The Reinebringen hike: An epic hike in Norway.
The midnightsun, both a blessing and a curse, depending on ones perspective. I guess I could say I have both perspectives, as I absolutely enjoyed the never-ending daylight, creating a neverending adventure story. Yet, it also ensured that I fell asleep at earliest at 3AM, and despite this neverending daylight I still didn’t want to waste any hour of the day and got up early.
For today I needed an extra heavy breakfast, today was the day I was going to execute one of my long treasured dreams or let’s say, I was going to hike one of my long desired hikes: Reinebringen.
This mountain top provides an overview to say it at the safest, over the fishermen’s villages of Reine, Sakrisøy and Hamnøy. Some birds whispered in my ear that this hike was rather easy and didn’t demand a whole lot of experience. Yet some websites threatened me that this hike was only for the more experienced. Both were satisfying, the first one gave me the guts, the second one gave me pride.
Svolvaer: Leaving my safe haven
Nevertheless, I had already made up my mind and drove my little car away from my save haven Svolvaer, on the road to adventure. it was a surprisingly warm 20 degrees whereas yesterday it was hardly 5 degrees, Lofoten’s weather being more changeable than a woman’s mind.
I left the yellow church, the little haven and the over-the-hills scattered houses behind to be closed in by rough green mountaintops again, that made me feel so vulnerable on this tiny road, the only creation of humans in this place. good job, nature. After another gorgeous 2hour drive filled with sparkly lakes reflecting the sun, mighty mountains surrounded by fog and rolling hills completing my roadtrip, the peace of this road came to an end.
Reine: Start of the Reinebringen hike
And now all the cars that I never saw anywhere, gathered around the little town of Reine. The small road in front of me became packed with cars, safe to say Lofoten was beloved by many travellers but certain places always pop out a little more. And I understood why Reine was one of them.
Reine was basically a lake, but not really, cause it was the ocean. But it looked like a crystalclear lake with green and blue spots as far as I saw into the shallow water. Red little cabins gathered by the waterfront and were all connected via small wooden bridges. Sailingboats gathered by their ‘yards’ and that was it. that was all there was to this town, and it was absolutely perfect.
The mountaintops around me were pointier than ever and reached further than before, making it feel like this was not connected to the ocean, let alone the world, but simply a little world hidden in a dusty old fairytale. Although the fairytale was about to be discovered by me and the little cars before me, all dying to get a glimpse of the famous hike I was finding my way to now: The Reinebringen hike.
It took me some time and effort to find a probably illegal non existing parking spot, but I decided to copy other people’s bad behaviour as I simply saw no other options. And it was as if I found myself in the slowmotion part of an adventure movie as I looked up to the mountainside on my right and saw tiny tiny human dots crawling up that mountain. And the wooden sign at the bottom confirmed both my fear and excitement, it was my place to be.
The first steps on the Reinebringen hike
To prevent myself from boiling I started the hike right away in nothing but a shirt and tied my hair high up my head.
It was surprising and maybe even refreshing again to be joined by so much other people, all speaking their own language. But despite that, I just knew they were all talking about the same thing: that mountain top far away, the goal all of us shared. The hike started off right away with stairs, stairs made out of old stones that created a pathway up the mountain.
The space between those stairs was rather high which made that I really had to lift my legs up high to find my way up. I could laugh and cry when I noticed my heart beating against my chest and my heart pumping blood through my veins fiercely, while my breath speed up to a level where I had this nasty sour taste in my mouth. And I had only had about 30 stairs by now.
Maybe I had been too enthusiastic by sort of racing up against them as if I could actually reach the top like this. Things was that besides those high stairs that crawled their curly way up, steeper and steeper, there was muddy, swampy grass that went down so steep that you would probably be down in a split second when leaving the stairs. This also meant there wasn’t really space to take a break, and the fact that people walked right behind me made me feel as if I was not allowed to have a break, and slowly but surely I kept lifting my legs as they got heavier and heavier, step by step, stair to stair.
When I was about halfway the 448 meter mountain, at about stair 900 of the 1560, I really needed the break. My legs were shaking and my breath was out of control, my face was sticky and red and my body felt as if I just came out of pool, dripping wet.
Managing expectations on the Reinebringen hike
Unlike my body, my breath couldn’t exactly take a break.
I felt so proud as I looked down and saw the stairs where I begun as nothing but a small vague something, and my little car as nothing but a white ant. The dark waters were foggy and the mountain tops beneath me nothing but rocky knives. It was as if I was somehow sticking to a green wall, the mountain I found myself on was so incredibly steep, it would never be doable to reach its top without the miraculously build stairways.
By now my legs were used to the burning muscle pain that only stairwalking causes and my breath found rhythm in this speed, and my motivation kept me going. This was one of these moments where I realized what humans are capable of simply by wanting something. Now the road behind me got tiny and the top in front of me became realistically visible. But now the holy moment had come where the stairs actually ended and exchanged for a sandy pathway, slippery and full of tricky stones.
But strangely, as if I passed through some invisible veil, I did not see anyone anymore, only far below me. This lead to me taking the sandway I thought was correct, so steep up the mountain that it was like climbing a wall. And that’s where I found myself in a tricky situation, as I realized soon this was not the pathway to the top.
It could be, but it wasn’t meant for me, as I saw people taking a pathway further away that I couldn’t reach unless I would go back. And going back seemed more terrifying than going up to the top where everyone would gather, so I literally threw my nails into the sandy mountain and took advantage of every stone to find some grip.
Don’t try this at home, it wasn’t very smart of me to just assume this was the right way. Now it sounds very heroic but this mountainwall wasn’t very big, from any point I could see the other hikers and swampy grass would always catch me, but still this wasn’t the pathway I was supposed to take as it got too steep from here on.
Reinebringen hike: compelling, hypnotizing and peaceful
I literally lifted myself up the top, my arms and legs burning and my breath stocking, and sort of rolled up to the platform that formed a safe haven, also my final destination.
I didn’t even bother getting anything else up than my head, and then my hand to pinch myself, as my head wouldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing.
Pitchblack water and pointy mountains popping up here and there, quiet and majestic. The only movements in the water were tiny boats that didn’t seem to be moving from this distance. The little bridge I just drove on seemed so minimal and fragile above the darkness of the water, with the little coloured dots being cars moving over.
The red houses scattered over the rocks were nothing but ant houses. As far as my eyes let me I saw foggy mountain tops and pitchblack water, going on until infinity. An extra present was a totally black, intense pitch-of-darkness lake that was separated from the rest of wonderland by a wall of green mountains, it was like a porch to a different world. A cold, deathly, dark porch.
I have never witnessed something this compelling, this hypnotizing, yet so peaceful. Up here time played not role, my entire life back home didn’t play a role, my car waiting down there neither. I was just here and I was just emerging into this masterpiece of nature, taking in the beauty and the quiet that made my chaotic heartbeat sound like the only sound in the world.
I just wanted to spend the rest of my life here up this cloud, and I actually was surrounded by them which ensured that some mountains were blocked sometimes. How could a place be so pure, so enchanting, so quiet. I was never going to leave and allowed the sea breeze to cool down my glowing body and dry up the tears I had been sobbing softly to cope with the beauty of this place. Give me a pillow and I’ll spend the sunny night here, I smiled to the sea.
Over de auteur
Annemay Hogeling
Ik ben een reiziger die niet naar Parijs zou gaan voor de eifeltoren, maar voor die kleine franse steegjes met die perfecte boetiekjes. Maar wat mij nog veel meer trekt, is de ongerepte, pure natuur van Scandinavie. Hiken in de Zweedse middernachtzon, zwemmen in de Finse meren, huskies trainen in de bergen van Noorwegen. De reizen waarin je nieuwe delen van jezelf ontdekt en zo je eigen beste vriend wordt, zijn mijne type reizen.
