The long road north…
Norway week 4
This was the week for waterfalls…of all shape and sizes. Some close up and personal, others shimmering in the distance, sunlight catching the snow-melt pouring down the mountains.
It was wet and misty when we visited the Vøringfossen. Twisting trees eerily emerged through swirling mist. With such low visibility, and unable to see the other side, the crazy split bridge felt like a walk up into clouds and though we could hear the rush of the deep dropping water beneath us we couldn’t see it. Just as well…I’m not sure how my acrophobia would have coped!
Only an hour later, we were sat high in the mountains having coffee outside in the baking heat of the sun looking at a brilliant blue sky, and I sat drawing the sweep of the snow covered landscape stretched out before us.
Our journey took us back down into lush green valleys and a stop off to see one of Norway’s oldest stave churches at Borgund. It’s extraordinary and tickles all the senses. For a start, there’s the pungent smell of recently burnt timbers but is in fact the pine tar that’s been liberally applied for centuries to preserve the wood. This also creates it’s strange, molten texture and burnt umber colouring. And it’s tiny, a squish for just a few people inside.
It was a beautiful scenic drive through fjord valleys and high up into the snow covered mountain tops again with breathtaking vistas of changing peaks. I loved the tortoise shell mottling of umbers, siennas and ochre coloured heathers and grasses emerging through the melting snow after a long winter; and the purple-blue haze of the mountains disappearing into the distance. At one time, the sun piercing through scattered clouds spotlighting glaciers in the distance.
Lunch one day, beneath a raging waterfall, its cascading passage carving great undercuts beneath the snow shelf edging far into the valley below.
In stark contrast to this drama was the brief stop in Trondheim with its graceful river and colourful old warehouse buildings duplicated in its smooth surface. A hotel treat and an excellent Thai dinner…with an indulgent hour for me in the art shop replenishing my stock.
It took us five days driving from the pastoral landscape of Hjelmeland through the dramatic western fjords, mountain passes, across the vast tundra and into the arctic north to reach Bodo…our departure point for the Lofotens.
