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| After 30 tunnels in 150km's we were starting to feel a bit like this! |
After some morning mist it warmed
up very quickly and with no wind, just a perfect day. It seemed to take a while
getting organised after 3 days in a campground, making sure everything was
packed away ready to drive. Then it was time to say goodbye to Conny and
Gerhart after a great week, but we will visit them in Dusseldorf later next
month. Emptied tanks and filled with fresh water then we put Willie (Nelson!)
on and we were off “On the road again”!. We were so ready for a break when we
arrived at the campground on Saturday, but this morning we felt very refreshed
and ready to get moving. We had spent some time looking at maps as there are a
number of routes we could take to head south, but finally decided on some
scenic routes which turned out to be a very good choice….and today we did 30
tunnels in 150kms, didn’t think we could do more than Saturday driving into
Bergen with 21 tunnels, but it happened!
After leaving Bergen we took HW
7 East through the tunnels and onto Norheimsund and the HardangerFjord. Stopped
to check out an amazing waterfall which bucketed down over rocks that you could
walk under. There are just so many amazing waterfalls in Norway that you tend
to take them for granted after a while.
Parked in the sun by a marina
near Norheimsund for lunch, the weather just couldn’t be more perfect, then
back on HW7 winding our way around the edge of the fjord to Granvin. These
roads can be so narrow with the water on one side and the rocky cliff on the
other, and usually only one lane with small pullover bays, the views are
amazing but I don’t really enjoy driving them hoping that a big truck doesn’t
appear at a blind corner. A couple of times Ian had to back a little to let a
big vehicle through. On this stretch of road, they are building a big tunnel
that takes the road through the mountain, rather than around the edge of it.
Rather pleased to arrive at the Granvin in one piece.
There was an auto toll for the
tunnel leaving Granvin, which was 8kms long and there was actually a roundabout
within the tunnel and our road emerged and straight onto the Hardanger Bridge
which was opened in 2013. Its one of the longest suspension bridges in the
world. We were straight into another two tunnels that seemed to wind over each
other and made you feel a little disorientated ..thankfully Jilly knew where to
go!
The roads now were so much
wider thankfully and I could take my foot off the brake! We followed the fjord
around to the town of Eidfjord then it was up into the mountains. We hadn’t
realised but the road is a series of tunnels that spiral and crisscross inside
a mountain. A feat of engineering genius….Ian was suitably impressed! There is
a huge waterfall near the top which I was keen to stop and have a look at, but
when we saw about 6 bus loads of Asian tourists taking up every vantage point
we kept on going. We rose to 1200 metres and were once again onto a high alpine
plateau with moonscape scenery. The golden trees were just losing their leaves
but still looking a picture, in amongst the little lakes. It was almost 4 o’clock
and we spotted several potential camping spots, but thought we could do better!
Wrong! Soon we were in amongst hillsides covered with little mountain cabins.
This is obviously an area where people come in the winter for cross country
skiing. Then it was down the other side and we finally found a little corner
tucked out of the way at the end of the lake beside the intake of a power
station..nice and level with seal and even mown lawns. Not quite what we were
looking for but very adequate.
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| A perfect day for mirror images |
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| A real green "hair do" |
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| A rather special waterfall.. |
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| ...and another which Ian could walk under. |
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| Lunch stop |
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| Little clusters of houses, boat sheds and boats around the fjords |
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| Just so calm. |
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| No room for two! |
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| Straight out of a tunnel and onto a bridge |
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| Back up to a lunar landscape |
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| Guess the snow gets pretty high by the size of these snow poles. |
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| Golden hills beside our overnight spot. |
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