Europe

GEIRANGER has a a town of 250 people (up to 500 in summer) with one school, no doctor (one flies in once a week) and very little services, most likely because they get 36 feet of snow in the winter.

The ice ages started around 2.6 million years ago. The continental plate on which Norway lies had shifted and the glaciers formed a mantle over the landscape and continued digging where the rivers stopped … deeper where they are heavier … creating the fjords. Geirangerfjord considered is a UNESCO World site for its beauty. The mountains around the fjord are 5,000 feet high and we saw wonderful waterfalls there too. Many of the farms that used to be on the hillside (in the 17th & 18th Centuries) and on the steep cliffs are now hotels. Norway was poor until oil was discovered in 1969 and is now one of wealthiest in the world but this area is still a beautiful preserved place settled by the Mjelva family who built a hotel, Hotel Union (still there but rebuilt and expanded many times), 130 years ago which built up the area and began the development of roads up to the top of Mount Dalsnibba. The fjord to get there is 10 miles long and 2,000 deep in most places. Being the highest fjord view in all of Europe, we took a lot of hairpin switchbacks up the mountain in a NEW van (it was its first trip) to the Geiranger Skywalk at 4921 feet. The viewpoint of Flydalsjuvet was incredible with great views of the Storseterfossen waterfall.

Frozen Djupvatnet is a lake (.77 sq miles) that we stopped at on the way down (3,333 ft above sea level) but it had totally melted in the few days since the tour guide had last been there. Beautiful turquoise blue-green, from where the glacier scapes ocean particles up and reflects them.

Then after driving down Mount Dalsnibba, we drove up the other mountain facing up the fjord on Eagle Bend Road called Ørnevegen. This road “only” had 11 hairpin bends but provided a spectacular viewpoint of the fjord from a different angle.

When we finally got down, “we didn’t have enough” so then I walked up the Waterfall trail Fosserasa and some great shots and videos from the way up and at the top.

Finally back on the ship on our way out of the fjord we passed The Seven Sisters Waterfall (see the great photos from our balcony).

Like everything in life there is a challenge beyond just their difficult day to day living on the mountain (in particular in winter) even for these lovely quiet communities on the fjord. Åkerneset is a steep and mountainous part (450’ 1800’ above sea level) of the western fjord side of the fjord. In 1983 a person discovered “The Crack”. It used to be a long but narrow fracture in the rock along the mountain side. Now it was a couple of 5’ wide. The length is around 1500’. The fracture has been widening 2” each year, and is still widening (with movement found 200’ under ground). From 2004 a considerable number of electronic measurement methods have been utilized to give a continuous surveillance of this area. It has been estimated that possibly 54 million major rockfall is about to slide into the fjord. Scientists have stated that this one day will happen; it is just a matter of time which will create tsunamis (up to 300’ high) of sizes never ever experienced in historic time in Norway. In order to handle the situation in case of this kind of scenario, the authorities have made detailed plans for quick evacuation of the population and other measures. See the movie, The Wave Norway (2015)
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