Into Each Heart Some Water Falls

Norway

Norway is a fantastic country. It's a wonder that the people succeed in actually living there, and have good lives at that. The Norwegians have known hard times, living from the icey sea and from the land that yielded maybe just enough to survive on. So now, the people try to manage the oil money wisely and make it last for everybody.

The geography and climate of the country are really dramatic, there is no dull place to be found. Steep mountains plunge into deep fjords, the coastline is ragged, and the climate is rather harsh: snow, wind, rain, and some beautiful sunshine all year round. We went there camping in June 2009 and when we arrived somewhere north of Bergen, we had to cross over into Sweden because it really got too cold in our small tent.

on route 44 a shelter from the storm... in an old Roman style church: Fear God and Honour the King sleeping giant near route 13 flowery rooftop waterfront houses in Bergen polar landscape looking out over Oslo from Holmenkollen
Such a geography includes waterfalls in many places, so we can present here some examples of Norwegian cascades, even if some are stopped into glacier-like hangings...

Evje

We landed in beautiful Kristiansand on Norway's south coast. We followed the Otra River up north in the direction of Evje. We passed our first night in small huts that are much more convenient than tents in rainy and cold weather.
We came back westward near the coast to follow the famous Route 44, passing through Flekkefjord and Egersund and finally heading for Stavanger.

rapids on the Otra River small waterfall on the Otra typical whitewashed wooden house in Stavanger
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Røldal

Halfway between Stavanger and Bergen, enchanting Røldal lies amidst a ring of mountains, most of them with snowcaps and frozen falls coming down from their brim.
Norway has a tradition of wooden churches built around wooden posts (staves). One of these stavkirkes stands in Røldal.
stavkirke in Røldal whitewater brook rapids all the way marvelous colour small bumps in the river another rapid lazy waterfall lying down like strands of hair coming all the way down the hill another hurrying brook frozen lines coming from the brim ice on top and ice coming down a big waterfall ike a white beard is it steam or mist? a bridge built by daring people Touché looking up the misty waterfall freezing cold out here! a chaotic waterfall very misty very busy waterfall spreading open a very large fall
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From Bergen over Stalheim to Undredal

From rural Røldal we continued to beautiful (and for once sunny) Bergen, and then back to the interior, to Stalheim with its dramatic landscape and high falls, and to cosy little Undredal.

overlapping curtains a beautiful setting getting ready to jump down from white to icey blue stepstone falls the long falls at Stalheim hip hip hurrah a lo,g shot
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Lovely Undredal

Undredal, at the Aurlandfjord, is world famous (or should be) for its goat cheese. It's quite an expensive and exclusive kind of cheese, cured and transformed into some kind of light or dark brown paste with a very distinctive taste. A small amount provides at lot of delight for the buds on your tongue.
Large herds of goats roam in the rocky surroundings of the village. Big cruise ships make a stop at the jetty, quite a sight, the enormous ship dwarfing the village. The campground is right in the middle of it, with houses all around. We felt we were the main touristic attraction of the village! Undredal also has a small stavkirke.

a brook running to the Aurlandfjord the village of the goat impressive Aurlandfjord a cruise ship near the Undredal jetty at the camping another view of the Aurlandfjord Undredal's stavkirke, Norway's smallest
The weather at Undredal was quite warm and sunny, but when we left, it turned into misty, cold and rainy. We decided that going further north in the direction of Ålesund would leave us 'freezing' in our tent, so we headed eastwards, in the direction of Lillehammer, Oslo and Sweden.
We had a last, very nice cabin at the place of a very fine old lady...

the last Norwegian rapids the most beautiful little cabin
All photos, movies, and texts (except those signed by Touché Guimarães) were made/written by Guy Voets, and everything is published under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license (attribution, non-commercial, share-alike).

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photos from 2009.

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