Oslo on route

We found our camper stop at the Sjolyst Marina near the peninsular at Bygdoy. This is the island with a lot of museums on it , that seemed interesting to us.

We walked in from the Marina through pleasant countryside, considering how close to the city centre we were and spent the rest of the day Museuming.

First the Viking ship museum with three boats which had been excavated from burials sites in the area. These date from around 900 AD and were very well restored as they had been in blue clay which had preserved them very well.  The valuables had been looted very soon after burial as with the Pyramids in Egypt but there were still many artefacts on view. They believed very strongly in the afterlife,  so again as with Egypt there were all the things necessary for the comfort of the desceased.  There were carts and sledges, horses and jewellery and much more. This provided us with a very good insight into the culture of the time.   

Hardanger Vidda revisited

Today we re-visited Hardangervidda, hoping for a little better weather than we had before.  We were disappointed again as the rain began to fall, but we can see a big change in the landscape from six weeks ago.  The lakes have now all thawed and there are only small patches of snow around us.

Ardalsfjorden, Borgund and Aurlandsdalen

Next we carried on over the top to Ovre Ardal, the lovely Ardalsfjorden      

and some lovely views up to Lustrafjorden

The weather was being kind to us so we drove back up the Laerdal and onto the historic route to visit the oldest unaltered stave kirke in Norway at Borgund

The afternoon was spent driving on the fv50 road through Aurlandsdalen and Sudndalen.  The road climbs steeply out of Aurland using the ubiquitous hairpin but this time with a twist – these hairpins were in tunnels inside the mountain ... have I told you Rob hates tunnels!  The road over was marred by the pylons carrying the electric from the hydroelectric stations.  Found a good spot to stop the night, another picnic layby with only the sound of the sheeps bells to keep us awake

  

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    

Hardangerfjord, Naerofjorden and Flamsdalen

We continued our route along Hardangerfjord

and then turned northwards again towards Naerofjorden.  

This was a very narrow steep sided valley with some wonderful waterfalls cascading down it’s sides.  

The mount of active scree was tremendous – one of those places you wouldn’t want to park up the van for long.  At the edge of the fjord we stopped to fill up water and whilst we were there saw a group of people with camera gear watching the mountain.  Rob found out that they were waiting for a party of six base jumpers with winged suits to jump off the 1000m + mountain!!  Just like superman they dived into the bowl shaped crevice and then used the winged suits to fly across the face of the mountain and out over the valley where they deployed their suits.  All six successfully landed and we are sure their adrenalin levels were at a high

After all that excitement we carried on to Flamsdalen where the cruise ships were in dock and the passengers were flocking into the shops to spend their pennies

 A quick look at the Flam railway and then onto Aurlandsvagen   

and the 24km Laerdalen tunnel to Laerdalsoyri  the longest road tunnel in Europe.  

and our overnight stop on the edge of ...yes you’ve guessed it ... Laerdalfjorden