Tuesday 11th September 2018
Gaustatoppen is a mountain here in Telemark which towers high above the town of Rjukan at an altitude of 1,883 metres. On a clear day you can see this majestic mountain in all its glory and at the summit it is said that you can see one sixth of Norway.
The Guastabanen is a tunnel railway system which will transport you to Gaustatoppen in a unique way. Initially you travel on a tramline through the mountain rock horizontally 850 metres, before changing onto the original funicular railway carriages for the ride up a 1050 metre tunnel, at a gradient of 39 degrees to your destination.
13 kilometres from our campsite was the small car park at the entrance to the Gaustabanen. As always we love an interesting road, especially if we are not towing and after turning off the main 37 road we were not disappointed by the zig-zag climb up the Svineroivegen, FV 651. We also spotted the remains of chalk marks on the road from the recent Norsemen Xtreme Triathlon.
The views from the road down towards the valley below were super but it was difficult to find a spot to stop, without trees, to get a decent photo.
Nevertheless as we climbed higher we began to get some great views of Gaustatoppen and the surrounding area.
After negotiating more much needed road works along the last section of the journey we parked up and purchased 2 tickets for the return trip at NOK 780 from the small ticket office. It is possible to hike one way and ride the other. From this car park we were told it would take approximately 2, 30 hours to get to the top.
The temperature had now dropped to about 4 degrees and we knew that it would become a lot cooler at the summit and had come prepared with appropriate headgear, plenty of layers but no gloves! We had our fingers crossed for some blue sky and the chance to enjoy the view of as much of Norway as possible.
We discovered that despite the railway being completed nearly 60 years ago, with the initial idea of it being a unique tourist facility to transport as many people to Gaustatoppen, it didn’t actually take its’ first passengers until 2010. It had in fact ended up as a NATO installation.
Gaustabanen Video
On exiting the funicular we made our way along a long tunnel towards the great outdoors! Despite our hopes and wishes of blue skies we were met with thick low cloud and quite a brisk wind chill!
Despite our disappointment we made it to the communication tower plateau, whilst being blown about quite a bit and back down to the turisthytte/café where we warmed up inside with cocoa and a waffle.
The café wasn’t much to write home about but welcoming on a cold day and was extremely busy considering the time of year.
Despite a teasing glimpse of the landscape, the cloud descended again and we decided on this occasion we would admit defeat and head back to the car. Guess you can’t always get all the luck!
