After the fun of yesterday, it was back to business on the road again today.
I’d been looking at how much time I seemed to be accruing, and also that I have given myself a spare empty day in the schedule should it be needed.
At the rate I was going,I’d be back in Dunkirk and waiting two days to get on the ferry!
I decided to use up some time on visiting more of the National tourist routes. A portion of them are within a few hundred Kilometres area and on the way to Bergen, which is one of my waypoints.
So I planned a new route and set off to the Turistveger that drew me to Norway in the first place when I planned to come by Motorbike; Trollstigen, the ‘Troll’s Road’.
In the murk and mist, there may well have been Trolls lurking around, but with visibility only a couple of dozen yards, I was unlikely to catch a glimpse today. The road seemed quite dramatic, more so that I couldn’t really see when the next corner was going to be sprung upon me! Again the architecture along the route was remarkable.
At the end of the Troll’s Road, is the Troll’s wall, magnificent in the fact that it’s several times taller than the Eiffel Tower, if only I could see the top!
This route continues via ferry to the Geirangerfjord, which I must say is astounding! The advertisements that you see on the TV for the Norwegian Cruises are shot here. I know this as there happened to be a Cruise Ship anchored there!
It’s reputed to be the most scenic fjord of them all, and it really knocks spots off all of the others I’ve seen so far.
The clear green water of the fjord is towered over by the surrounding mountains, almost encapsulating it, and the town of Geiranger within it’s own world. There’s only one road in, which passes through, and then it’s the one road out, snaking up the mountainside to the outside again.
It’s a long hard climb out of Geiranger, many hairpin turns, it’s very steep also. The Landy started to give off the aroma of hot engine, hot oil, and hot clutch, this was partly due to the climb, and partly due to me stopping every few hundred yards to take a photo and then hill starting again!
This climb however, was nothing compared to was was to come.
I cleared Geiranger, and continued along the route, I was high in the mountains, and gratefully, snow had made a reappearance. I was thinking that I had seen the last of it in the Arctic Circle but it was here in abundance!
I rounded a corner, and saw a sign for Dalsnibba, ‘The highest view of a fjord from a road’. Sounded good to me so 100kr later for the Toll, I was on my way up, and up, and up! Hairpin after hairpin up to 4900 feet!
This was amazing, partly due to the height and the view, and partly because the Landy made it! (Brake pads were cooking on the way back down though).
The Trollstigen has a reputation as a great road, but I think the road out of Geiranger is far more spectacular.
I was planning to cover two or maybe three of the Najonale Turistveger today, but on leaving Dalsnibba it occurred to me that I had already spent 10 hours on this route alone, it’s 6pm and although still feels like midday in the bright sunshine, I knew I wouldn’t have a opportunity like this again; I stopped for the night, in another of the most extra ordinary of places!
Steve In Real Life 