I woke up to sunshine on Sunday morning, which was great considering the weather of the previous day. I decided not to waste time, and headed up to the rapids I had scouted the day before. After some setting up, I managed to find a composition I liked. I snapped off a bracketed series and a few long exposures, which I knew I'd combine later:
The actual Likholefossen.
Tiny rainbow, yay!
I tried some other compositions too, getting myself more wet than planned, and managing to find a small rainbow in the middle of the stream. In total I took around a hundred images, much of them redundant brackets (the sun went in and out, so consistency was an issue). Once tourists started arriving in buses I decided to pack my stuff and take off towards Turtagrø, where I had a hotel room booked.
Second day route.
The road took me by a couple of highland lakes, which are as picturesque as you might imagine. I even saw an eagle that flew right above my car; of course I had my camera in the back seat, so no pics of that unfortunately. I realized early on that having the camera reachable from the driver's seat can be very dangerous ;)
Haukedalsvatnet. No photoshop trickery on the water, I promise :)
Typical tiny hills of Norway.
Jølstravatnet. Too bad that there was a breeze..
As I mentioned in the last post, my route took me via a glacier; the Bøyabreen. Despite coming from a Nordic country, this was my first experience with a glacier up close. Even though it was tiny after the summer, it was still quite an experience to see. A well-liked destination judging from the tourists (and cows) I got in almost all shots, I bet the glacier is much more impressive in the spring. The glacier is situated in the very end of a valley, a part of the Sognefjord system. The valley walls are quite steep, and there are waterfalls everywhere.
A stream coming down the valley beside the glacier.
The Bøyabreen glacier.
Closeup of the glacier.
Some locals chilling by the local watering hole.
As you might have noticed, it had started raining again, so I continued on my trip. The road goes down south to Sognefjord, and continues North-East as Road 55, designated a 'tourist road'. My destination was halfway along the road, so I was expecting some nice landscapes. There were some. The only issue was the damn rain; I was feeling quite down about the whole thing.
Sognefjord, just down from the glacier.
Same shot, a little wider (and earlier). Can't decide which one I like better :)
Driving along Road 55.
The water is actually that color; more on that in later posts.
Those are two-storey houses under the waterfall..
The last leg of the day was up a small serpentine road up to the plains of Jotunheim National Park. I noticed something interesting along the road. There are big signs and road barriers before the climb. The signs say 'WARNING - road closed during winter'. The reason is that it is completely impractical to keep the roads clear during winter, because of the ridiculous amounts of snow. It is just easier to move everything down to the valleys for the winter (including cows and sheep), and then back up again when the snow melts. Norwegians are crazy people.
The rain really poured down now, so I decided against stopping anywhere. Besides, I was very close to my stay for the night, Turtagrø Hotel, and I was very, very hungry. I did take a few images once at the hotel, though:
View from the Hotel parking lot, due south.
View to the East. My path the next day would take me towards those peaks.
Grab shot through the window, literally on my way to the restaurant for dinner. My stomach won this one, even though the light was amazing :)
A very nice dinner and some wine later I settled down to plan the coming days. The very next day and the day after that were booked for the walk up and down Fannaråken, but the three days afterward were a question mark. Finally I decided to drive north to Geiranger, and I'm very, very glad I did. That will have to wait for another post, though.
So, sorry for the non-inspired commentary in places; it is very much in line with how I felt, driving through amazing landscapes with no chance to properly capture them. Fortunately, that day was the last day of rain, and things will pick up considerably in the next post, where I take you up the mountain called Fannaråken.