Sun, 27 Jul 2003

author Tim	location Hellesylt, Møre og Romsdal, Norge
posted 21:28 CEST 28/07/03	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

No Trains Today, but a big long Tunnel ( 28 photos )
We had set an alarm to run around, have quick showers and try to get down to the train for one of the morning runs. We even got their 45 minutes early to get a ticket.
However, after standing in the queue for a good long while, we found out that the trains were booked up until mid-afternoon. The tour buses, cars and motorhomes full of people all wanting to do the Sunday trips were just not going to let us get on. We thought for a while, but would have been writing off an entire day, not getting back until late afternoon. And what to do with the morning?
So, we turned tail on the train, going back to do a few things we hadn't quite squeezed into the morning, like Liz's shower and breakfast. Being a Sunday the shops were closed, a fact we had forgotten yet again, meaning breakfast was a great thrown-together affair.
That all done, we found another challenge - the Aurlandsvangen-Lærdalsøyri Road Tunnel. Not just any tunnel, this one is the Longest in the World! Good fun, we thought, heading into the 24.5km of darkness.
Strangely, the distance was split into three by wide sections where they had all lighting set up, mostly blue and yellow. Is this a strange animal caught before dawn or just Rosie in the middle of the world's longest tunnel? You decide.
Perhaps it is an indication of the way the roads are valued and kept well in this country (and Scandinavia in general), but we expected a toll at the end but this was not to be. I'm sure if that was opened in Australia we would all be paying $20 per run for the next forty years until the private contractors were paid off and had made a tidy sum besides. Here, you just pay $20 for a coffee instead. OK, not quite.
We took a quick sojurn east along the E16 looking for a waterfall marked on one of our maps, but couldn't find it. Perhaps this is one of the ones they only turn on for a while, using them at other times for hydroelectricity. Or, more likely, our map was just wrong.
I say this because the very same map just a bit further west along the same road clearly shows a bridge, but the road just ends. Suprised, we looked around for a little while, before asking the kindly man running the ferry service, clearly used to silly tourists, whether the ferry went to Sogndal, one of the towns we knew to exist on the other side. Yes, came the answer. No sign of a bridge anywhere.
No real matter, we enjoyed the break from driving to arrive at the other side, and wound our way North before turning off onto the 604, a non-through road heading up to glacier country. We found the most amazing roadside stop purely by luck. Pulling in to have a closer look at what by now has become very common - strong blue-coloured water. Dipping our hands in, we knew straight away what it was all about - that thare's glacier water.
But this roadside stop had more in store - as I was turning to leave my perch from the middle of the rapids, I noticed a little further up a rope bridge across the fast-moving freezing waters running over rocks. Excellent!
We had to walk a little way through a very overgrown path to get to the end, but it was all worth it. The bridge was complete with rotting timbers and missing planks, all of which added to the Indiana Jones-ness of it all. Liz bravely showed she could do it to, crossing in style while making sure of every step.
Besides stopping in the middle to take movies and pictures, we basically got back to the van and drove onwards, searching for the source of the icy waters.
We had to stop to pay a toll to actually get right into the most accessible glacier - Nigardsbreen. As we did so, we were approached by a couple who said to me "asdfjkh34w5kjhsdf asdfj4ewh5 akhjweiu?" Well, it might as well have been, and I asked if he spoke English. A little confused, he said that he and his female friend had booked a boat trip across to walk around the glacier itself, but didn't know it was 3km walk away, and it left in ten minutes. We happily let them clamber into the back of Rosie, pushing some junk out of the way and trundling on down the road. As we chatted, the full picture was revealed - they were Dutch, and due to our numberplates, thought we were too! This wasn't the first time, and I'm sure it won't be the last. We need to learn how to say a few choice phrases in Dutch to explain our confusing situation.
Anyway, they made their boat and we were stunned almost to wordlessness (quite an achievement for Liz!) by the view before us. As is so often the case, photos don't really do justice to the scale of the glacier, the blue colours of the ice and the way it looks like it is just one big river frozen as it attempts to wander down the valley. Look closely at that photo and you might just be able to make out people walking on it.
Deciding that an expensive guided tour and wander around the glacier itself was beyond both our budgets and equipment we had brought with us, we took a quick look in the visitor's centre before heading off.
Next we headed south to re-join the 55 east, another of the National Scenic Routes fabled for being amazing drives. It did not disappoint, taking us to another record - the Highest Mountain Pass in Northern Europe. Not suprisingly, it is both closed in winter and marked as not for in-experienced drivers. Both of us are becoming more and more experienced piloting Rosie, let me tell you.
Our path up to Sognefjell Pass was long and winding, lots of hairpins to keep us going. The heat of the driving was getting a bit much for Rosie, and we stopped a few times to make the most of the view for photos while she cooled down. However, she didn't disappoint, getting us to the top in style.
In the space of a few short days we have changed climates totally. Here at the top, 1440 metres above sea level, we were surrounded by glaciers, snow, rain and wind, and had to be well rugged up in our winter warms we haven't worn in quite some time and almost didn't bring with us.
A little way down the other side, we found a place to stay called Krossbu which offered not much other than toilets, but we were at least with other people in a designated safe place in the horrible weather. We found a spot to park which was beside a not far from freezing lake.
The heavy rain which pounded us and the van we thought might fill up the lake and sink us but this didn't appear to be happening so we braved the night.

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