Trip to the Norwegian Fjords - Aurland, Flåm and Gudvangen

If you’ve read Slartibartfast talking to Arthur Dent in Hitchhikers Guide to Galaxy, you would have heard that he received an award for designing the Broken Coastline, full of Fjords, of Norway, when they designed the Supercomputer called Earth to find the Ultimate Question to Answer (Meaning of life). Now having been to the Fjords myself, I can say that maybe he really deserves such an award even if was reality. Such a wonder, these Fjords are... Truly amazing!

Day 1(Friday-Aug 04, 2006): Having been in Norway for the last 8 months (oof time flies!!!) and spending the best part of summer in Oslo, we decided not to waste any more weekends in Oslo and planned a trip to the Fjords in Norway. We initially decided to take the Famous Tour called “Norway in a Nutshell”, provided by a tour operator. Then looking at the humongous costs involved and also the time involved, we decided to rent a car and go to the same places and do the trip on our own. So we rented a car and left for a place called Aurland on Friday evening.

The idea was to cover the best part of the ‘Sognefjorden’ (Second largest fjord in the World and largest in Norway) called ‘Nærøyfjord’ or 'Narrow Fjords' and the surrounding areas. It is also listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 2005. The entire route was so scenic that we had to make quite a few stops to take plenty of photographs. This whole stretch of roads was in the mountains and plenty of sharp corners and slow speed zones and single lane traffic. In some parts there were no lanes at all. It was so narrow that one small mistake, you would be flying from the mountain side and a crash land at the bottom of the mountains and can kiss goodbye to your dear life (and dear wife, if you had one!Very bad PJ :-)

We passed along some of the wonderful sceneries and finally drove though a Tunnel at Lærdhal, which is supposedly the ‘World's Longest Road Tunnel’ stretching for almost 25 Km through the mountains. Norwegians, as they say, are one of the best tunnel builders in the world. After seeing plenty of similar tunnels, I am not very surprised at that. Very smooth, spacious and very safe tunnels with emergency stops, SOS telephone booths and Fire extinguishers every Km. Finally around 23:30, we reached our destination Aurland and we went to our Cabins. They were a nice set of cabins with 4 bunker beds in each and a mini-kitchen with a mini-fridge. So we cooked our dinner at mid-night trying hard not to make too much noise and wake up the fellow tourists.
Day 2(Saturday-Aug 05, 2006): The plan for the day was to wake up early and drive to a place called Voss, where the Fjord tour starts. The Fjord tour consisted of a train journey from Voss to Myrdhal and then another mini-train journey down the Mountains from Mydhal to Flåm in Flåmsbana (Flåm train), then a Ferry Trip from Flåm to Gudvangen (Ferry on the Nærøyfjord) and then a Bus journey back to Voss with a stop at the top of the mountains at Stalheim to get a neat view of the valley and mountains yonder.As usual, it’s always difficult to wake up early in the morning as planned and there were a few late risers, like yours truly!, much to the annoyance of his fellow Fjord hunters. As I woke up and came out of my cabin... Lo.. Behold... There I was, treated with one of the best views... What a View to wake up to!!! Our cabins were on the Mountain slope and overlooking the Aurlandsfjorden and the Mountains on the other side of Fjords... There was a tinge of Mist all over and it seemed like a Majestic View to wake up to. We had a nice breakfast with some Bread toasts and a cuppa tea/coffee. Then we left Aurland for Voss to start the train journey. We were just in time to catch the train to Myrdhal. It was a very quiet journey and the train was full of International tourists.

Flåmsbana - Then we took the Flåmsbana down the mountains. It is one of the steepest Train journeys. This journey was fantastic and we went through some of narrow tunnels and beautiful sceneries. We stopped at a waterfall in between to shoot some photos. Infact this whole region of mountains are full of waterfalls and streams that trickle down from the mountain tops due to the melting snow. This was a very wide waterfall and we were greeted by some singing Norwegian blondes in the rocks near the waterfalls. We continued the train journey all the way to Flåm with lots of beautiful natural spots along our way. It was a truly wonderful train journey.

Boat trip on Nærøyfjord - We had our lunch in Flåm and then caught the boat for another magnificent journey on the Narrowest Fjord in Mainland Europe. For a moment, I felt like I was inside the Tolkien's Fantasy "Lord of the Rings" going on a Boat ride with the company of the Fellowship on the River Anduin in between two scenic mountains. Maybe Tolkein visited Norway to get some inspiration! The view on both sides of the Fjords was just breathtaking. Lush Green Mountains with plenty of waterfalls all along, cities below the mountains on the Fjord side and some lonely houses and cabins on Mountain tops. Now I can guess what Norwegians mean, when they say 'I went to my cabins in Mountains for Summer Vacation'. We passed some of the cities along the Fjords and entire journey lasted 2 hours and we could not enough of it. The View just kept getting better. Finally the boat trip ended in 'Gudvangen' and we had to switch to a Buss that will take us back to Voss.

Bus Ride through Stalheim: It was a nice and Comfortable Volvo Bus. We didn’t quite know the real power hidden inside the hood of that bus, until we started climbing up the steep mountains of Stalheimskleiva. It was one of the narrowest and steepest climb with plenty of Hair-Pin bends (13 to be precise!). That took us all back in our memories to the Bus rides to Ooty or Kodaikanal or Tirupathi and the reckless driving of some of the private and state bus drivers in these places. This ride was so smooth on a Volvo and we didn’t even feel a thing at the hair pin bends. We were taken to the top of the mountain there and the view from top of the mountain overlooking the ground below and the Mountains beyond into the Fjords was just beautiful. After a brief halt, we were taken back to Voss and we drove back to our Cabins after visiting the nice Bordal gorge on the way. After a tiring but fantastic day, we treated ourselves, to a nice dinner, the Indian way... We had some nice Pulau with Dhal, Aloo Capsicum Sabji and Raita. Sumptuous Dinner… It was the result of a good team effort from an extremely hungry bunch of people. This was the best part of staying in a cabin as compared to a Hotel. You could get a fantastic view outside the cabin and also a kitchen where you can cook your own food (worked out much cheaper than Restraunts) and also a bit isolated from the city lights so that you can enjoy the night sky.

Day 3(Sunday-Aug 06, 2006): After waking up to a nice view and making some French toast with Desi style Chai, we had to clean up and vacate the cabins. We got some information about some hiking spots and nice sight seeing areas around Aurland from the Caretaker of Cabins and headed to one such spot.

Aurland Look-out View: This road was a scenic drive up the mountains, straight above where we stayed. This is the same road which is an alternate route back to Lærdhal instead of taking the Tunnel back again. This is a long and winding road going all around the mountains and taking us back to the other side of the mountain through the roads which go on mountain top and descending on the other side. Extremely narrow roads just enough for one car and few spots for letting the cars in the opposite direction to pass by and full of Hair-Pin bends. Some spots were so scary that, it was steep down into the fjords and also lack of any railings on the side made it worse. We stopped at a look-out viewpoint at Stigastein, which provides a great view of the City below and the Mountains and Aurlandsfjorden. It’s a celebrated look-out point constructed by Canadian architects has received many praises. It’s a structure resembling a ski-jump which just dips abruptly giving a fantastic view of the Fjords. There is a small pane of glass to prevent people from falling. But if you dare look out from the edge, it’s quite a view. It’s truly a bird's eye view from there... Photos will give you a better description than my words! We spent almost an hour clicking tons of photos.
Undredal: Then we decided to climb down and go to a place called Undredal, another Norwegian city along the Fjords which gives a Ground level view of the Fjords. As usual, the drive was full of scenic spots, waterfalls, streams etc... I know it’s becoming too Clichéd. But believe me, it was beautiful scenery all around. This very quiet town Undredal is famous for Norwegian Goat Cheese and an old church called 'Stavkirken' pronounced 'Stavchirken'. It has 86 inhabitants and 1400 Goats. We spent quite sometime refreshing ourselves in the Fresh Cold waters on a stream, which joins the Fjords at Undredal. We sat down in the beach and chilled out for a while. Then we also had some Goat Cheese.

After leaving behind Undredal, we started heading back to Oslo through the scenic Mountain road instead of the longest road Tunnel. We climbed through the same road we did in the morning and drove on top of the mountains. It was a bit cold high up on the top and we found plenty of lakes formed due to trapped water from snow melting in summer, and also found lots of pockets of Snow which made it look snow clad mountain top. We stopped along the way and hiked up close to the Mountain peak called Prest Summit. It was a strenuous trek all the way and we decided to get back after sometime. Then we drove down to a place called Borgund to see the Historic 'Stavkirken', another one of those Old Norwegian wooden churches. By this time, it was very dark in the night and we decided to head back to Oslo without stopping anywhere. The drive back was a bit strenuous down hill, trying to control speeds at the steep corners and negating some dangerous turns. It needed at least couple of hot coffees and loud and cheerful music to keep myself awake and concentrate heavily on the drive back. Finally we made it back, safe and sound, in the wee hours of Monday Morning.

Now sitting here and back in reality, the weekend looks like a journey into one of the fantasies filled with scenic wonders, which makes my normal life look so boring and makes me want to become a mountain dweller.

More Fjords to visit,
Many beautiful mountains to explore,
So little time in one lifetime to see them all...

For trip Photos, click HERE

Helpful Links and Tips:

http://www.alr.no/

http://www.aurlandsfjord.com/

http://www.norwaynutshell.com

http://www.visitflam.com

http://www.fjords.com

By Car to these Fjords:

To go to this area from Oslo, Take E-18 from Oslo towards Drammen and switch to E-16 towards Hønefoss at Sandvika. Take E-18 all the way to Lærdal, Aurland, Flam, Gudvangen and Voss. This will take you through the Lærdaltunnellen. It is approximately about 4-5 hours drive from Oslo. Alternatively, you can take the same E-18 towards east from Bergen. Look at the first link for more travel details.