Hemsedal is a popular Ski resort during Norwegian winter. Plenty of Ski slopes and Cross country tracks means that Norwegians don't have to spend a whole lot to go to the Alps. Ofcourse this is not winter, but Hemsedal is still a nice place to visit during summer for activities. So we decided to go there and stay in a cabin for the weekend and do some hiking and kayaking. Turned out that our weather prediction got a bit screwed up and we had the most shitty weather you can ask for. It was raining, cold and cloudy. Not a hint of sun. But that didn't stop us. After stocking up the groceries for the weekend, we went to the ski slopes, took the lift up onto the top of the slope and then hiked a bit firther to the top. It was quite a view from the top. After a while it was just getting too cold and windy and we decided to take it easy and get back by the lift. During summer most of these slopes are turned into mountain biking tracks for the extreme sport enthusiasts. Pretty cool to watch them in action. We got back to the cabin and prepared a small pool in the cold stream nearby. Then we hit the sauna to get sufficiently warm and then take a dip in the real cold stream. Thats a part of the scandinavian culture. In winter, most people do the sauna and rolling over the snow or jumping into the cold lake covered with snow (ofcourse only for half a minute or so). Initially I thought you must be out of your mind to do this, but I did quite enjoy it although I was the first one to run out the cold cold pool. :). Then we had dinner and wound off the day with some marshmellows on grill.
Next day, we left the cabin and packed some lunch with us for a day full of kayaking. We couldn't get kayaks for everyone instea we took some kayaks and some canoes. We kayaked/canoed for a few hours and then got back and had lunch and then started heading back home. It was a lot of fun to be in a very diverse group of people doing fun activities together. Would love to go back to Hemsedal during winter.Photo Album
