Road 55 — The Blog — TM Photography

I hadn't planned to go up to Geiranger before my trip; it is a bit out of the way. Still, I had seen quite a nice picture from the Ørnesvingen (Eagle's Turn), where you apparently have quite a nice view of the fjord leading to Geiranger itself. Also, After re-counting, I realized I had an extra night to spend and still make it easily to all other planned destinations.

I had one shot in mind, and really no idea what I'd find along the way. Also, I would have to drive back the same way to Lom (Fossbergom on the map, don't ask me why) to continue my roundtrip of Jotunheimen. Still, the drive was only three hours, so I went for it.

The road leaves Turtagrø and climbs a few hundred meter up to a plateau. This was the mythical Tourist Road 55 I had read so much about, so I was quite excited. Very typically though, the weather had turned worse again; it wasn't raining, but the clouds were low-hanging and ominous.

The Norwegians sure like their stone piles.

I'd love to come back with clear skies and no wind...

The road winds through the various hills, high above the treeline. The views were very nice, even though I couldn't see much of the highest peaks. The road soon starts making its way down to Lom; the valley itself is quite narrow at first, widening quickly. The Bøvra river follows the road the whole way, stopping at a few lakes. The river is entirely turquoise in color, which looks really weird in places.

The color is crazy, especially with the varying depth of the river.

A look backward from Jotunheimen Fjellstue, along Road 55.

The valley widens considerably before Lom. Can you tell it's raining again?

Halfway to Lom, the first rain shower hit. This was no light drizzle either, it was proper, soaking rain. Still, I had a plan, and I'd be damned to let rain stop me. Or gates in the road. I'm talking about Galdhøpiggen, the highest peak in Norway. I was driving right beside it, and I noticed that there is a road that takes you quite the way there. What the map didn't say was that the road had gates. With a toll booth. Well, since I'm here...

After paying the toll and reading the warning signs (basically 'IF YOU DIE ON THIS ROAD, TOUGH LUCK. DON'T BE STUPID.'), I started the drive into the clouds. The rain soon turned to really wet snow; I slowed down but kept climbing. Once at the end of the road, the view was both astonishing and disappointing. Astonishing, because people were skiing on the permasnow; disappointing, because you couldn't see anything of the mountain itself. Best laid plans, and all that..

Skiing on Galdhøpiggen, in early September. Wat.

I drove down the mountain in sporadic rain showers and stopped in Lom for some lunch. I still had some way to drive, and it was afternoon already; I had to get going. That went well, for about 20 minutes.

Damn it Norway, I'm trying to get to places!

The river Otta runs from the plains close to Geiranger all the way down to Lom, and is spectacular the whole way. These pictures were taken at Dønfoss, where there is a big camping site just next to the river. The noise is deafening, I can't imagine what it's like to sleep next to the water.

After Dønfoss, the road slowly travels through the valley, climbing slightly on the way to the coast. Yes, it goes higher, not lower. The cost is full of mountains and fjords, while I was still in the midland plains.

When reviewing my pictures from the day, I was disappointed that I didn't have more of them. I wonder why; I can't remember any pressing reason why I wouldn't have taken photos. Regardless, I'd drive down the same way the next day, and the weather was better then anyway. I'm just wondering what happened :)

Breiddalsvatnet, on the road towards Geiranger. You can see the Geiranger mountains in the distance.

Although Road 55 stops in Lom, the road to Geiranger is also a tourist-designated road. This one is numbered 63, but known colloquially as Trollstigen, the troll road. I didn't see any trolls, but if there is a place where they'd live, this is it. Again, I don't have many pictures from this particular part. The reason is that in many places it is forbidden to stop beside the road because of land slides. So, I just drove through down to Geiranger. The next day I ignored the signs ;)

The first part of Trollstigen, where the road plunges down towards Geiranger.

Not planning to drive here in the first place, I didn't have any idea of what sights there are along the way. For instance, I didn't know what Dalsnibba was, missing it entirely on the first day. Luckily I got wiser during the evening, when I had internet connectivity at the hotel. I only knew that there was a view platform before Geiranger, and then another after the town. I was hoping to get a photo with a cruise ship leaving, but I had no idea about the cruise timetables; for all I knew, there might not be a ship for a week.

I turned a corner and looked down into the Geiranger valley, and couldn't believe it; just what I had ordered. A cruise ship was in the fjord, ready to leave. I stopped at the first viewing platform, grabbed my camera, and ran to the cliffside.

The Geiranger fjord. The other view platform is to the right; you can see the road leading up the cliff. Speaking of cliffs, the one to the left was over a hundred meters down to the bottom.

The ship is huge, yet in pales in comparison to the fjord.

I grabbed a few shots, and then ran back to my car. I didn't know how fast the ship would leave the fjord, or how long it would take to drive to the other end of the fjord. What I did know was that I wanted a shot of the ship leaving, and here was a ship. I might not get another chance.

Trying to keep inside the speed limits, I drove down the first serpentine road an into the small town of Geiranger. Ignoring all of it, I quickly found the way out to the other side, and raced up the second cliff toward Ørnesvingen, the second platform. I parked my car, grabbed my gear, and ran to the edge yet again; I had made it, the ship hadn't left yet.

View from Ørnesvingen. The fjord is so wide and huge that it's difficult to get a picture that conveys it. Geiranger is on the far left edge.

I set up my tripod, and took a panorama image. The issue was that the fjord is really wide (more than 120 degrees) from left to right, and very narrow to the opposite side. I found out that getting a shot that represents it is quite difficult. Still, the ship was there, so I started snapping pics, and kept going until I couldn't see it anymore.

Preparing for the turn out from Geiranger.

Drifting a hundred thousand tons through the narrows.

I regret not taking more tight shots of the ship; that would have shown the scale better. Nevertheless, I got a few that I liked, so I was happy. I drove down to Geiranger and found my hotel. Geiranger itself is really small, and almost fully catered for tourists. the dock areas are basically a giant tourism shop, and there are a quite a few attractions, such as the 'Norwegian Fjord Centre'. Didn't bother with those though; I was famished.

After a (very nice) dinner I looked at what I could find along the road the next day, and where to sleep since I hadn't decided that yet. I found a hytte that was in a good location along the route and booked it. I also found out about Dalsnibba, and some other places along the road I had driven along. Tomorrow, I would stop and get all the pics I missed today. But more on that in the next post.

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:

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.

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 :)

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.

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.

Same shot, a little wider (and earlier). Can't decide which one I like better :)

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.

Day 5: a slight detour

Day 2: water in all its forms.