Up against the sky - Bergen to Oslo

---

---

Well, I can't say categorically that it's the most spectacular rail journey in the world but it's certainly well up there. An incredible route - the engineering and sheer hard graft to carve the route through such an inhospitable environment is almost unimaginable. For much of the route there is only a single line clinging precariously to the mountainside, trains only able to pass at stations. If I have one regret it's that I didn't do the trip in the opposite direction as the high point comes much closer to the Bergen end and the gentler country towards Oslo suffers by comparison.

Starting at sea level the train climbs to somewhere significantly higher than Ben Nevis in under 60 miles - the intial section of gently sloping green hills inland gives no indication of what is to come on the other side of the first long tunnel. Popping out into Sorfjorden, the waters perfectly still mirroring the mountains and forested islands. The mountains were higher here but it was the further along that the fjord really impresses, a huge continuous wall steeper than anything I've seen so far, on the far side of the water. After the next tunnel a different scene was revealed, wind on the water in this valley making the fjord sparkle and a great rounded snow-capped mountain at the end. From here the line passes through heavily forested valleys, rivers running fast over boulders at their floor. So far, so pretty, and to a degree quite impressive but I was beginning to wonder if it really justified the 'spectacular' label - at least, that was before passing through Voss...

Suddenly the landscape passes from spring to winter within the space of a couple of tunnels, the leaves disappear and then so do the trees. The patches of snow become a pie-bald landscape of snow and rock and then almost nothing but continuous snowfields. Frozen rivers and lakes come and go and the pristine white carpet and the sun conspire to make me rue forgetting my sunnies - looking out the window becomes a painful experience. All the time the mountains get higher and higher, though there are few of the sharp peaks and aretes of the Alps here the view is still impressive. Finally the highest station is reached - perhaps a couple of metres of snow piled up in places as it's been a particularly cold spring in Norway as it has been in much of Europe.

After this the run down into Oslo seems almost a bit of disappointment, as soon as we leave the plateau the cloud closes in and the rest of the journey passes through rolling countryside with identical red barns scattered throughout. The land is more developed here and after passing along the shores of a couple of large lakes we arrive in the uninspiring suburbs of Oslo... But that's tomorrows update...

---

Photos

B1
Bergen Station

B2
Sorfjorden

B3
:)

B4
out in the sticks...

B5
lots of snow at the top