As I sat in the bus on Friday evening, I remember feeling quite excited. I was also tired and nervous; I hadn’t had much sleep during the week, because I had been planning the route and the places where to stay. I was nervous because I still had three nights without a place to sleep, and no idea if I would find a place or if I had to sleep in my car. I also had no idea if I had brought enough clothes, forgotten something vital, or be way over the weight limit with my baggage.
As I tried to sleep at a hostel beside the airport, a million thought raced through my head. Was the trip a good idea? The prognosis called for rain, would I get any good weather? Would I get lost, trip and kill my camera, or my twist my ankle? Eventually I dozed off and got some sleep. The next morning I walked to the airport, and of course my bag was 3kg over the limit so I had to pay to get it checked. I’m glad they didn’t weigh my backpack, though :) A couple of non-eventful flights later I arrived in Bergen, got my luggage and got to the car rental desk. A simple choice later (Honda Civic TDI vs Toyota Hybrid, guess which is better on mountain roads?) I was on my way to my first destination: Hov Hyttegrend in Viksdalen, just next to Likholefossen, a medium-sized rapids along something called Fossestien (the rapids hiking path).
The five hour drive of the first day
I had chosen the destination purely because I had a night before I had to be at Turtagrø for my hike up a mountain, and I happened to see some pictures on Google Maps. Seemed like a nice spot, and the road on the second day would pass a glacier!
Immediately when I turned my car north out of Bergen, it started to rain. A lot. Rain isn’t exactly uncommon in this region of Norway, but I still felt disappointed; stopping the car at the side of the road for taking pictures is decidedly less fun in pouring rain. I just thought that maybe it was a good thing, I had at least 5 hours of driving to do, so better not be distracted with taking photos. Yeah, good luck with that.
After crossing Nordhordlandsbrua, I started getting some inkling on the topography of the region I was headed toward. Even with low-hanging clouds and almost constant rain, I started making out hills, each bigger than the previous. Soon I was driving along (what I thought at the time as really big) hills on both sides; my estimate would put the peaks at under 500 meters. There were waterfalls and streams everywhere. I managed to park my car at a few rest stops and snap some quick photos. You might get an inkling on the crappy weather from them.
Road just north of Bergen. I've added a lot of light so that it looks better. Trust me the real one is WAY more gray :)
Rain clouds over Vikanes
Boats at Vikanes
Driving through the hills, the only things that went through my mind was ‘what an utterly ridiculous place this is’ and ‘I’m sure that is one of the biggest hills.. NOPE, that one is even bigger’. I tried to keep my inner photographer in check, but I still ended up with hundreds of raw images from the car ride. After crossing Sognefjord (the biggest fjord in Norway, putting it up there as the third biggest in the world), I realized that this country is the absolute most beautiful place I’ve ever been to. And this was in pouring rain.
Somewhere between Romarheim and Matre; these kind of streams are literally everywhere.
Waterfalls, waterfalls everywhere.
View from the ferry over Sognefjord.
My favorite from the day, you can see a bit of the elevation differences I experienced.
I stopped off in Balestrand where I had a lunch and visited the local aquarium, neither of which honestly was that great. My lasagna had carrots, peas and cauliflower in it which made it the weirdest version I’ve had yet, which I guess is something. After the lunch I turned away from the fjord I had been driving along, and started my journey upwards. Hov Hyttegrend is located a fair bit above sea level, which gave me the first experiences of the serpentine roads that Norway is littered with. Sometimes dangerous, mostly annoying, and in places covered in various animals (I met sheep and cows on this particular one), they are quite the experience. Later I also discovered that the views when up on top can be quite epic, but as the rain was still falling down, I only had a few glimpses of distant hills.
View down the valley from halfway up the serpentine road. The hill is so steep that you can't see the road.
Farmhouses between the hills.
The weather wasn't getting any better. I just kept driving, and stopping at almost every bus stop along the way. Finally the road level out; I was up on the highland plains. Up here the scenery is quite different; the trees were gone, replaced with knee-high bushes. Snow was clearly visible on the hills. I realized that this was snow from last winter, since it was still more than 10 degrees warm it couldn't have snowed down this autumn. Houses were few and far between, as was the cars. Since I was pretty much alone on the road, I had some freedom to stop where I wanted. One of the benefits of traveling outside the tourist season. Of course, the rain was a definitive downside.
Different. But still awesome. So much awesome.
Eventually I arrived at Hov Hyttegrend, nestled in a small valley alongside a big stream. I got my things out of the car, changed to more sturdy clothes, and grabbed my tripod to get some photos of the Likholefoss rapids. I walked down to the stream and set up, despite the rain. I was damned if I let a small thing like that stop me. Only after I had taken a good twenty shots, I realized that I was photographing the completely wrong thing. The rapids were about 300 meters upstream, I was just too tired to realize it. I picked up my gear, and started walking toward the rapids. I got off a few scouting photos before being so soaked that I gave up. At least I knew where to set up the tripod the next morning, when I hoped the weather would have cleared a bit.
My small hytte (cabin). View could be worse. It didn't even rain the minute I took this photo!
The Likholefoss rapids. Except it isn't, as I realized half an hour later.
I was spent, so I packed up my sleeping bag and went to sleep. In bed I came to the the realization the 5+ hours that it took me to drive up to Hov was clearly the highlight of any trip I had taken thus far. Little did I know that the coming days would be way, way better than this one.