Water everywhere!

Norway is all about the water. It is everywhere... lakes, streams, fjords, waterfalls, rivers. 

And rain. Lots of rain. On average, Norway "enjoys" 239 days of precipitation per year. But all of that water makes for some beautiful scenery, especially at this time of year when snow is melting.

On Sunday we drove from our nice little campsite by the pond to the large town of Odda. We got driving right away as soon as we woke up. We're finding that there is a fair amount of traffic during the day, and a lot of motorhomes and campervans. And the roads are narrow in some sections, so it's nicer to drive when there is less traffic.

Part of our drive went up through a mountain pass...

Ice on the water.

It really wasn't a very nice morning!

You can't go a day here without seeing multiple waterfalls.

We stopped at the town of Roldal. Roldal has the distinction of getting the annual highest snowfall in Norway... an average of 11 meters (36 feet) of snow per season! But it has all melted already. 

A campground in Roldal.

Not our style.

The Roldal stave church was built between 1200 and 1250.

Apparently the interior is ornately decorated, but we were there too early in the day. Also, it costs 80 kr ($10.50 CAD, $8.10 USD) to enter so we wouldn't have paid that much anyhow. There is one stave church we will be seeing later that we might splurge on.

Water everywhere!

And tunnels. We drove through a lot of tunnels.

That is a lot of water!

So we're driving along and we see a lot of water spray right beside the road in the distance. It's two huge waterfalls. Actually three. One on each side of the road, and the water is just crashing down. And it's pouring rain, but we decided to put on our rain coats and go out and have a better look.

Wow.

What a lot of water!

And here's the one on the opposite side of the road.

Ruth, trying not to get wet.

But she wasn't successful. After about 15 minutes outside, we were drenched anyhow! Oh well, it's only water.

We drove into the town of Odda. It's only about 7,000 people, but it's probably one of the largest towns we've been in since we arrived. It's got a couple of decent size grocery stores, and quite a lot of tourism because it's in a popular climbing and hiking area. It's also located on a salt water fjord so has access to the sea.

This is the only photo I took in Odda.

We found out that there is a washing machine and dryer available at the tourist office. Surprisingly, it wasn't being used when we asked about it, and it was actually reasonably priced. Laundromats are hard to come by in Norway, so we did two loads and got all of our bedding done. For two loads washed and dried it cost 120 kr ($15.60 CAD, $12.15) which was cheaper than we expected.

We did some grocery shopping and then headed out to meet up with friends Marti and Ryan who had rented an Airbnb just north of Odda. They had checked with their Airbnb host and got approval for us to park in the driveway.

Max, parked at Marti and Ryan's Airbnb.

They have a gorgeous view from the balcony!

We had supper together, and then we had a meeting in the town of Odda to attend. On Monday, the four of us are doing the guided Trolltunga Via Ferrata route and we had to attend an orientation session at 9:00pm. 

We didn't get to bed until almost 11:00pm, and we had to be up at 5:45am!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nice price on the Dremel 4000 Rotary tool with Attachments. Normally sells for around $150.

And in Canada...

Men's Timex Watch.