Backpacking Norway: Hallingskeid to Østerbø

Norway has been on my list to visit for quite a long time, ever since cycling through Sweden and deciding I like Scandinavian countries. A friend also wanted to go and after much debate we settled on flying to Oslo and then catching the Oslo-Bergan train up into the mountains for a short wild camping and backpacking trip in August 2024.

The planning turned out to be really difficult and if I can give one piece of advice it would be to book everything in advance. Trains, hotels, restaurants, bicycle rental, busses, all get booked up really quickly. We originally planned to land and spend the night in Oslo but found that there was only one train still available between Friday and Sunday and it left at 16.30, arriving at 21.45. Not ideal but we booked it.

I had originally hoped to avoid arriving at Myrdal in the mountains late as the weather forecast was horrendous and finding somewhere wild to pitch a tent in the dark and rain was a bit too much of a risk. The trains left us no choice and we decided to risk it.

We arrived in Myrdal at 21.55 and walked down the Rallarvegan, a 123km gravel construction road that is also a popular cycle route. It was raining but fortunately we found a spot for the tent within 20 minutes, and right next to a tumultuous waterfall, swollen with the high rainfall. I woke up to a steep sided green valley with low cloud and looking like something straight out of Troll Hunter (a Norwegian film about trolls).

It was still wet in the morning but we managed to pack up the tent during a break in the rain and then repeated our walk in reverse up to the train station and decided to catch it one stop back up the line to Hallingskeid and stay in the DNT cabin until the worst of the bad weather had passed.

Hallingskeid cabin was cosy and surprisingly not too busy. We booked two beds in a seven bed dorm and were relieved to find that only two other beds were taken and so we would get a reasonable night’s sleep. We had a late lunch and got outside for a walk when the rain briefly lifted. A Norwegian man in the cabin said that the rivers had tripled in size and it was evident in the staggering amount of water coming off the mountains. He also warned us that the rain was one manageable problem but the bigger one was the size of the rivers that we may need to cross.

We started the four day hike to Østerbø on Sunday and I spent most of the morning slightly worried that we were making a mistake. The weather forecast was positive for the following day, but the here and now was cold, wet and windy. And the planned route goes up and over the mist shrouded mountains, roughly to a height of 1400m. I would have shrugged at that height in the Pyrenees, but being blasted by freezing wind and rain made me feel a little more cautious.

We sheltered on the lee side of an empty ski house and cooked up soup and bread for lunch. Some of the cabins in Norway have hosts and you can put a bread order in the evening for a freshly baked loaf the following day. I was shivering, so I explored my rucksack and layered up, desperately trying to regain some warmth lost to the wind. Elliot was keen to push on, so after recovering, we decided to carry on but camp before the path climbed too high up the mountain-side.

The amazing thing about Norway is that every direction had an incredible view, with countless opportunities to take classic Norway photos from erratics. Erratics was the word of the holiday and is the technical term for boulders that have been carried by a glacier to somewhere with different surrounding geology. Erratic comes from the Latin word errare – to wander, and is a creative word for these travelling boulders.

Our second night wild camping was beside Svartavatnet, a rather large lake. We originally pitched the tent slightly higher up but found it was too windy and I explored the lake edge and discovered a more sheltered spot next to the water. Fortunately the rain started to lift in the late afternoon and we were treated to a rainbow as it cleared.

The first obstacle of the following day was a large river crashing down the side of the mountainside. We had got half way through crossing it the previous day and then decided to camp first and worry about crossing in the morning. It was a classic “We can’t go over it. We can’t go under it. Oh no! We’ve got to go through it!”. It was too steep and fast higher up so we decided to take the easy option and paddle across before putting boots on for the day.

Paddling across rivers was the activity of the day. As we continued higher up the valley we found another large stream pouring down the mountainside. This one wasn’t particularly big, but it’s course ran over huge slabs of granite and picked up quite a lot of speed. It looked great fun for sliding down, if you like an exhilarating 10 seconds before plummeting off a cliff.

It is worth mentioning at this point that I developed a rather painful mouth ulcer near my throat about half way through the first day. I was discovered by the resident “bedreviter” (Norwegian word for a know-it-all) rooting through the kitchen cupboards trying to find some cooking salt to rinse my mouth out with. I made the mistake of telling him my ailment and he ushered me to a chair and said to wait. He disappeared off and shortly returned carrying a large plastic box with a label reading “DENTAL” proudly displayed on the front. After a few minutes fishing around he triumphantly handed over a tube of Sensodyne toothpaste, some mouth cream and a small glass vial of the most overpowering substance I have ever made the mistake of putting in my mouth… Clove Oil.

There is no doubt it helps, cloves contain eugenol which is a natural numbing agent and so helped with being able to eat slightly more solid foods. Ignoring the fact that cooking whilst wild camping is mostly a case of boiling up slop. The downside of clove oil is that it has the most overwhelming taste and smell ever to blast your senses. I wanted to show my appreciation and so had immediately rubbed some in my mouth after he gave it to me, and then had to pretend to look around in bemused puzzlement every time one of the other guests complained of a funny smell.

We camped at Omnsvatnet, a smaller lake high up in the mountains and surrounded by patches of snow clinging on over the summer. I washed in the lake and then had a campfire in the evening to relax by. One of the puzzling things was the abundance of long thin stick lying around on the grass. I puzzled over it as I walked and eventually concluded they must be from marking ski tracks during the winter months. No idea of that is right or not, but it makes sense.

The following night was spent at a hunting cabin just below Vestredalsvatnet dam. We were plodding along in constant rain and desperate to find somewhere to camp. Alas, every spot we inspected turned out to be unviable. We eventually reached the hunting cabin and found it unlocked, so looked up the contact details online and found the owner who agreed to let us stay there. The wind was howling outside but we were cosy. The cupboards were stocked with food and it quickly became a game to find the oldest expiry date we could. The carton of custard won, dating back to 2016! We also found a tin of spam and mystery meat vegetable stew which was only a couple of years out of date.

The weather was better in the morning and we reached Steinbergdalshytta Turisthytte at 11am and decided to pop in to warm up and have something to drink. We were warmly greeted and the hostess told us that we were just in time to make use of the breakfast waffle bar. Words never fell on more welcome ears. We continued on into the homely hotel and got our moneys worth from the waffle machine. Thankfully this one was quite easy to operate… I once went to a hotel in Toulouse, France, which had an incredibly overengineered waffle machine that required filling with batter, clamping down on both sides and a giant handle you had to turn at a rapid but consistent speed whilst it cooked. I puzzled this out but it subsequently ended in disaster and more waffle outside of the machine than in it. The waiter rushed over to clear up and I wandered off to the drinks machine where I tried to make tea with a cup rather than a tea pot, resulting in a deluge of hot water overflowing from the cup and spilling over the table cloth. After those two incidents I developed a second shadow for the remaining two days and had to put up with a waiter constantly looming over my shoulder. No such mishaps in Norway though!

The final stretch of the walk took us along the valley edge to Østerbø where we planned to end the walk, camp the night and and catch a bus to Flåm in the morning. We swam in the river, ate in the campsite restaurant and then collapsed into the tent.

The only way from Flåm to the main train station at Myrdal is (or appeared to be) the tourist railway that climbs up the steep mountain and offered beautiful views of the rugged mountains, rushing waterfalls and beautiful fjords.

I had looked at the reviews so it was not a complete surprise when it stopped at Kjosfossen Waterfall. Seeing the spot coming up I parked myself next to the door and was first out and at the front of the crowd. But it was still a lovely surprise, if a little odd, when the music started and the Huldra appeared. In Scandinavian folklore, the Huldra is a female woodland spirit that lure humans into the forest to get lost, enslaved and devoured. And probably in that order. We joked that the conductor probably struggles into a dress and blonde wig as soon as the train stops.

To round off the holiday we spent 1.5 days in Oslo exploring the city. We cycled all over the city using Oslo Bysykkel (or an upmarket version of what the English call Boris bikes), but the best bits were discovering the many and varied sculptures scattered over the city, swimming in the fjord which was surprisingly not cold, and eating at Mathallen which is a food hall housing the best speciality food that Norway has to offer. A fitting end to a week of eating lightweight camp food!

Route

Resources

• UT.no (online map and app that shows routes and cabins – both DNT and privately owned)
• Norgeskart (online map and app)
• Yr.no (weather)
• Vy.no (train and public transport)
• Hyttebetaling (app for paying for DNT cabins and food)

Tips

• Planning:
  • Book everything ahead of time. Especially transport or anything critical to the trip, the Oslo to Bergen line gets booked up very quickly and should be booked minimum of 7 days in advance if you want the freedom to choose the best train time
  • The DNT city shops sell maps, so you can buy the maps you need when you arrive. They also sell gas and give route advice
• DNT
  • You don’t need to be a DNT member to use most of the cabins but being a member will give a discount on the cabins and food
  • There are four types of cabin in the mountains:
    • DNT Staffed – function more like a hotel which happens to have dorms rather than private rooms
    • DNT Self-Service – have everything needed for cooking (food and utensils) and sleeping, occasionally also have a host on site.
    • DNT No Service – have the same equipment as self service but no provisions
    • Private – aren’t owned by the DNT and will require contacting the owner for access and payment
  • Some cabins are locked and members can get a key to access which can be picked up from DNT city shops (eg. in Oslo) for a 100NOK refundable deposit.
  • Fully serviced DNT cabins don’t have a larder to buy resupplies from, at least in my experience
  • If there is a host then some cabins sell fresh bread which can be collected in the morning (Hallingskeid and Østerbø campsite both did)
  • Cabins have a drying room for wet equipment