Tuesday, July 8

Tuesday facts - Geirangerfjorden

The Geirangerfjord is a fjord in the Sunnmøre region, located in the southernmost part of the county Møre og Romsdal in Norway. It is a 15km long branch of the Storfjord (Great Fjord).
The fjord is one of Norway's most visited tourist sites and has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
On the journey back to Oslo a week ago we decided to take the 50 minutes ferry voyage from Hellesylt to Geiranger and once more experience the beauty of nature and challenge of culture when catching photos from this magnificent place on earth.
The first photo is taken high above the beginning of the fjord from the road between Stranda and Hellesylt. The mist is breaking up and we see our ferry coming.Along the fjord's sides there lie a number of now abandoned farms. Some restoration has been made by the 'Storfjordens venner' association. The most commonly visited among these farms are Skageflå, Knivsflå, and Blomberg, but we can also see Matvik and Syltevik on our voyage. A map over the fjord with photos can be seen here
The first farm we meet at the right side is Matvik where the local climate made it possible to grow oranges, grapes and even apricots On the right side we see the Syltevik farmand see the steep mountain walls going straight down to the see from 1000 m above.You may well understand that the animals and children at Blomberg farm above Syltevik had to be tied so they did not fall down the slope.
The two most famous waterfalls in the fjord is the Seven Sisters and the Wooer or Suitor
There is an old story that the wooer never had any luck with the sisters so he turned to drinking as can be seen in the middle of the waterfall.
Close to the Seven Sisters is the farm Knivsflå and across the fjord the perhaps most famous farm Skageflå. Queen Sonja and King Harald invited over 30 Royal guests to lunch in the farm courtyard when they celebrated their silver wedding in 1993.When the fjord makes its last turn to the right you can see the road between Geiranger and Eidsdal: The Eagle Road. The road swings through 11 hairpin bends up from the Geirangerfjord and to the highest point on the stretch, 620 metres above sea level at Korsmyra. The road was officially opened on 15th September 1955 and gave the village of Geiranger year-round road access. The road was an attraction from the very first day, and was called Eagle Road because at its highest point it passed through terrain that had traditionally been the domain of a large number of eagles. The name also reflects the wildness, the spectacular that tourists and others using the road will experience, especially if they stop at Ørnesvingen, the highest of the hairpins.On the right side the nature has made it possible to announce the waterfall-wedding from the Preachers balconybut the Mountain King have to accept the wooer first, and until now he is still silently hiding in the steep slope.After going ashore from the ferry the only reasonable next stop is on the Dalsnibba summit where you in good weather (as we had last year) can see Geiranger, the fjord and Eagle Road from 4843 ft (1476m)

3 comments:

mrsnesbitt said...

What an area of outstanding beauty!

GAWO said...

Denne posten bringer gode minner om sommeren 2007. Jeg , og 3 andre kjørte sammen her på en MC tur. Et ord deker det hele: fantastisk. Naturen er så mektig og opplevelsene står i kø. Det er godt at alt dette finnes i Norge. Jeg anbefaler alle å ta den turen du har beskrevet. Å kjøre MC (stor MC ) opp Ørnefjellsvegen er en utfordring, men også en sann glede. Jippi for denne posten her Arne. Klem fra GAWO på 2 jhul

becky aka theRAV said...

I really liked the next to last photo because it looks like the rocks have a face which would make a great Odd Shot too.