Project: Prekestolen / Pulpit rock

I give you: Prekestolen (Preacher´s pulpit or the pulpit rock), located just outside Stavanger on the north side of Lysefjorden. 604 meters above sea level and a good 3,8 kilometers walk.

I live a good hour drive from this beautiful place, yet still I have not visited this one up close. I am not counting the boat trip underneath 20 years ago. Me and my hubby decided earlier this year, that THIS year is the year for the hike of prekestolen. Yesterday was the day.. and what a day. We started off in good mood. I am not that well trained so we started off slow. It is a good 3000 meters climb and a good 3,8 Km walk one way to the top. It includes steep climbs and beautiful sights. The cliff was formed approximately 10000 years ago in the early ice age.

The Pulpit rock is one of the most visited natural tourist attraction in Norway.

It is recommended to be visited within april to october and during this time the cliff is visited by 150 000 to 200 000 people yearly. Although we decided to take the hike in fall we still met a lot of people coming either up or down. The sight coming up to the top is unbelievable beautiful and gives you the view of the 42 km long lysefjorden.

Please remember to pack good clothes. It was very windy and quite cold on the top in spite of the good weather we had. Also remember to bring good hiking shoes. The path up to the top have recently (2012) been developed and made better, but you still climb an walk many a stone.

For my case, I can not quite make up my mind to which way was the hardest, the climb up or the walk down. It took us about 2 hours hiking each way. Making it a total of 4 hours. We packed warm drinks and snacks to eat at the top. Unfortunately it was to cold so we decided to have a snack halfway downhill.

My feet have never been so tired and the last half hour going down was no good. My knees were week and sore from climbing down and holding back and the absolute worst was hitting the plat parts with feet almost ready for collapse.

Never the less. I would so do this trip again (but give me some time to recover first). The Hike is a pretty one with beautiful views of both Stavanger and the fjord. A wonderful landscape bathed in sunlight getting ready for fall. Can it get any better?.

And I slept like a baby afterwards. Wonderful.