Snow road

Yesterday’s tunnel was not the route we had first decided on.  There is a small mountain road called ‘The Snow Road’ which goes over the mountain from Aurlandsvangen to Laerdalsoyri.  We had been put off using this route from Aurlandsvangen because of the narrowest of the road the number of hairpin bends and the lack of passing places.  This morning we decided to attempt it from Laerdalsoyri as the ascent did not look so precipitous.  The journey over the top was well worth it and the views down into the Aurland valley awe inspiring.  

Returning to Laerdalsoyri we visited the Wild Salmon Visitor Centre – a very interesting display of salmon fishing through the ages and the effect of the British Gentry in the late 1800s.  The Laerdal river is supposed to be one of the finest salmon rivers in Norway.  The river has just been re-opened to salmon fishing after a 17 year ban due to a parasite brought in from Sweden which has been killing off the baby salmon.  At the end of the day we returned to our previous night’s stop over. 

After a very stormy night with high winds we woke up to a very rainy day and we travelled up the Laerdal valley and up to Fillefjellet.  The rain stopped play early in the afternoon and we set up camp in a picnic spot near Kirjestolane on the Kongsvegen ‘The Kings Way’.

We carried on our circular tour of this area taking us to Tyin