Sailing Lysefjorden and Climbing Flørli

With a promising forecast Margrethe and I cast off from Sokn, to sail into Lysefjorden to enjoy the sights and to climb the 4444 steps at Flørli. When I say “promising forecast”, I mean that they weren’t forecasting gales or blizzards, which is apparently as good as it gets this summer in Norway.

We stopped by Vassøy and topped up the tanks (which hadn’t been done since before the Circumnavigation of Denmark trip). After that we steamed on and entered Lysefjorden in the evening. It was a bit too late to go directly to Flørli, so we tied up at Helleren, where Margrethe cooked up a great meal. After dinner we had a couple of drinks and she proceeded trounce me in a scrabble like game, followed by cards … Next time I’ll have to pick games I might have a chance in, like breath holding or arm wrestling 😉 Though she’s pretty tough, so I might loose there as well!

The next morning we continued to Flørli, where to my surprise they had created a beautiful dock and made the area very accessible to boats. The fact that it was free to tie up was an unexpected bonus. The sun was shining, so we put on our hiking shoes and shorts, and went straight to work on the Flørli Stairs: 4444 steps to the top. The stairs run alongside the pipes for the old hydroelectric power station and let me tell you: they are steep … but doable. The view along the way and especially from the top is breath taking. It took us an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the top and about fortyfive minutes down. When we got down, we enjoyed some waffles at the old Flørli power plant, which is now an art gallery, restaurant and a museum. They have a really good set-up. Afterwards we chilled in the boat and had another great meal and evening.

The next morning we steamed out, hugging the northern shoreline. The mountains rise up to 900 meters straight out of the fjord, so it was amazing to sail right below them. We passed waterfalls and several known landmarks, the most known is definitely the Pulpit Rock. The Pulpit looks huge when you’re standing on it, but tiny when you look at it from the fjord.

When we exited Lysefjorden we got perfect sailing conditions and enjoyed a beautiful sail back to Sokn. It was a perfect 3 days trip, where I got to go sailing Lysefjorden with great company, gorgeous scenery, delicious food and plenty of laughs.