Igor at sunset near the Natchez Trace Parkway, Mississippi.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Cancun, Mexico on November 11th.

Tuesday, July 12, 2022

A worthwhile detour!

Monday was a beautiful day with a high of about 22C (72F), and I had read about the interesting Himakana hike that was about 30 kms (18 miles) off our route, but it seemed like a worthwhile detour... and it was!

Remember a month or so ago when we did the via ferrata to Trolltunga? Well Himakana is being billed by some as the "mini" Trolltunga because it also has a rock overhang that people stand on to get a photo of themselves with the view.

The trailhead is located near the village of Hinaravag. Apparently this hike has become quite popular, and the village has instituted a bunch of parking restrictions in order to profit off the tourists. So there is only one lot available and it's expensive.

But I found a free parking area 6 kms (3.7 miles) away so that we could ride our bikes to and from the trailhead.

Scenery along the way.

But the hike itself at Himakana is not nearly as difficult as Trolltunga. Sure, it's steep... but it's only 2.5 kms (just over a mile) in distance each way. It is definitely steep though!

Ruth, on the trail.

The trail was a little too manicured for my liking though. Essentially, it's a gravel path the whole way up. Didn't even really need our hiking boots! We think it's been made this way to attract cruise ship tourists because we encountered one group of them who were headed back down.

But there is lots of great scenery along the way.

Looking down on our path.

Scenery along the way.

This farm is in a gorgeous location.





Views in all directions.

Lots of foxglove flowers.

View of the village of Hinaravag.

We got to the top and there were a lot of people. Both the weather and the views were fantastic. We got to talking to one woman who was from Virginia, and she was married to a Norwegian man and they were here visiting his family. 

Then we tried to get our photos on the rock overhang. It was difficult because there were so many people up there and half of them didn't seem to realize that there was such a good photo opportunity even for themselves. I thought it was very strange. But eventually things cleared up enough that we could get our photo and the American woman offered to take it for us...

Kevin and Ruth at Himakana.

Me, alone on Himakana.

Can you see the road on the left side of the fjord? We decided later to take the bikes down that road and found a great overnight spot for Max!

There are several different rock overhangs. 
We had to wait around for about an hour for everybody to leave in order to get this photo.

Ruth and another view.

Heading back down.

Scenery along the way.

So, we did 18 kms (11 miles) of bike riding and a 5 km (3 mile) hike. Great day for exercise and certainly a worthwhile detour!

And Max ended up with a great overnight spot.
GPS 59.371334, 5.789782

The clouds have returned today, but that's okay because it's a bit of a work day for us. It's Amazon Prime Day for the next 48 hours so we're extra busy with our facebook deals group.


And in Canada...

8 comments:

  1. What a fantastic spot for a photo op -- one of your most epic! LOVE the header pic!

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    1. It was a great photo op and we were so glad to have had nice nice weather for that hike. This is what our view up at Trolltunga would have been similar too but I think that Trolltunga would have been even more beautiful and dramatic had it not been so foggy and wet when we were up there a month ago.

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  2. This is a little off topic but just a heads up visa has changed from prority lounges to dragon pass effective July 1st. You are probably already aware but just thought I would mention it. You will now have access to premium lounges. I just noticed that there doesn't seem to be as many in Canadian airports. Not sure if their is one in Ottawa or not. Safe travels

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    1. I actually wasn't aware, so thanks for the heads up! I now have my new membership active through Dragonpass. We won't have any need for it in Ottawa, but we'll probably use it in Amsterdam and Montreal.

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    2. Glad to help you out in s small way. Another tip it seems like there are no free drinks(of the strong variety LOL)..Also if you have used your passes from Priority Pass it seems under the dragon pass it is set back to 6 check it out.

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    3. Does the no free drinks, of the strong variety include beer and wine because if it does it certainly doesn't make the Priority Pass such a great "thing" anymore? We haven't used our Priority Pass over the last year so unfortunately the reset doesn't affect us. Thanks for the additional info on the pass. :-)

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    4. Yes I understand that there is No free alcoholic drinks at all with Dragon Pass on some countries I checked Mexico and you can still have free alcoholic drinks.(look up some lounges under dragon pass and see what is offered) I am not really impressed with dragon pass some really bad reviews. I would still prefer to have Prority Pass. We used our Prority pass 4 times this year. So it was great to have it reset to 6.

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    5. Yes, Kevin was looking at the airports that we will be using and it seems that most of them have free drinks but there are also a few lounges that don't.

      You were lucky that you used your Priority Pass a few times over the last year and then were able to have it reset back to 6! We only flew the once in the past year and we weren't able to use it then, I think our flight times weren't convenient to when the lounges were open or we didn't have time between connections.

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