A Day Hike With Toddlers - Preikestolen

The alarm goes off and we roll out of bed early in the morning as the sun is still rising. Loading our 2 sleepy girls into carriers and romping out to the trail head grabbing some snacks from breakfast on the way past. Today we have a goal! Head up to Pulpit rock before the crowds get there to and enjoy some snacks and peaceful scenery  with Lucy and Tilley. 

Sheena and I are both fans of active holidays and more often than not come back more tired than we left from a trip. So being in Norway with the chance, and time to hike up to pulpit rock it was a no brainer. Tilley riding in the front carrier with Sheena and Lucy in the back carrier with me. W have learnt from other hikes that whatever your plan be flexible when hiking with toddlers. Lucy has spurts where she want to walk (or usually climb) section. Tilley just as spurts and need her nappie changed. Whether its one or the other it slows down progress but in doing so i've realized that it also adds to experience. Watching Lucy scale a section of rocky steps and see how proud she is when she get to the top. I wouldn't give that up to be 30 minutes earlier. 

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So on a beautiful sunny Norwegian day we meander our way up the trail to pulpit rock, stopping for nappies and snacks. The hike is fairly easy a couple hours and we are rounding the corner and opening up to a beautiful vista. You can see all the way down each side to the valley and pulpit rock juts out, as a prominent, and amazing as all the pictures we had seen in our research before we left. Lucy being the daredevil fearless and most 2 year old's instantly wants to run over to the edge and look over. We set down our carriers near the back wall and walk over to the edge then lay in out tummies and wriggle so our head lean over and we can see all the way down (The tummy scoot is the technique we practice for everything that she could fall into or over. It serves me well at heights and the edge of water and I haven't lost her yet). We all take our obligatory pictures and then sit down away from the edge and watch the three or four other people do the same. 

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We spend an hour of so exploring the area and as more people arrive and it starts to fill up with tour groups, we are beginning our way back down. We turn the corner and Lucy make the observation that that was very high followed by the sentence ' that was beautiful daddy'. There it is, why I love taking my daughter to places like this and let them experience new places. As we hike down Tilley falls limp in Sheena's carrier and not long after Lucy head butts me in the back of the neck. Two girls completely exhausted after a day of awesome exploration.

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