We were up early to take breakfast in the ship’s restaurant; early enough to watch the ship dock at the tiny town of Torvik from our table. Considering the size of the vessel, it was astounding how it managed to perform a pirouette as it docked. Evidently these ships are equipped with bow thrusters, allowing them to manoeuvre nimbly. Once again the appearance of fish on the breakfast buffet surprised me, but was not unwelcome.
Later in the morning, we made our way onto the sundeck, for the ship’s docking at Ålesund. Ålesund had recieved quite a high billing from Lonley Planet, however in the chilly and dull morning the most striking thing was the sound of the ships horn, which blew thrice as we approached the town. After the third hoot, the sound reverberated off the mountains amongst which the town nestles. The sensation was quite eerie; the sounds of being in a cave, but with sky.
On departing Ålesund, Chris and I headed below to prepare for approaching disembarkation at Geiranger, but hurried through this necessary chore motivated by the knowledge that we were headed into one of the most scenic parts of the route. As we sailed through the fjords Chris said that “Dan, I know this is a strong statement but, on balance, I think this is better than the Diablo III open beta weekend”. High praise indeed.
After a few hours of sailing, we were entering the Geiranger fjord; often billed as one of the most beautiful sights in Norway (and at other times as one of the most beautiful sights in the world). We braved the wind, to stand on the front of the ship as she navigated the fjord. The channel seemed narrow, but the mountains at its perimeter, rising well over a kilometre above us, destroyed all ability to recon scale and distance.
We had decided to leave our first ship at Geiranger. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and a place of extraordinary natural beauty.
Geiranger isn’t a deep water port; our ship waits out in the channel for the smaller MS Geiranger to act as tender, brining aboard embarking passengers and then collecting anyone going ashore (picture our ship viewed from the tender). Everyone else who boarded the tender from M/S Nordnorge with us was herded (and I feel the word is apt) off on some bland bus tour. We watched as the luxury coaches whisked them quickly up the mountain roads; their toughened glass windows, heaters and the growl of their engines conspiring to insulate all aboard from the real experience of the place. After a fast dash upto the a view point, the coaches headed back to Ålesund and their rendezvous with the ship.
In the middle of summer coach tours, touring caravans, cars and cruise liners bring an army of tourists to experience it... however it isn’t the height of summer, the road that connects Geiranger to settlements south is impassible due to snow & ice and shall remain so until late may. The cruise circuit, for reasons related to navigation and practicality doesn’t start taking in Geiranger until later in the season. This week is the first that Hurtigruen, the ferry that brought us here calls here and is one of only two ways in (the other being the road from the north). As a consequence the town is quiet, most of the numerous hotels and other accommodations are closed; the tourist population of the whole town currently numbers in the tens, rather than the thousands.
It is likely for this reason that after a little over 2Km hiking with full pack to the ‘ferrisenter’, where we had booked a cabin for the night, there was nobody in reception. Fortunately a quick call to the telephone number we had been emailed with our booking information rectified that situation.
[picture to follow]
When I booked the cabin I have been expecting something very basic and cold. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the sturdy little timber building was heated to a cosey temperature and well furnished including a large flatscreen television mounted to the wall (although it didn’t occur to us to turn it on for our entire stay). It also had a small porch with a picnic bench, and the advantage of being right on the shore. Whilst searching around for somewhere to stay in Geiranger (somewhere open that is) the only other option that had turned up was the 5 star hotel union; seeing now thier relative positions and how pleasant the cabin is I think its safe to say that turning down the option of sharing a hotel room for £200 a night was the correct call. The cabin, was far more spacious than was likely for a hotel room and equipped with a fridge hob, microwave, drying rack, sofa and dining table (none of which were likely to appear in a hotel room.
Due to the debacle with the unmanned reception, by the time we had made the 2Km hike back to town, with our walking gear we were running very late for shop; arriving only 1 minute before its advertised closing time of 16:00. Luckily we weren’t shoed out, but had to compress our shopping substantially. Throwing all sense of forward planning out of the window we grabbed some food for our immediate needs and then headed up the mountain.
Shortly a light to medium drizzle set in, requiring that we don our waterproof jackets. Initially we wound our way up the road, until footpaths became available to us. It was at this point that we realised that Norwegians seem to have a very different slant on public foot paths than back home. At this time of year at least, most of the “paths” we used were in effect full flowing streams in addition to being extremely steep.
By around 17:30 we had reached a view point overlooking the fjord from around 350 (vertical) meters above. We put together some sandwiches with the things we had bought in the supermarket, and used our picnic blankets to keep dry (sitting on one, using the other to keep the rain off our legs).
The path down to the some of the viewing positions is quite steep and treacherous.
After our lunch stop we decided to head up in the direction of the tallest peak. As we were climbing we passed many powerful waterfalls; the sound not dissimilar from a jet engine. On the quieter stretches though I noted the clarity of the tiny streams that fed the larger watercourses further down. This place beautiful both in its grandeur and its details.
As we wound our way higher up, we found a footprint that was very clearly left by a troll. Regrettably we were unable to catch up to it.
After a time we reached a point where the path was consistently covered with snow, and donned our snow grips.
Shortly after however it became apparent that we had taken a path other than that which we intended. Some of the way markers are painted onto rocks, and we suspect we missed some that were covered by the patchy snow lower down. This put us on the wrong side of a large waterfall, whose nearest crossing is back down the mountain side (around 300m above the fjord, by this time were in the region of 600m above it). Time had also gone on; by this point it was around 19:45, so we concluded there was no time to back-track and do the walk we had planned (at least not to do it and be sure of being off the mountain before darkness fell). Given that we decided to press on with the route that we were following.
Normally the route we were following was less technical; graded a difficulty 3 out of 4, but in April it is covered in over a foot of snow. This made for heavy going, and before too long we had an equipment problem. Chris’s over-trousers don’t tighten at the ankle (ironically, my much older, cheaper ones do); this allowed snow to get under the trouser hem and over the top of his boot. As a consequence melted snow had left him with wet feet. By this point we were (we estimate) around 700m up the slope (the peak of this particular mountain lies at around 1,400m. This high, and in these temperatures having soaked feet is no small issue, so we decided that 700m is high enough and turned around at about 20:30. On the bright side, the rain had stopped by this point.
No captain price from Call of Duty hasn’t joined the team; its me checking out the view.
Chris at the highest point we reached.
We walked, and occasionally ran and slid our way back down the slope; sometimes deliberately, sometimes not so much. When we got back to the cross roads at 300m, we decided to take a different footpath down into town. Finding that we were making excellent time though (we were now on a trail graded at 2 out of 4 in difficulty) we decided to take a spur to another view point, electing to visit the one at 500m. We passed by some lamas, the majority of the few that graze on these slopes. The trail went on to pas through a small, recently made clearing which smelled richly of pine.
The trail did increase in difficulty as we went higher, but a rope was provided to assist on the most treacherous stretch. Finally we had to cross a curious strip of snow that had the appearance of a frozen waterfall, running as it did from the peak, most of the way to the fjord below.
From 500m above the bend in the fjord the view was the best of the day, although we entirely forgot to take a picture that included either of us.
To get down we back tracked to where the spur rejoined the main path and headed down into town. This stretch of the route was in a state of disrepair from the winter, trees that had fallen during the winter blocked the trail in places, requiring us to clamber over.
After reaching the town, we hiked back to our cabin and arrived there around 22:00, as the light failed us. Perfect timing; no silly risks run, but not a minute of our evening in Geiranger wasted.
By the end of the day we had, in total walked up around 950 vertical meters of slopes, and we had no idea many km around the fjord over the course of 6 hours. Soon after getting our boots off and laying down we fell in that deep, replenishing sleep that one has to have scrambled up a mountain side to enjoy.
Geiranger in April left us with the feeling of having had the play ground to one’s self. Travel writers visiting Geiranger in its high season often complain of the impact of the numerous tourists on its beauty. Rarely are there fewer than 2 cruise ships moored in the fjord its self, belching black diesel fumes into the sky as their engines and support craft churn the waters. On this day in April, the fjord is empty, tranquil and though the clouds are in and plenty of rain is falling, it does little to dampen the impact of this place in the same way that throngs of tourists and noisy vehicles might.
Such a beautiful place!
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