Last minute

My bag is packed and I'm almost ready to go (click image above to open finalised kit list). A few last minute details needed attention. A trip to the Bergen bus depot was in order to finalise bus numbers and ferry times that will get me to my start and finish points. It'll take a little longer on the bus than if I'd taken a car but I'll be much more relaxed and the route offers sublime views along the way. The staff at the travel information desk were incredibly helpful, managing to dechiper my awful attempts at Norwegian place names.

Some final shopping items included a more practical size of sunscreen (the latest weather forecast indicates a couple of days of blazing sunshine followed by a couple of days of light rain - the other way round would have been better...), a Safecard (thanks Nielsen!), a more detailed map, some coffee sachets (no real coffee bags though - booo!) and a long sleeve ultra light shirt. The staff at Bergan Turlag office were also amazingly helpful giving me up-to-the-minute advice on the expected weather and underfoot conditions from hikers who had been out on my route yesterday. They even highlighted on my map areas where rotten snow could potentially prove a problem on the edges of some of the snow fields.

Too bad my Headsweats cap didn't turn up in time, instead I'll be relying on my old beat up, inappropriate trucker cap! It would have been nice if I'd had the Panasonic Lumix Tz4 too but that won't get here until M gets back from England. Still, she was good enough to lend me her very sleek Cybershot and trusts me not to lose it in the snow.

I'll be live blogging for as long as there is a phone signal which to be honest probably won't be long!