Cruise ships in the fjord

We were parked at the trailhead and the weather turned out better than expected. We weren't originally planning to do the Prest Mountain trail, but I did some reading on the internet and even though it's a fairly short hike, it sounded like it was a good one just for the views of the fjord.

So we set off at 10:00am, headed uphill.

It was listed as a 2.5 kms (1.1 mile) hike, but it gains 550 meters (1,800') in that short distance. Uphill, every step of the way. But that's okay because we need the exercise.

It didn't take long to get a view!

Can you see the paraglider in the center of the photo just above the water?

Looking towards Flam.

Scenery along the way.

We are headed up there!

Looking inland.

We would be taking that road later in the day.

Climbing higher.

We can now see the village of Flam in the distance at the end of the fjord.

It looks like there might be a cruise ship in port.

Zoomed in.

The Iota is a fairly new ship, built in 2020. 

It carries over 5,500 passengers.

Heading higher.

Oh, there's another cruise ship coming in!

I took a video for you...

Fantastic scenery, and while I'm sure it looks really pretty from the deck of the ship, I doubt it can match the views from the hiking trail.

I do love the zoom lens!

Me, above the fjord.

Still climbing higher.

It was pretty steep in sections!

Enjoying the views.

It took almost two hours of steady climbing to make it to the top.

There's the road we drove up on the day before.

View from the top.

And looking the other way.

It only took an hour to get back down though.

Max was waiting patiently for us.

The next adventure was driving Max over the mountain to Laerdal. We were already pretty high up, but we were headed up into the snow!

This route is closed during winter.

Looking back at where we came from.

There is still a lot of snow up here.

All winter traffic (and most summer traffic) take the Laerdal Tunnel.... the world's longest traffic tunnel, at 24 kms (15 miles). The old route over the mountain is narrow in places, with pull off passing sections. 

Still a lot of snow up here. And likely some glacier sections as well.

It looks quite "arctic" up here, doesn't it?

This snowbank was taller than Max.

The mid afternoon temperature as we were driving through this section was 6C (43F).

Pulled off to admire the views.

We sat and had a late lunch up here.

The summer cabins are not yet occupied.

Heading down the other side, I didn't touch the gas pedal for 16 kms (10 miles).

Back at lower elevations.

On the outskirts of Laerdal.

Max, parked at GPS 61.099528, 7.480516

We found a decent parking spot in the town, and decided it was good enough to spend the night. 7 or 8 other campervans and motorhomes decided the same thing, but we were well spread out and it was a very quiet night.

Here's a map of our route the last couple of days...

Looks like things are warming up for a day or two... calling for 23C (73F) this afternoon!

Oh, Ruth wanted me to explain about some of the posts that you are seeing that don't look like they are ours. That's because they are not ours... they are sponsored posts that companies pay us to publish. You'll notice that you can't comment on them, and it's pretty easy to tell that we didn't write them. But we get paid an average of $150 USD each to post them, so it's worth our while and just another small income source for us while traveling. Just ignore them. 

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