Gjende is a long, narrow lake in the heart of Jotunheimen, lying at about 984 metres between steep ridges, and it is famous for its colour. The water is a vivid green, almost milky, because it carries rock flour ground fine by glaciers upstream, and in sunlight it glows like a cut gemstone. Standing at the shore at Gjendesheim, where the road ends and the paths begin, you look down the lake between steep slopes, with the dark outline of the ridge rising on one side.
That ridge is Besseggen, and it is the most famous mountain walk in Norway. A narrow crest runs between Gjende, green and deep on one side, and Bessvatnet, a blue lake on the other, about four hundred metres lower. Thousands of people walk it each summer, taking a boat across the lake one way and walking the ridge back, a long day that needs good shoes and a steady head. The writer Henrik Ibsen used the ridge in his play Peer Gynt, in which the hero rides along its edge on a reindeer buck, a story every Norwegian school child knows. The boat across the lake is a good way to see it if you do not fancy the climb.
The ride to Gjendesheim along Fv51 is a fine one, over the high plateau and then down in bends to the lake. It is a road with real mountain atmosphere, and the light changes constantly, from brilliant to grey and back. The road is open in the warm season only. Parking at the lodge is busy on summer mornings with walkers, so arrive early or expect to wait. Rain and wind are common, and the temperature at the lake can be low even in July.
The mountain lodge at Gjendesheim offers food, drink and rooms, and it is a pleasant place for a bowl of soup and a rest. Beitostølen, in the south, and Vågåmo or the Otta valley, to the north, are the places to find it. Wild reindeer live in the nearby mountains, and in late summer the slopes are bright with bilberry and dwarf birch. Carry waterproofs, and respect the mountains, which can turn dangerous quickly.