Dronningstien
Dronningstien, called also HM Queen Sonja’s Panoramic Hiking Trail is a scenic mountain route between Lofthus and Kinsarvik. The info brochure says: ‘’This hiking is the only one of its kind to be honored with using Her Majesty Queen Sonja’s title. In the past 20 years, this trail around Hotel Ullensvang has become one of her favorites which she explores either by foot or on skis…’’ The trail has about 16 km length but what I experienced on my own, this is not includes steep gravel road which goes up to the Hardangervidda plateau on both: Lofthus and Kinsarvik side.
I heard about this trail about two years ago, during my trip to Trolltunga. Both routes are located in the same area. I havn’t got opportunity to see Dronningstien until now.
The weather during the weekend was quite dry but windy (forecast says about wind 10 m/s in Lofthus). Early in the morning I drove over 100 km to get to the Lofthus and start hiking. Steep gravel road was very long, and it took ages when I reached my first goal. I wanted to see famous Monk Steps, situated somewhere along the road. It’s 616 stone steps made by local monks between 1210 and 1537. To be honest, the steps are not so impressive I though before. In fact, I found many of them look like they were made last summer.
Just after the monk’s path, there is a point called Nosi (Nese) which means Nose. This is a big rock hanging over the cliff. Some kind of smaller version of Trolltunga. I took some pictures there and back on the trail. Finally I reached the plateau level, where the Dronningstien trail began. And on this moment I could feel how strong the wind was. I had to wear my jacket and put the hood on my head. The sun rised up and made beautiful scenery around. I couldn’t resist to use my camera.
From this point the trail goes more less horizontal and hiking was pure pleasure. I get to the summit of Oksli, which is only a bit higher that the surrounded area. I followed the path on the edge of Hardangervidda plateau enjoyed the views of Sørfjord on left and Hardangerfjord in front of me.
Finally, I started to descend. I passed the end sign of the trail and went down to Kinsarvik by gravel and asphalt road.
There I checked my tracking app in the cell phone and realized, that I made over 20 km. And still had to back somehow to Lofthus. I felt that the return the same way could kill my knees and I decided to go around, along the shore, by the road 13. It was a bit stressfull, because the road has no pavement and it is the man road connected E134 road and Voss. Finally, after another 10,5 kilometers I get to Lofthus and rest in the car. The whole trip took me 9 hours and 21minutes with total distance 34 km.
This time I made a short movie. I hope you will enjoy, even if the the camera is shakking a bit 🙂
This post was originally published 2017-11-06 on https://kraina-trolli.pl.
