Norway - Stavanger, Norway
Stavanger, Norway
First impressions count! The bus driver from Stavanger Airport spoke perfect English, was helpful and chatty AND he dropped us right outside the campground which was just out of town. There we were greeted by a joyful procession of Africans, swarming out of the parkland - we were told there had been an Ethiopian wedding. What an interesting mixture this country was going to be.
Stavanger is a pleasant small town, where the weatherboard houses reminded us very much of NZ. It was also the stepping stone for a visit to Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock). The journey to the rock was typical of what we have come to expect travel in Norway to involve. A bit of steep uphill walking, a bus, a ferry; sometimes one journey involving several combinations. SW Norway is entirely dominated by its spectacular fjords and mountains. No travel is straightforward, though it is all well organized, coordinated and expensive. Our trip to Preikestolen included a four hour walk, with the breathtaking natural formation providing our lunch stop.
We are having some difficulty with pronunciation here, even though nigh on everyone speaks English (thank goodness), we often have trouble telling them where we want to go. Skjeggedal? Ljosanbotn? Next stop Odda (that one was easy). A long bus ride on which we were travelling in a postcard - stunning fjords, villages and mountains.
Trolltunga (the Troll's Tongue) perched 700 metres above the fjord, was our next challenge. A steep start and then a challenging walk through alpine scenery (22km total). We made an early start, having seen many footsore and exhausted people arriving back the previous evening. This provided a bonus. Trolltunga all to ourselves and time to get some interesting photos.
Enough of these amazing natural formations, next stop was Bergen, Norway's second city after Oslo. It is a beautiful city, with a clever mix of old and modern sectors. Lots of 'people places' with no cars in the centre at all. Another (less strenuous) walk up to the top of the hill which supports a popular funicular railway, not unlike Wellington's cable car. Great city views too.
The night before we left Bergen was rainy, so we had a very wet tent/fly/groundsheet. We had some time before our train next morning, so unobtrusively (we hoped) we draped the wet stuff around the warm waiting room. All was beginning to dry nicely when the security guard spotted us and to our dismay, rapidly approached, only to show us how "it would all dry better if draped on this door". Off to Mydral and the Flam Railway. A real feat of Norwegian engineering, one of the steepest regular friction railways plunging from 860 metres to sea level, built in the 1920's, with all but two of the twenty tunnels built by hand.
Speaking of tunnels, we reckon the Norwegians are the experts. This whole western area is honeycombed with enormously long tunnels, cut through mountains, under fjords and anywhere else they fancy. Yesterday we went through one that was 25km long, reputedly the longest road tunnel in the world.
After the Flam, we embarked on yet another ferry (almost as many of these as there are tunnels...), to Gudvangen. It was the 30th August and thus getting near the end of the tourist season. This was obvious - we were the only passengers on a ferry designed for hundreds. Ian spent much of the time up on the bridge chatting to the captain (and taking photos of the beautiful fjord). Wendy chatted to the two young women who ran the lounge/cafe. One of them had bounded up with two plates of piping hot fish stew and then pancakes for dessert, "it would all be wasted otherwise" - so we obligingly gobbled it up.
No camping for two nights as the rain returned and the temperature plummeted to 2 degrees, with the first sprinkling of snow on the surrounding hills. We retreated to a room in a cabin at the campground.
We escaped the mist and gloom of Gudvangen when we arrived at Balestrand. The trip involved travelling through a tunnel which had been reopened, a month after being closed by fire damage.
Evidently a truck had caught fire in the tunnel. Luckily and thanks to speedy aid, no one died, though it happened in the middle of the 11km tunnel, and spread throughout.
In Balestrand we had the whole campsite to ourselves, including the snug, modern common room/kitchen. Needless to say we made the most of the fine facilities and the fine weather. Continued our walking/exploring in the mountains at the back of the town.
One of the most famous fjords in Norway was our next stop. Getting to Geiranger involved the usual bus/ferry/bus combination. This time we sailed through Geiranger Fjord, amazing with its steep sides, waterfalls and occasional deserted farmhouses clinging to cliff sides. According to one account, children were sometimes tied to boulders to prevent them falling into the fjord, hundreds of feet below.
The lateness of the season was again obvious, as the temperatures fell and we noticed the trees were changing colour. We did manage a couple of day hikes however, one especially memorable, when we climbed 1500m (5000') to one especially vertigo inducing view of the fjord below.
Finishing this blog in Alesund, a most unusual town. It was destroyed by fire in the early 1900's and rebuilt quickly, in an eclectic mix of romantic/art nouveau architecture. Heaps of turrets, towers and cobbled streets encircle the lovely old harbour.
We fly from here to Trondhiem, where the same day we catch a flight back to London.
So, Norway - picture postcard stunning, efficient and EXPENSIVE!