre in York. It seemed like fate so I applied and the rest is history. It’s also linked together I guess because Tolkien was heavily inspired by Norse Mythology in writing the LOTR trilogy, with Gandalf being partly based on Odin, as is Santa… anyway back to the story!
After about 6 hours and a 1,100m ascent we finally reached Trolltunga which means ‘troll’s tongue’. The legend about this, regards a boastful Troll who didn’t believe he would turn to stone upon dawn’s first light, and when the sun rose, he stuck his tongue out mockingly, at which point he was suddenly turned to stone! This also reminds me of The Hobbit.
By this point I was so exhausted but determined, I knew what I had to do for James, his friends and our family, and also for myself. I felt like I was on a mission, and I finally managed to scatter his ashes from the ledge. I was so grateful for all the help I had to get there, and recorded a video while I was at the top to thank everyone for your donations, friendship, and humanity in making this happen. We all made this possible together, and now James is finally at rest with his Norse ancestors, in a beautiful epic place, like he deserved.
I originally picked the location because it looked like Pride Rock from the Lion King, and the song ‘He lives in you’ helped me get through grief. Then we said he needs a Viking burial because of that funny photo we took where he’s wearing a rug and holding an axe. James was also of course known for his interest in history, fantasy, weaponry, armour, fantasy landscapes and warriors. I found this location because of how striking it looked, it looked like the kind of place he’d like to be I think. So it was strange that 6 months later we discovered we have Scandinavian ancestry, and so it cemented the choice and that’s when I set up the fundraiser.
Kim the awesome guide took some dramatic photos of me standing on the ledge, and got some really nice ones overlooking the lake of Ringedalsvatnet and the glacier of Folgefonna. We then carried on hiking to ‘Mini Preikestolen’ to get some photos from another ledge. All our tents were set up by the other friendly guide, and we enjoyed some delicious dinner together around a log fire by the edge of a cliff, with tea, some snooze tobacco, and hot water bottles. It was an amazing day, a complete success, and a real life-time experience I will treasure. I am so grateful that I was helped to get up there and make it happen.
