Norway in Spring 2011 (Part 5)

1 Jun 2011, A day of Glacier walk on the Bodalsbreen

Good morning !!! The weather was great today at Sande Camping in Loen. The sun was shining bright and the lake view outside our cabin was stunning. I saw the motor boat by the lake and recalled the fun we had while boating at Geiranger. But today was scheduled for glacier walk, so we did not have any time to do boating on the lake. 

Superb weather outside our cabin

Same lake view, different lighting

Breakfast was Nissin cup noodles we brought from home. It was once again nice to savour the flavours of home food, even it is not healthy and not considered a delicacy. We packed some light snacks like biscuits and hotdogs and readied ourselves for the climb. The meeting time was 10am, so we had time to laze around in the cabin until 9:20am before loading the bags once again into the car. 

A nice spot beside our campsite. Near the climbers' hut

 

Today was the 1^st day they started the summer climbing. Since it was still early in the season, I presumed we were the only people. Around 9:45am, a van with 4 Germans came and sign up for the walk. In the end , it was a total of 7 of us include the guide. We had a short briefing and the standard check on our boots to make sure they can fit the crampons. Once ready, we drove in our own car on the only road outside the campsite and moved deeper into the valley. We took one of the German climbers as their van was too big to maneuver the narrow mountain road. And indeed the road was narrowed and when we reached the end of the asphalt road, we turned into a closed gate dirt path. I guessed the guide has the permission to enter into what looked like a private farming land. This dirt path was really narrow and steep and we had to drive real slowly around 20km/h. After about 20mins of drive along the rocky dirt road, we reached a small open car park space. This was the trailhead to the Bodalsbreen. We were the only humans at the car park. After locking our cars, we started the walk. This part of the walk was very enjoyable.

Entering the Bodalsbreen trail

A good day to do some outdoor hiking

The warm sun and clear skies were best for a good day’s walk. After 20mins, we reached the huts where the guide stored his equipment. While we relaxed ourselves enjoying the mountain and the sheep, the guide went to prepare the equipment like harness and crampons and ice-axe for us. It was 11am and with a short briefing, we strapped on the harness and with the ice-axe in one hand, we started the walk towards the glacier. 

Sheeps near the cottage where we got our equipment for the climb

This way to the glacier

The trail to the Bodalsbreen

Crossing the new wooden bridge onto trail to Bodalsbreen

We crossed a newly constructed bridge over a rapid river and followed the hiking trail in the direction of the glacier. After walking for 1.5 hrs., we reached the point where we need to strap on our crampons to walk on the glacier. As this was our 3^rd glacier walk, we just went on to strap the crampons ourselves. At 12:45pm, we made the 1^st step on the glacier. But the weather had already turned bad at this point. It was actually drizzling and the wind was starting to pick up. 

Straping on the crampons (easy)

All ready to go

The ice that we stepped on was different from that we experienced in New Zealand. It was crushed ice instead of smooth ice. The reason given by the guide was that the ice at the surface was melting faster than those below, leading to the creation of crushed ice. And for the glacier, it only gets blue if those ice is heavily compressed, without the agent of oxygen. Once the ice gets exposed to air, it loses it blue color nature. A new lesson learned for the day. 

Climbing up the glacier slopes

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On the ice

At our rest and lunch point

Deep blue ice

Due to the fact that weather was not improving and the new Germans behind us were getting tired, we had no choice but to turn back. Well we got 1.5 hrs on the ice instead of the advertised 3 hrs. Guess there wasn’t much to see out of that weather. With ropes running through us, we started the quick descend. I think it took us less than 30mins to reach the rocks area where we put on our crampons. 

Descending from the glacier

After removing the crampons, we were on the rocky path again taking the trail back. It was a slow walk back as we had lots of time with us. We reached the equipment cabin at 3:30pm, rested a while till 4pm before going back to pick up our cars. From the car park , it was a 40mins drive back to Sande camp site. We bid farewell to the Germans, paid the guide and started our 2.5hrs drive to our next accommodation for the night. The Kjornes camp site at Sogndal. The weather remain cloudy and drizzle for the entire drive to Sogndal. We made a quick stop to see one of the Jostedal glacier tongues at the Jostedalsbreen National Park along highway E39. 

At the carpark to see Jostedalbreen

 

One of the tongues of the Jostedalsbreen

A stop was made at the Glacier Centre Musuem which was closed as it was already 6pm. At 7:30pm, we reached the touristy town of Sogndals and check-in our cabin at Kjornes camping. We had an apartment just above the reception. We had some problems finding the pots and pans for cooking at first and only managed to cook dinner at 10pm as the reception was closed and only opened at 8:30pm. When it opened, a long queue of people was waiting to pay for their rentals and parking. We headed for the beds close to midnight.

Kjornes Camping

2 Jun 2011, City of Bergen on a rainy day

Cloudy morning Kjornes campsite near Sogndal

It was another cloudy and raining morning. Seemed to me this is considered to be the bad weather season. The hours of blue skies and warm sun are limited. One day bright and sunny, the next day dark and gloomy. Maybe this is the bad side of traveling outside the peak season and it was said that spring period is the best season to visit. After packing up our bags, we drove away from our Kjornes camp site and onto route 5 to make the only ferry crossing for the day. 

On the ferry crossing to Fodnes

It was the Mannheller-Fodnes ferry crossing.  As it was gloomy and cloudy, not much mood for taking pictures and we initially just planned to drive all the way to Bergen. But it was that moody after all. After landing on Fodnes, we continued on highway 5 through a tunnel and exiting to the small village of Lærdalsøyri. An unique sand bank was in the middle of the lake, running from a very narrow path from the lakeside to the tip.It was windy and the sun was temporarily lightening up the surroundings. We took turns to run to the sand bar to take a few photos of ourselves.

At the tip of the sand bar

A wider view of the sand bar

After leaving the small village of Laerdalsoya, we followed highway 5 and changed to E16 at the roundabout heading Bergen. This is the longest tunnel cutting through the steep mountains of the fjordlands, covering a total of 25km. This is called the Lærdalstunnelen in Sogn og Fjordane, Norway is the longest road tunnel in the world. There are 3caverns in the tunnels which they have put in colourful cool lighthing to make the caverns look sci-fci and beautiful. Guess with this the drivers will not fall asleep seeing the same hypnotizing ceiling lights for 25km.

Inside one of the caverns of the Laerdalstunnelen

In another cavern after about 8km in between

After exiting the 25km tunnel, we reached the village of Aurlandsvegen. There was a petrol station with a snack bar just beside the roundabout. We followed the highway E16 in the direction of Bergen. In less than 15mins of driving, we accidentally reached the small village of the famous Flam railway. This is a famous scandanavian tourists attractions. There is a big car park for coaches and cars with a lot of restaurants nearby. There are also some hotels (Fretheim Hotel) for those who want to take the Flam railway from here and rest for the night. The Flamsbana (Flam railway) travels from here to the mountain station of Myrdal, which is part of the Bergen Railway. Since we were driving all the way to Bergen and not enough time, we gave it a miss. The thought of just taking the train from Flam to Myrdal and back was tempting though.

At the Flam Railway Station near Aurlandsfjord

Train going to depart without us of course

There is an interesting restaurant converted from that of an old train. The wheels are still there and the side platform leads into the restaurant entrance. Not sure if there was any decent meal as the time was still early (even though it was already 11am) and they were still serving cold dishes and sandwich meant for breakfast. We gave the train restaurant a miss and continued on our journey to Bergen. It was a drive along the countryside with no small towns in between. Around 1pm, we came upon a decent size town by the name of Vossvangen, but since it was a public holiday, most of the shops and supermarkets were closed. But down on the garden park by the lake, there was a simple restaurant opened and serving hot food. Time to for a good lunch we thought and we just parked around the big car park just in front of the restaurant.

Lunch at casual restaurant by the lake

After a hearty lunch meal (even though it is all fried, sinful yes), we were on highway E16 again and this time we drove non-stop all the way to the city of Bergen. Along the way, there were lush green farmlands with sheep grazing on the grasses.

Black and white sheep grazing

Around 4pm, we reached the city of Bergen and checked into our hotel, the Comfort Hotel in Bergen. It was still raining and the clouds were mush lower. We could not even see the nearby mountains and so we decided not to take the cable car up to the viewpoint. Instead we immediately walked over to the famous Bryggen, the hansectic wharf. This is an UNESCO protected site of the wooden merchant quarters dated back in the Hansectic period (13 ~ 17 century)

The Bryggen at Bergen

Shops along the Bryggen

The UNESCO sign at the back lane of the Bryggen

We visited almost each and every shop facing the main road. This is the only place that was still busy with tourists on a public holiday. We went into one of the souvenir shops to look for magnets. Bought a fair number of them.

Porcelain replica of the Bryggen

We left the shops for the fish market before they close for the day. Many tourists were having a meal at the makeshift tents besides the fish stalls.  Some of them the business was good.

Bryggen Fish Market

For dinner, we bought some grilled fish from the nearby shop. The shop looks more like a restaurant than just a fish shop. They sell raw seafood as well cook them for you if you want to dine in or take away.

Choose your own food to be cooked.

We bought 2 grilled fish, one salmon and the other some white fish which i forgot the name. We headed back straight to our hotel to have a TV meal and ended our day after that.

Let's move on to Part 6

Norway in Spring 2011 (Part 4, Alesund, Alnes, Stryn)

30 May 2011, Alesund and Surrounding Islands (Alnes)

Alesund was one of the location we stayed for 2 nights. In the morning, the skies were blue and the sun was shining bright. In less than 10mins, the weather changed as thick rain clouds came over our campsite. There wasn’t much places to cover today so we decided to take it slow. In the end we stayed in our cozy cabin watching TV and replying to emails until 10am before driving out to do some town exploration.

Sunny sunny

Raining raining, but rainbow in sight

 We stumbled upon the bus terminal 15mins drive away from where we stayed, which has a few shopping malls and each comes with big supermarket chains like ICA, COOP, Kiwis and Rema 1000. A good place to stock up on groceries especially for people like us who prefer to cook dinner in our cabin. For lunch today, we had McDonalds for the 1st time in Norway. It was the most costly McDonalds we had in the world. It cost about 80NOK for a fillet-o-fish which goes about SGD $18 per meal. With this amount of money, we can actually prepared for ourselves for sumptuous meal with all this amount.

At the MOA shopping area

Expensive Mac for lunch considering exchange rate

Shops in the shopping mall.

We did some shopping and wife got a fair bit of nice clothing from H&M. The price was reasonable and surprisingly affordable. Ever since we were in Norway, we have been visiting almost every H&M shop we saw. As my wife said, finally we had some taste of civilization again after all the nature visits and challenging snow summits. We left the MOA shopping district and drove up to the Aksla viewpoint up on the hills overlooking the Alseund town centre. The road was through some residential areas, and when we approached the top of the hill, the road was very narrow, allowing one vehnicle to drive through at a time.

A wind vane at the top of Aksla hill

Town centre of Alesund (seen from hills of Aksla)

Alesund Town center

From the hills of Aksla, we drove under the sea through the long undersea tunnels along route 658 to Valderoya, then again another tunnel to Giske, and finally another tunnel to the Godoya island where the small little village of Alnes is. In the village of Alnes, the the road is just a single lane one way road, so you will have to give way to on-coming traffic or vice versa. There is an Alnes Lighthouse built in 1876 which is opened to tourists for a small fee. The small village is very quiet and very few tourists will come here, esp tour group.

Near the Alnes Lighthouse by the sea.

The Alnes Lighthouse (1876)

The road from the Alnes, leads back to the small village centre where a school is operating. Guess it was break time and only a few children were playing behind the fence in the school compound. There are many nicely coloured seahouse by the sea. Under good weather and bright sunlight, the colour of these seahouses give a good contrast for photo taking.

Seahouses at Alnes

Seahouses at Alnes

Seahouses at Alnes

 We took a slow drive back to the town of Alesund. Since the weather was great, we headed back into the town centre to explore around and take more pictures.

Street view of Alesund

Another street view of Alesund

Boat at the inner habour

While we were walking around town, we realised some old buildings from the outside was actually a shopping mall on the inside with restaurants and supermarkets located in the basements. As it was a small shopping mall, it could be easily hidden away from the old facade look of the building. After a last walkaround in the mall, we drove back to our campsite, wrapping our trip to Alesund.

Back at our Cabin at Prinsen Strandcamping

Dinner prepared.

31 May, Getting to the Jostedalsbreen National Park

Today we left Alesund from the Prinsen Camping to head over to the Jostedalsbreen (Jostedal Glacier) National park. The accommodation for the night would be at the Sande Camping at Loen. A little village just to the south of the town of Stryn. It was raining in the morning when we woke up. We made some hotdogs for snacks along the way. We loaded our bags again as usual into the car and bid farewell to the seaside campsite. Before we went on the highway, we made a stop at the Mcdonalds at Moa to check emails with their free Wi-Fi. The one that we paid for at the campsite was quite bad. Mcdonalds did not serve breakfast like in Singapore. Maybe the crowd wasn’t enough and I noticed the locals don’t really fancy McDonalds. Maybe they have a better customer market in the cities. From Moa, we took the route 60 all the to the ferry crossing at Magerholm. We were just in time for the ferry and straight away drove up the ramp and onto the ferry towards Orsneset.

Ferry just left at Magerholm

Parked vehicles on the lower deck

This was a short crossing of just 24mins. Once we reached the shores of Orsneset, we continued on route 60 all the way to Stranda. From google map, there is a road that is a short cut to continue on route 60, but we wanted to see the little town and route all the way to Stranda. Nothing much of interest and no cafeteria and restaurants in site, so we just took the route 60 out of town and on the way towards Hellesylt. Hellesylt is one of the little ferry stop where travellers would board the ferry to Geiranger. This ferry trip will allow them to enjoy the scneary of the Geirangerfjorden. The famous S-shape fjord that winds its way to the deep cove of Geiranger. From the mountain road looking down at the Hellesylt ferry terminal, it is really a small place with a few houses. We took the tunnel cutting into the mountains on route 60 and reached the town of Grodas at 12 noon. This place is a popular stop over for tour buses as we came across a few tour busses park near the supermarket and pertrol station. Tourists from the bus were actually strolling along the lake side. I think it is a lake as it is not linked to the open sea. The lake is called Hornindalsvatnet. The lake was calm at that time and we could see the reflections in the water. Should be a good weather day, I bet we could see the mountains and skies in the water. 

A floating platform on the Grodas town's lake

A small garden area just in front of the town area.

After a 30mins break walking around the park, we hopped onto our car and continued on the same route 60 to the bigger town of Stryn. Stryn is a much bigger town than the rest that we came across for the day, there were 4 supermarkets all within walking distance. We bought some food to cook for dinner. Trying to get some grilled food, we explored through the 4 supermarkets, ending up buying some frozen pre-pack marinated chicken mid-joint wings. 

Driving into the town of Stryn

As part of today’s activity, we intend to visit the Briksdalsbreen (Briksdals glacier) which is located to the south of Olden. It took us another 20mins to reach Olden, and from here it was a drive on a narrow road deep into the valley all the way to the Briksdalsbre fjellstove. This place is actually a famous mountain lodge complete with souvineir shops and cafeteria serving food to bus loads of tourists all around the world. We parked our car for a fee (automated parking machine) before walking up to the cafeteria for our late lunch. The restaurant was packed with tourists from the tour buses, all there to see the Briksdal glacier. From the souvenir shop outside, it is a 3km walk uphill to the glacier terminal. Of course you can pay for the buggy ride that brings you up the hills and closest the dirt road can bring you. From there it is still a 15mins walk to see the glacier terminal.

Briksdalsbre Fjellstove Cafeteria

Chicken chop for lunch at the cafeteria

As the restaurant was was crowded, we had to wait about 30mins before our food arrived and it was 2:30pm. We took 30mins to finish our late lunch and a quick toilet break, we took on the trail to cover the 3km walk to the glacier terminal. It was a gradual climb of acceptable steepness up the hills. Along the way, there was a big waterfall and the water was pouring with great strengths, all because of the season when ice is melting and the waterfalls are most powerful. About 30mins of walking we came across sign boards telling us where the glacier terminal ‘s position back in 100 years ago and how the effects of global warming cause the glacier to retract.

Jostedalsbreen National Park

 

Position of glacier back in year 1800

Huge rocks can be seen around here, all the effects of the glacier power moving these huge rocks where they are hundreds of years ago. After an hour of walking, we reached the glacier terminal, in front of a small lake and the ice meets the water. The glacier was very narrow, but the ice above it was all in a big mess. Columns of ice jutting out giving us a feeling that some of them might collapse down onto the lake below. 

Briksdal Glacier

It was still raining lightly and after taking enough pictures, we headed back on the same dirt road we came. The walk to the glacier is free. It only cost you if you want to take the buggy instead of walking. The bus tourists all boarded the buggy. And those who walked all the way were mostly self-drive travellers like us. In a country like Norway, unlike New Zealand, it seemed we were the very small group of Asians who would drive around in Norway and visiting places like the locals and Europeans. As it was downhill, we took about 40mins to reach the carpark. That concluded our tour for the day and our next stop was the Sande Camping site which we had booked a night’s accommodation. 

On the way back. 2 huge rocks forming a shelter

Sande camping is located in the village of Loen. So we took the same route (and the only route ) to leave the valley and back to the little town of Olden. From Olden, it was a short drive to reach Loen and again we need to drive into the valley to our campsite. The road again was narrow allowing only a single vehnicle to pass. Around 6pm, we reached our accommodation which we booked a cabin with toilet and kitchen for 550 NOK.

Sande Camping reception

View from our cabin

We had a superb view of the lake but the weather was cloudy and still drizzling. We hoped the weather the next morning will be good as we would be going for a glacier walk on the Bodalsbreen (Bodal Glacier). The meeting place for the glacier is at our camping site. It is run by an adventure company called Briksdal Adventure and they have an office just beside the reception building. We cooked the mid-joint wings that we had bought and it tasted fabulous. Didn’t expect such frozen food would taste so nice. It was a good dinner meal with spaghetti and corn soup. 

Rainbow caused by the evening sun shining through a cloud opening

 

A good end of the day with such a sumptuous dinner, plus a rainbow outside our cabin. The evening sun finally managed to pierce through the clouds.


Let's move on to Part 5