Tue, 29 Jul 2003

author Liz	location Fauske, Salten, Nordland, Norge
posted 22:25 CEST 31/07/03	section Europe2002/Europe/Norge ( all photos )

Geirangerfjorden, Trollstigen Road ( 51 photos )
On Tuesday morning, we set the alarm nice and early, both had a quick shower, and then drove back down the road to the ferry port in Hellesylt.
We caught the 8am ferry and were one of the few people on board at that time of the morning.
The ferry took us up one of the most scenic fjords in Norway - Geirangerfjord, and we had chosen a fantastic day weather-wise to take the 1hr trip up to Geiranger.
We sat at the front of the boat, and although the sun was on us for a lot of the journey, it was still very chilly.
The on-board commentary, in five different languages, told us all sorts of interesting things... this fjord was over 200m deep (not much considering the deepest fjord in Norway is 1.5km deep), and stories about people who had tried farming on the steep desolate mountainsides and long-ago deserted their farms.
The views from the boat were great, but I think the best view we had that day was once we drove off the ferry (view from Geiranger), and up, twisting and turning and climbing steeply, until we stopped a viewpoint overlooking the fjord. Wow. The view was spectacular - gorgeous green-blue fjord water, green fur trees standing tall, rocky mountainside and clear blue sky. Another place I could have stood and enjoyed the view for a whole day.
But there were was lots more to see, so off we went again heading North.
We didn't have far to drive (and only one stubborn cow in the middle of the road to dodge) before we boarded our next ferry. This was a much shorter trip, from Eidsdal to Linge, and then we continued driving North.
Our next exciting drive was Road 63, up to and over Trollstig Pass, which is the next part of the Golden Route. This one had warnings all over our brochures and books to not take campervans and caravans along it, but Rosie is such a tough old bird we thought she would manage it. We needn't have worried, the road ended up being full of tourist busses crawling their way along the road.
The first part of the drive climbed gradually and we noticed quite a few large snowdrifts even though the sun was hot.
We were stuck behind a bus, so stopped in a great little spot next to a small lake with a waterfall cascading nearby and mountains all around us. We enjoyed the view and a cup of tea here and could have happily sat there for a week or two.
As we drove on, around the corner was the big tourist centre - filled with bus-loads of people - we thought we had definately enjoyed the best spot in the area.
The next part of driving along the pass took the longest - simply because we were behind a tourist bus that wasn't really built for hairpin bends, and had to do three-point turns all the way down the mountain! It took ages, but we got to enjoy the spectacular view of the waterfalls and the valley stretching out in front of us.
Down in the valley and past the bus, the road was all ours for a bit. We stopped in Åndalsnes for a quick toilet break (take note: use a flushing toilet whenever possible - most toilets out of service stations and big towns are pit toilets and not nice ones a lot of the time).
The afternoon was spent driving along a winding route gradually heading north to Trondheim. We passed lots of scening waterways, lots of tiny towns and a lot of farms. Everywhere we go there are farms, but it just shows how big Norway really is - only 3% of Norway is arable land.
At Rökkum, we caught our third and final ferry for the day across to Kvanne and kept going.
We started looking for somewhere suitable to camp for the night, but in the end we stopped about 40km out of Trondheim at a caravan park (Tråsåvika Camping og Hytter) overlooking the water and the sunset. It was very hot, so after dinner we walked down to the beach for a dip. Our "dip" involved us going in up to our knees, wading around for a bit, marvelling at the number of red starfish all around us, and then wandering out again! The water was so icy - it took twenty minutes for my toes to get their circulation back!

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