Hiking Hesten in sunshine

After another day of wind and rain yesterday, which kept us confined to Molly Moho, it’s been a wonderful day today… fantastic to have some good weather for hiking. We’ve climbed Hesten, which is where the best views of the iconic pointy mountain Segla can be seen.

We drove round to Fjordgård, which took about 30 minutes through several long and very narrow tunnels with passing places. We parked at the harbour, had breakfast then set off. The hike isn’t very long but is quite steep, and involves scrambling in places. The trail was quite busy but nothing like Snowdon on a summer’s day.

I felt quite rough on the way up for some reason… nauseous and wobbly… I’m not sure why. Maybe I was going too fast, drawn along, keeping up with the people in front. Flies kept attacking me too… even drawing blood! I didn’t like stopping for a rest because that’s when most landed on me. Yuk!

We turned off before the peak to head to the ridge between Segla and Hesten, Seggelskarret. The path was less steep here, and there was a nice breeze. I began to feel better, thank goodness.

On the ridge, there was a vertical drop to the fjord below and the views were stunning in every direction. We stopped frequently to take photos and admire our beautiful surroundings.

As we approached the summit of Hesten, the trail became rockier and there were areas of vertical scrambling where we had to use our hands. John wasn’t keen on the drops to one side.

We reached the summit after a couple of hours, again relaxing for a while to take everything in, and having a drink and a snack. As well as Segla, we could see the mountains towards the end of the peninsula, our campsite in Mefjordvær, and Molly in Fjordgård.

When we were ready, we set off downhill to a saddle where we could have carried on back downhill to Fjordgård, but decided to carry on to Stavelitippen instead.

We didn’t actually reach this peak because the trail became a boulder field and it was hard work finding a route through it. Some places were also quite exposed. We did get to a plateau where John could fly Dave the drone though.

We retraced our steps to the saddle and headed downhill, making good progress down the muddy, rocky trail. Back at Molly, we headed back to Mefjordvær, back along the fjord with great views of the mountains we’d climbed to our right across the water.

We’ve showered, done another load of washing and had dinner. Now it’s time to prepare to hike Segla tomorrow! Apparently it’s not as difficult as it looks! Watch this space to see if I manage it!