Rob and Sarah Whiteman: Sognfjell and Gaula river

The weather was not good today, but at least the river Otta is in spate. Along the route we stop at Lom to visit the Stave Kyrke, another wonderful feat of timber build. Dating from around 1000AD but extensively re-built in the 1600s.

From Lom we took the fv55 into the Boverdalen valley, which is surrounded by most of the highest mountains in Norway, however we could only guess as to what was up there because of the low cloud. At Leirdalen we managed to get a few glimpses of the snow- capped peaks. We continued to climb and by the time we were close to Sognefjellhytta at 1440m the fog lights were on and visibility was poor, the snow banks at the side of the road were about the same height as our van and Rob wasn’t in the best of moods!

As we descended towards Lustrafjorden

the weather improved slightly, but my suggestion of a divert to see a stave kyrke at Urnes along a narrow winding road didn’t go down too well so we carried on along the fv55 stopping the night by the water’s edge on the way to Sogndalsfjora.

The next day we continued down to the banks of Sognefjorden which is the longest fjord in Norway.

The weather had improved and we managed to get some good shots of the surrounding peaks, and also Kvinnefossen which plunges into sognefjorden.

We took the ferry fromHella to Dragsvik getting a good view up Fjaerlandsfjorden.

There was a car rally taking place with old Buicks and other 1920/1930s American cars.

We then climbed – yes, more hairpins – up towards Mel and Nystolen and the Guala river which is reknown for its trout fishing.

There is a lovely walk that runs along the river’s course starting high in the mountains at Fossestien to Likholefossen. We attempted the walk up in the mountains but the rain soon drove us back to the van, although we did see some small brown trout in the upper reaches of the river.