A stunning day!!

I have been setting the alarm for 7.15am this last few days to try and get us up a wee bit earlier, today I thought I heard it but wasn't sure. When I finally woke I asked Joyce what time it was and she said 08:20...........my response was exactly as she had expected, I was SO annoyed!! She had got me hook line and sinker....but before I flew into a mega morning mood, she decided best to tell me it was only 7.20am..........Phew!! We had a chuckle about it later. I immediately got up and started to get breakfast ready, we planned to visit the Kjendalsbreen glacier, the forecast was fabulous and we wanted to get a bit further up the road towards Alesund also.

The weather was superb, and the morning view was stunning, one of the best we have ever woken up to. The boys were soon up, Logan is always eager to get out of bed, Callum not so as he is such a pest to get to sleep at night, he fiddles and fidgets and chats in his bed until late o'clock, and then doesn't want to get up in the morning. Breakfast scoffed, van tidied, boys had a play on swings and we still managed out the campsite at 09:20....a record for the past wee while anyway. It was a few km's up the very narrow road towards the glacier and we stopped at the wee honesty Toll box to pay our 50NOK to travel the last bit of private road. You write your registration number on the slip, the envelope under the slip records a carbon copy and into the envelope you put your money. The bit you write on gets displayed on the dash, I seriously doubt if anyone checks it, but we feel better being knowing we have done what is asked.

We parked at the end of the road and I was surprised to see a couple of tour buses already in the carpark. This was supposed to be a quiet valley. We chatted to one of the bus drivers or guides, not sure what he was but he was witty, he was asking what its like to drive on the wrong side of the road, and if we got dizzy going round the roundabouts the wrong way, lol. We also chatted about the lack of a ferry service from the UK to Norway, he couldn't believe that there is no direct link saying that UK visitors were the spine of Norwegian tourism for many years, surely a profitable ferry link running during the summer months would be viable. Soon we headed up the path to the viewing area of the glacier, I think this is where the bus groups stop, but there was a smaller path leading a good 15 minutes further on. I don't think I have seen a glacier like it, the thin tongue, although seriously receding extends a long was down from the main bulk of ice to probably somewhere in the region of 200m above sea level. I doubt it will be looking like that for long however, it's a slim shadow of its former self and it will most likely be gone in a decade or two. The boys had a good old stone throwing session in the glacial river.

We went back to the van and stopped by the Loenvatnet lake, this area has a tragic past. The lake is stunning but flanked by big hills with sheer sides. In 1905 a huge chunk of rock, estimated at 125,000 tonnes fell off the side of one of the hills from about 500 meters up and caused a mini tsunami that wiped out villages killing around 62 people, it also washed the little cruise ship Lodalan 350 meters inland where it was left in ruin. They families rebuilt there homes a bit further back thinking that it couldn't happen again, geologists said it couldn't happen again, but sadly it did in 1936, this time from 800 meters up 1,000,000 cubic meter of rock fell causing an even bigger, 70 meter high tsunami this time killing 74 people. The wreck of the boat was washed even further up the shore, where I think there is a memorial also now in place. The village was not rebuilt this time. The massive rock scar is visible in the photo. Theres a restaurant at the end of the lake, and this is not original either, it was wiped out by a huge avalanche in 1989 and rebuilt the following year, I don't think anyone was injured or killed this time.




We stopped in Loen Gondola bottom station carpark and had lunch, it was roasting, no idea what temperature but let's just say Joyce wanted to stay. That wasn't an option though, some mileage was required. We had considered taking a direct route to Alesund, we had read that the Geiranger Fjord area might be a wee bit overrated, but but I would hate to miss something special so we elected to take the 15 road east, and then the 63 road north en route to the Trollstigen which we hope to drive over. This may just have been the best decision of the holiday so far. I don't think I quite appreciated just how impressive some of this mountain scenery would be, there's no 4000 meter peaks like we are used to seeing and climbing like in the European Alps, but the huge peaks towering steeply above stunning green blue lake is quite incredible and it just kept getting better today. To be honest, I am just about fjord'ed out and need some proper coastal scenery (that will come soon enough), but today was stunning. The peaks and the climb from Stryn were outstanding, some tunnels were steep inside and also narrow, so passing a truck or bus meant stopping as close to the side as possible to let them pass. At around 1000 meter elevation mark we emerged from the final tunnel and the scene of frozen lake, snowy peaks and barren landscape. An also the most snow we had seen for a while. After a little more climbing to about 1038 meters we passed the decent sign saying 9% for 14km's..........hot brake time again. All the way down to Geiranger were hairpin bends, buses trying to pass us and each other to some amusement and lots of tourists off the 2 huge cruise ships moored in Geiranger fjorden. A stunning sight!! This is probably the steepest sided and also narrowest fjord we have, and will see. Joyce is already planning a cruise to see it from a different perspective in the future. We were all amazed, the cruise ship people (and anyone else I assume) can little Renault Twizzy, 2 seater electric vehicles, there were rows of them n carparks just waiting to be hired, they looked like a terrifying way to travel the steep hairpin roads that they were driving.

We toyed with the idea of staying there for the night, but it was busy and a total tourist trap so we then started the next big set of zig zags up and out of this fjord. It was'nt quite so bad, but the views back were pretty decent of course. We then dropped down again north to Eisdal and the ferry over to Linge. we have driven  east after Sylte and have found a free parking place on the shores of the Tafjord. It wa about 6pm when we got here, we have covered only about 60 miles today, but it was not a road you could or would want to try and rush. Parked up for the night, the boys threw some more stones and then we got out the fishing rod and Callum caught his first ever fish, a little Pollack, too small to keep but he was chuffed. He was too afraid to touch it to put it back but Logan the Brave was quite happy to do that part of the job. They were soon after bedded, Callum for once told us he was tired and ready for bed, yahoo!! And I managed a bit more fishing and caught a better Pollack, not big enough for us all so I will need to get another before we can claim a free tea. All good, and a truly superb day.