Yea.... ok ... so my husband, my brother in Law and my neighbour were sure trying to ... well .. ummm ... to say it nicely ... kill me the other day.
This hill ... yes its a hill... Is about a 10 min Drive away from where we live. Its on the same Island and the last time I walked up that "hill" it was in June Last year. It was a cold and windy day and on top of the hill is notorius for being very windy .... after all .. it is the highest point on the island.
Eldsfjellet is translated as "fire mountain"..... this I found out AFTER I climbed the thing. So Hubby and I are happily enjoying an afternoon back home and his best man and neighbour called to invite us up this ... hill.... Would I like to go .. my hubz asks .... with MUCH trepedation.. I agreed. In my mind now .. I'm wondering, what on earth am I trying to prove? .. I'm huffing and puffing like a cow climbing a vertical tree on the Small hill right behind our house and I'm trying to go up a Fire Mountain with 1 guy who is pretty much fitter than I am ... one guy who has been doing it fast enough but often enough .. and one guy who just earlier that day .. ran up the bloody thing! ... Obviously, I've lost my mind, and if I thought that my competitive spirit was going to rise to the competition ... I think I overestimated it .... severely..
We reached the ... hill.... and started climbing .. me in a sweater and everyone else is lighter tshirts. Just the beginning of the climb was enough to make my heart sink. I totally forgot how many muscles I had in my bum and my thighs oh no wait ... I didn't realise they existed! Oh the Pain ... I tried to keep my face from showing my extreme Distraught but I think there was a tell tale sign somewhere, since one of the guys kept asking me.."Why do you keep looking at me with that evil eye?" Hmm Go figure....
I pushed along going basically up steep stairs for about 20 mins. It doesn't sound like that long does it? But if you warm up with "Go climb a 60 Degree mountain... yuh kinda get alittle puffed in about 20 secs ... I kid you not ....
oh shut up you fitness freaks ... I'm not talking to you today ....
There came a point where my breathing became as as laboured as a rhinoceros in labour .... I chose to leave out the noises ... after all I was the only girl amidst guys and I really didn't want to seem like I was about to keel over. My brain no longer functioned for talking, smiling or laughing. All I could do was think about where to put my legs.... look for trees to hold on to ... and hope that no hoggorm snake would be in my path ... sunbathing .. since it was a warm enough day. There were norwegian jokes being thrown around all around me.... guys laughing ... I really was not even trying to understand ... I suddenly wondered how on earth did I get this unfit? Where did all this flubber come from? I used to be so fit and be able to walk the Paria hike .... with ease .. in fact there was a time when My brother and I actually ran it for a bit ... good fun.... I was remembering all the President's Award hikes through some interesting terrain ... all the hikes that I would be at the front of the pack .... and now ... I'm wheezing like some overgrown gorrilla ... breathing so hard it felt like my throat was bleeding... my eyes were starting to glaze over and my thighs and buns were screeming to me" STOP you DITWIT .... I'm on STRIKE!" My nose were burning, running and hurting all at the same time
all i could hear in my mind was " Just keep pushing Jaemie, Don't you Dare let these guys think you are a wimp" ...
ahhh Too late ... all of a sudden my legs gave way and my and I had to stop. I was breathing way to hard for my own comfort and everyone around me was telling me that I'm doing great .... huh? Yes .. great for a 1000 Ton Leatherback turtle on Turtle Beach in Tobago .... GRUNT >.... GRUNT..
oh for
shame...
so much for
feeling all
competitive and
trying to
look like I
can rival
guys in their natural setting....
Reaching the top was such a
relief. I
can't
thank God
enough for
giving me a
great hubby who basically pushed me the last
few meters.
Yea .... he's
so great !!:) ..
awwwww..
Just like
giving birth the moments of pain and
labour are
forgotten once the child is
born ...
well... ok for
me it was not
immediate ... I
was subjected to
paparazzi pictures of which I
no longer had the energy to
quickly smile
in my infamous way....
so after a
few moments of catching my breath, I
looked around.
seriously people ... Norway is
one beautiful country.... I'm
such a
sucker for
views,
Landscapes and
nature that my husband
didn't
really need to
sell the country
too much ... I just love
the green
around me.
That day was a
great clear day,
so we could see so far ... and
we were not
being blown over like is
the usual on top of Fire
Mountain.
God
creates the most
Awesome paintings ... all
the time.....
Heading back
down ...
of course .. is
so easy ....... a
Cave man
can do
it...
Whey Yuh say???? Fire
Mountain anyone?
Surprisingly, the roads in Norway leave little to the imagination of what it must have been like years and years before.... simply put .. dey bad.... real pothole and ting all over. But needless to say I understand how it could be so. It is dreadfully expensive to put down a road since ... hardly likely would a road from Bergen to Tronheim be flat ... or straight. More than likely, it would have be blasted through Numerous Mountains. Blasting through mountains can be as speedy as 5 meters per day and can be as long as 24.5 km (the longest tunnel in Norway) and costed 125 MILLION US dollars. I can't fault them for not building better roads. The Main road that joins the west coast big cities is about as comfortable as the road to Maracas !!! ... and between the ferries and frequent one laner areas ... with Motor Homes and Foreigners driving frequently, I would actually say that the trecherousity increases by 100%. Still it is a beautiful drive. Unfortunately, it is not as easy, simple or wise to stop all along the way to take pictures... So pictures usually should be taken in sport mode ... or better yet... cycle the road. This option is actually a big attraction, especially in summer. 
