..my camera fell down. I attached it to the tripod, but it was standing on moist soil. I should not have trusted it. Anyway I did and went to take a picture of myself looking over the fjord, so I turned my back to the camera. Instead of shutter release noises, I just heard a sound, which crashed me, because I exactly knew what happened: While the wind was blowing, the tripod has been blown over. My favourite wide angle lens (Samyang 16mm) just broke off the camera. I was devastated.... I did not want to continue the journey, because I could not take any proper picture. But right on time, just before giving up, I found out that I could just unscrew the lens remains from the camera and that the camera itself still works. So I attached my Sigma 30mm 1.4 and it worked fine. But of course, the camera did not survive without any serious damage: The viewfinder is broken. Looking through the glass, you feel like a drunk. The view is completely blurred and the glass broken. So for all the following pictures I used the liveview (and the iphone of course). Since the camera still worked, I decided to continue the journey, but of course my attitude was very bad. After a while, I came to the conclusion that it just had to happen. I always wanted to upgrade my camera, every good photographer has some losses and it's my next step as a photographer. Other people pay lots of money for fuel and car repairs, I "just" need to buy a new camera. So it's not too bad.
Continuing our journey, the trail became even tougher and I was surprised what Norwegians call a trail. I was seriously in shock. We had to cross rivers, but it was doable without too many big efforts. There were enough stones, but balancing yourself and a 13kg backpack is still not so easy. Anyway, we made it and honestly speaking it was actually quite fun. After a while, the trail opened up in wide areas so it became more difficult to follow the track. You really needed to search for small stones marked with a red T. (Still the real bad examples are not pictured). And sooner or later it had to happen: I lost sight to Diego and Franco, did not see any trail mark and was quicker off the trail than I could ever imagine. I screamed, used the whistle integrated into my backpack, but still no response. So I decided to climb up to the highest elevation to get a nice overview. Then, I heard Diego's voice, but he was 200m below me on the trail (I could not see it due to the abyss). I was already quite tired of the long walk with my heavy backpack, so these extra meters did not really contribute positively to my attitude. But still we needed to find a place to pitch our tents. It's allowed by Norwegian law to pitch it wherever you want, but either everything is just pure sharp rock or moist swamp. Hence, we had to follow the track downwards, although I insisted on watching the sunset looking over the fjords. On the way down, the trail became even more difficult: Small tiny rocks, close to the abyss and dense bushes mixed with dry sharp plants. I just said to Diego:" I am so glad that my stepfather insisted some years ago on buying me those hiking boots. With the Vibram sole I'm just not slipping away at all. I guess it's not possible to master this trail without proper hiking boots." In that moment a Norwegian came by, of course in running shoes.... Telling him this story made him laugh. Furthermore, I found out that he was carrying 10 additional kilograms (!) around himself, just to make it even harder. Norwegians.... He ran the whole trail in a few hours. Norwegians are just crazy!
