The Flamsbana Railway

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10 June 2009

During our travels around Norway and particularly in the mountains we have been through numerous tunnels. Today we used the two longest, the Gudvangatunnelen at 11k and the Laerdalststunnelen at 24k which because it is so long has special brightly lit enlarged areas every so often to relieve the monotony.

The Laerdalststunnelen took us to the fiord side village of Flam from which runs the 20k long Flamsbana branch rail line which ascends 900m up the Flamsdal Valley to meet the Bergen Oslo main rail line at Myrdal. It has one of the steepest non-cog gradients in the world, winds through several tunnels and passes some spectacular waterfalls. We had intended to ride the train both ways but on the way up I noticed there appeared to be a cycle track running down the valley. They had bikes for hire at Myrdal and so we rode down what was in fact the road built to enable the railway to be constructed. The trip was not quite as straightforward as we expected because the top section was a rocky steep track with 21 hairpins. But after pushing the bikes down that we had a glorious 18k freewheel back to Flam.

We are staying the night at Voss which I think I may have visited about 50 years ago during a trip with the scouts!

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