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Published: November 10th 2017
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Geo: 60.6333, 8.16667
Today we went for a drive west toward Bergen. This way out the mountains were more dramatic, if that can be said. It was a lovely clear day and I could see all the way up to the rocky mountain tops, with little patches of snow on them. The snow is there all year. But we didn't go that high. Now if I am reading my maps correctly we went past lakes Sunndalsfjordan, Strandvatnet, Vetlebotvatnet and Vassbygdvatnet. Now say that three times quickly :-) The lakes go on forever, there is no fear of a water shortage here. To the Norwegians credit they use all this water to generate hydroelectricity, the only source of power here. No carbon footprint here....well except for the oil mines.
We went past lots of waterfalls. Some were far away and could only be seen as little strips of silver running down the mountainside. Others were close to the road. Harald was very kind in stopping the car so I could take photo's, I tried to keep it to a minimum but its just so damn beautiful. Huge lakes, rivers with white water rapids, waterfalls. It was magnificent. Harald noted that like my cousin,
More mountains
Photo doesn't do it justice but this rock was HUGE! I like the water.
Along the road we went through tunnels under the mountains. Very lord of the rings....but without the orcs. Harald pointed out the longest tunnel, which is 27km long, but we didn't go through it. The tunnels were so dark, only a one strip of overhead lights, turning on the headlights was a must to see the road. They were quite narrow, I commented that you wouldn't want to come across a big truck down here, but Harald assured me that "oh no, we fit quite well." At the end of the tunnel the car emerged into bright sunlight and yet another beautiful landscape. Instead of trucks, the issue with the tunnels is the sheep that like to go into the shade to get out of the sun. We did come across one small flock just lying on the road in a shady spot. (Not in a tunnel though) There are no fences here, apart from a few herding yards. I pity the poor drover who has to herd sheep on these rocky plains. They must have really good sheep dogs because there is no way you could safely maneuver a motorbike or even a horse quickly
across some of this ground. And sheep are not exactly obedient creatures
Eventually we came to Aurland fjord. Now looking at my ipad maps, it is 224km from Aurland to the Norwegian sea. But that's by road, I'm not sure of the distance as the crow flies, but its a bloody long way. And yet here we stood, at this massive body of salt water. Cruise ships come down here it is so deep, and yet we are about 200km inland. It must have been great fun trying to map the Norwegian coast, its all like this. We walked through the yard of a little medieval church that was built in the 1200's. The graveyard still surrounds the church. I've only seen that here in Norway.
We drove on to Flam further around the fjord and stopped for coffee. This was the real tourist part of the trip. At the dock in flam there were lots of little shops and people who had just gotten off the boat or the train. There was one party boat floating by with the lads blasting the country music. They sounded like they were having a good time. Which reminds me, the first lake we
stopped at, there was a group of three lads driving a camper, taking the same photos as me. Low and behold, they were Australian. We had a few jokes about the Aussie invasion of Europe. We saw them along three or four times along the way. We stopped for a chat at Aurland. Turns out they were from Kyabram. I forgot to get their names though oops.
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