The first couple of days we took in the sights and smells of Burgen doing the touristy stuff.
With that over and done with we headed north a couple of hours and found our camp in the small village of Flam (pronounced Flom) on the shores of Aurlandsfjorden, one of the many branches of the worlds second largest fjord – Sognefjorden, 204 kilometre long from sea to glacier.
By night nothing more than a small sleepy village and camp site. By day usually two very large cruise ships would turn up and deposit large numbers of Dutch/English/Italian/German tourists off for tourist shop spending.
The first few days gave way to walking and mountain biking, and trust me it's all very hilly.
Eventually, the boats were dusted down and spray decks set tight as we ventured into Norway’s narrowest Fjord, Naeroyfjorden. Thousand metre cliffs depositing free-falling melt water from the glaciers set a rather dramatic back drop. The water was crystal clear and a little cold for any un-planned swims, so a steady course was set for the route ahead. On leaving the harbour, Sue was swamped (most of it swallowed) by a small Tsunami created by the approaching passenger ferry full of more tourists heading to the tourist shop.
The approaching Cruise ship though was giving me a little
more for concern as even from a distance it looked a little large. As it happened a rather large ship
produced little, if any wake. That is until an armada of launches full of gold clad Italians headed
ashore like an invading Roman army. That boat looked big at a distance, but almost too big to fit 'in' theFjord close up, how it turned around to leave must come with practice. Anyway, no swimming was required in what was one of the most dramatic places I have yet paddled.
More biking and walking was enjoyed before it was time to move North again, this time to Balustrand, same Fjord, different side.
We had swapped our 'luxury' tent for a 'luxury' tin hut the Norwegians call a cabin made of crinkly tin.This was in quite a nice spot over looking Fjaerlandsfjorden surrounded by 2000m peaks. In between more rain and more rain, the sun occasionally came out to produce rainbows every where. Our next paddle trip was to paddle from Esefjorden out to Sognefjorden to Balustrand.
With the rain clearing we set off up a rather tranquil stretch of mirror like water clear enough to see 10m+ to the bottom. With massive water falls everywhere thundering out of the mountains just added to the mystical feel to a beautiful country, despite the rain. Due to this being a holiday and not just a paddling trip, our time on the water was limited. So maybe next time ?
On our return ferry journey we met a fellow paddler, James Baxter who had just spent 10 weeks in Norway and 10 days soloing around the Lofoton Islands - lucky bugger! James has climbed and written a book http://www.scandinavianmountains.com/books/index.htm on all of Norway’s 2000m peaks. His next planned trip come the winter is to ski tour from Oslo up to Nordkapp arriving late spring. Then solo paddle down the Norwegian crinkly coast back to Oslo. Now that's what I call a trip. If you ever get the chance to go to Norway, take it with both hands. For those of you into winter sports, such as skiing, ski-touring and ice climbing this is also the place to go, trust me.
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