On the Monday we climbed Preikestolen and then carried on up:  we went “Over”.  On the Tuesday we decided to take a cruise up the Lysefjorden, beneath Preikestolen and so go “Under”.  I was happy to go, but in some sense I was doing this more out of ambivalence than desire.  We had been on a cruise up the Naerofjorden a week earlier, and it had been a tourist meat factory; as much as I had enjoyed that trip I wasn’t sure I wanted to go through it again.  Furthermore, I asked myself, was there much point in doing a cruise under Preikestolen?  How could you better the spectacular views from the top?

Could a cruise underneath really offer a worthwhile perspective?

The answer is YES!

Our cruise boat was small and not overcrowded.  It was busy enough, but the number of tourists was comfortable and there was no jostling for camera positions.

Off we headed, out of Stavanger.  After about 40 minutes of pleasant cruising we reached the small municipality of Forsand.  We went under the Lysefjord-Brücke and the entered the fjord itself.

We visited a cove and waterfall on the way, before reaching Preikestolen itself.  Sailing underneath gave a completely different perspective.  It looked a lot smaller and unimposing from down here, although still very distinctive.

Look at those sheer flanks – how incredible that it is still standing!

With the benefit of my zoom lens I could see the people on top, dangling their legs over the edge just as I had done the day before.

Some cruises go deeper into Lysefjorden, however, ours turned back at this point and took us back to Stavanger.  We spotted a seal on the way back and I just managed to swing my camera round to take a blurry shot before it ducked underwater and disappeared into the depths.

Pulpit Rock – everyone thinks of climbing it, but if you have the time it is worth taking the cruise underneath too in order to gain a real perspective.

Points in this post (copy and paste the co-ordinates into Google Earth):

• Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock):   N 58° 59.225 E 006° 11.335

Trip Statistics:

• Date of Walk: 29 July 2014
• CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO INTERACTIVE MAP!!!