The Extremist, The Escalator and a Meeting with Martha

Day 56 - July 19^th

Passing all the waterfalls and white water the day earlier had inspired us to lash out and do a bit of white water rafting ourselves.

As it was their busiest period, we couldn’t get in until the afternoon session, however, the staff at the rafting center were kind enough to let us leave our leisure battery with them to charge during the course of the day.

With a few hours to kill, we decided to climb one of the mountains that forms a backdrop for Voss – Mt Hangur.

About halfway up Mt Hangur.

Reading through our guidebook and local boards, it recommended that the trip up the mountain and back would take roughly an hour and half with some very steep climbs.

This gave us plenty of time and we started off heading up the mountain about 10am. Again, the Norwegians don’t lie as the climb up was extremely steep and we were sweating with the first 5 minutes. We managed to get up the mountain in about 45 minutes and we were greeted with a fantastic view over Voss below. As we were sat down enjoying our coffee and chocolate, we were also treated to seeing three Para gliders take off from the summit.

Reaching the summit with the sheep and their bells.

Coffee break watching the paragliders take off down the mountain. This guy was actually one of our drivers at rafting later on. Random.

Not wanting to go down the same way we came up we decided to take an alternative route down, however, there was only one we could see and it was called ‘Extremist’. Now in hindsight we should have really triggered that any trail called the Extremist would most likely be a little bit harder than the one you came up.

The trail itself wasn’t well trodden and only defined by the red and white tape that was smattered along the path every 50 meters, so it was a little difficult to find at first.

The easier part of the Extremist trail.

Confidence is still high on the hike down. 

The first kilometer of the path was a lot less steep than the route up, however, it was extremely wet and boggy so we managed to get our feet wet pretty early. The path continued on like this for a while further until things turned a little steeper (video of the first rope climb down below).

Mt Hangur Extremist Part 1

Actually, a little steeper would be an understatement, as whenever you need to install a length of rope and ladders to get down a path, it probably no longer becomes a hiking track but – ‘The Extremist’!

Mt Hangur Extremist Part 2

Things going pear shaped.

Vertical cliff on the hike down.

The whole rope and ladders thing continued on for a good couple of kilometers and there were times where we were literally abseiling down the path. With no concept of how long the path would go (and us quickly running out of time before rafting) we became a little nervous and picked up the pace finally reaching the bottom with about an hour and a half to spare before rafting.

What we didn’t factor in however, was that our van was now about 5 kilometers as the Extremist trail had taken us around the mountain in the opposite direction!

We eventually collected the van (Luke ran back), picked up some supplies for lunch and then headed off to rafting probably a bit more drained than we anticipated.  

After getting all our gear and the safety briefing we loaded up into the vans and headed about 15mins up the road to where we would launch the rafts. We had fantastic sunshine during the afternoon and with full-length wetsuits, booties and life jackets on we heated up pretty quickly while a rather slow New Zealander gave us our second safety briefing.

All kitted up and ready to get pummelled with 'Champagne'.

Now at roasting point, we were finally directed down to the river which was quite amusing in itself as after all the safety briefings regarding the rapids and risk of injury, we were guided down to the river past old building material with nails sticking up and then thrown down a steep rocky embankment.

At the rivers edge we were asked to jump in to get a feel for the water and used to floating down with our legs up. Despite the heat that was being generated in the wetsuit at that stage it was quickly reduced as we plunged into the icy, icy Norwegian waters. We certainly expected it to be a little chilly, but not so cold that you couldn’t breath for about 15 seconds!

With all rafts loaded up we headed down the river and were told about the two big rapids we would hit that afternoon called ‘The Escalator’ and ‘Martha’. As we were getting later in the season the river levels had dropped and this was the first time in the season that they could safely go down these two rapids – lucky for us!

As we approached The Escalator, you are really put into a state of shock as the river drops off completely and you cannot see it below you. We had been given some instructions on how to tackle it, which was basically paddle as hard as you can and then drop down and hold on. We managed to follow it to the letter and got through unscathed and fairly dry.

High on confidence we then went into Martha (first out of the four rafts), paddling hard and then dropping and holding on. We plummeted down the first step and our guide told us to paddle again, however, just as he said that and we came upright the raft was turned on its side and all occupants thrown into the gushing rapids.

Both Claire and I were thrown under the boat and later photo evidence suggests that Claire was actually collected by the guide himself. It was like being in a champagne bubble bath, you couldn’t tell which way was up or down. We held our breath and let the rapids take us under the boat, finally coming out about 10 meters past the crash zone.

Our raft had been trapped in the torrent of water, so as we floated to safety the guides quickly hooked up some ropes and attempted to pull it out. The next 20 minutes was spent watching the other three boats attempt Martha, with the second doing a full flip and the other two somehow coming out high and dry.

Despite all the gloating about teams three and four getting through Martha without capsizing, I still say it’s no fun rafting if you don’t get thrown out.

Heading down Martha. We capsized about 2 seconds after this photo and ended up under the raft!

The rest of the trip was spent going through a bunch more rapids, although not as hair raising as those we tackled earlier in the day. We finished the trip with the guide showing us how we could make the raft surf.

To do this we all needed to paddle into two large rapids so that the water fell under the nose and the rapid at the back kept us in. After our third attempt and a little bit of shouting from our Spanish guide, we finally got into the wall of water and surfed it. It was quite an eye opening experience being kept completely stationary while thousands of liters of water rushed past the raft.

After getting back to base, we quickly showered, picked up a couple of photos from the day; the now recharged leisure battery and hit the road towards our next destination of Odda.

Ferry ride over to Odda.

Another Norwegian weather system coming in!