For years I’ve read and heard about how beautiful Norway’s North Sea coast is—the fjords, the mountains, the waterfalls, and the glaciers—and today we got our first opportunity to see some of it for ourselves. There’s more to come over the next couple days, and I expect to do a lot of smiling, because getting out into the wilderness has always been one of my favorite things to do.
We docked this morning in Haugesund, a small city of 37,000, but more importantly, at least to me, it brought us the opportunity to do a cruise up the Åkrafjord and see the Langfoss Waterfall. And how much did I want to do that? So much that I passed up the chance to walk into town and see the sculpture of Marilyn Monroe, whose father supposedly emigrated to the United States from Haugesund. That much.
Getting there involved a fairly long bus ride, well over an hour and a half, but that was okay because the scenery along the way was outstanding. We passed by five other fjords on our way to Åkrafjord, and they were all pretty, as were the rugged mountains, tiny villages, and fields of grazing sheep.
A little before 11:00 am we arrived at a combination restaurant and grocery store, where we were served a nice early lunch, before making a short drive to the dock on Åkrafjord to board our tour boat.
We were on a nice, large boat with plenty of outdoor seating, and Michele and I grabbed two chairs in the very back (stern is probably the correct term), giving us an unobstructed view of the passing scenery. The trip to the Langfoss Waterfall, our ultimate destination, only took around 25 minutes, but on the way we enjoyed some really nice views of the passing mountains, along with the glacier-fed Mosneselva River. The glacier itself was out of sight behind low clouds, but we’re supposed to get up close and personal with another glacier tomorrow, so I didn’t mind.
Then we reached our destination, the Langfoss Waterfall (Langfossen in Norwegian), considered to be one of the ten best waterfalls in the world. The waterfall plummets a total of 2008 feet in a series of drops and cascades before entering the fjord, and we were able to get so close to the bottom that the crew of the boat was able to gather a bucket of water directly from it. Each of us then had an opportunity to drink a cup of that water, and I thought it tasted pretty good.
Afterwards we motored back to the dock to reboard our bus, which delivered us to a parking area right at the falls, giving us another chance to enjoy Langfoss and take some more photos.
From there we headed back to Haugesund, and I took a little nap on the way, something I’ve gotten pretty good at. When we have a lot of long days in a row it’s a real benefit to catch a little extra sleep on the longer bus rides.
I shouldn’t finish without mentioning that we passed through several tunnels on our way to Åkrafjord and back, one of them 4.5 miles long. The mountains here are tall and rugged, and tunneling through them was the only way to build a reasonably useful roadway. I can’t imagine what it must have cost to dig all those tunnels, though.
We returned to Haugesund a little ahead of schedule, so our bus driver took us on a short tour of the city before delivering us to the ship just before 4:00 pm. All in all I was delighted with our day. We got a great look at the local mountains, forests, farms, and fjords, along with a visit to one of the world’s best waterfalls. Can’t ask for more than that.
As I wrote earlier, tomorrow we’re scheduled to visit a glacier, which I’m really looking forward to. I’ll tell you all about it when we get back, so watch for my next report.
Leaving Haugesund in the morning under threatening skies. The rain held off though, and actually improved during the day.
We saw quite a few fields where sheep were grazing.
One of the five fjords we passed on our way to Åkrafjord.
The scenery just kept getting better.
I shot these photos out the bus window. Otherwise they’d be even better.
There were some pretty farms and villages along the way.
A little village near one of the fjords we passed.
At our lunch stop Michele found a drop box to mail a postcard home.
Took this later, but this is the boat we took to reach Langfoss Waterfall.
Leaving the dock on our boat ride to the waterfall. In the background is one of the tunnels we passed through on our way there.
On our way to the waterfall we passed the Mosneselva River, which is fed by a glacier high in the mountains above.
Approaching the waterfall. You can get a feel for how high it is by looking at the buses in the lower left of the photo.
Nearing the bottom of the waterfall. It fans out into several smaller streams near the bottom, allowing the boat to get quite close.
Close enough for a crew member to lower a bucket and capture some water for us to drink.
Bottoms up.
The wind was strong enough that I had to turn my hat around to keep it from blowing off.
Last photo from the boat.
Afterwards our bus pulled over a short walk from the waterfall to give us a chance to see it from a different perspective.
The waterfall was pretty too.
Up close to a small side channel branching off near the bottom of the falls.
One last view from a pulloff. Cool bus stop with a great view.
Back in Haugesund. A Bishop who has studied Norwegian crosses closely believes this one may have been a monument to King Eric Bloodaxe, who died in England in 945 A.D. That would make the cross more than a thousand years old. It broke apart in 1846, and was patched back together in 1869.
Some wildflowers near the cross.
Back at the ship. We had fun today.
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