We board a bus in Flåm, headed for the Fjords. The bus terminal is just behind the comparatively large tourist centre for such a small town. We have spent the morning here, organizing our tours for the day and taking a walk up behind the town towards the hills.
The bus now takes us disappearing into the approximately 11.5km Gudvanga Tunnel to the little village of Gudvangen (place of the gods) where our fjord cruise departs. It strikes me as a little sillly to go from getting here on a large cruise to a smaller cruise. Still, this is what you do here. And I am not disappointed.
This cruise takes us from Gudvangen along the Nærøyfjord where it turns and joins the Aurlandsfjord back to Flåm. Even as we set out it is already spectacular. This area is, after all, a UNESCO World Heritage area. Both fjords are offshoots of the larger Sognefjord which weaves its way through the Sogn og Fjordane county and back out to the Norwegian Sea.
We pass the little village of Bakka (on the hill) with its church (sometime referred to as the Nærøy church) and houses. The scenery only gets more breathtaking.
A little further along the fjord is Tuftefossen which refers to the waterfall dropping 680m along the river Tufteelvi, rather than the little township in front of it.
While the waterway here is not particularly wide, the mountains soar above us. In fact, this is a sidearm of one of the deepest fjords in the world. There is no snow at this time of year but the wind feels like it could be trying to blow some in. The peaks reach 1800m above us into the sky. More picturesque little houses are dotted along the shore, made miniature by the soaring mountains and more cascading waterfalls that cut through the green landscape.
Up until 40 years ago this area was primarily farm land. Today, the farming still exists but tourism has firmly taken over as an industry. The 100 or so inhabitants of the township of Flåm and other villages that cater for tourists like Gudvangen are heavily geared towards the steady flow of visitors that roll through in regular cruise ship size waves. Sometimes two ships per day dock in the fjord during the summer months, although there are days in the schedule where there are none. Presumably these are quieter days around these parts.
The cruise ships are indeed controversial. Since the year 2000 when the new dock at Flåm opened it is said that the steady arrival of ships is having an effect on the townships and the waterways.
For my part, I am overwhelmed by the beauty of what I see and want to capture the whole thing just the way it is today. I go mad with the camera. Every shade of green you can imagine lives here – deep, dark bottle green, forest, olive and spinach green. Then they get lighter – pea green, grass green and emerald. Dark and delicious, vibrant and vivacious.
As we pass Aurlandsvangen and drift closer to the end of our 2 hours on the water we have only seen two arms of the Sognefjord and I long to see more. There are more than a thousand fjords in Norway. Although the water looks clean enough to drink and an awful lot of fresh water falls into the fjords from the annual snow melt, what looks often like a still blue lake is actually saltwater, connected to the sea.
It feels like we are in another world here, a unique secluded universe, the majestic cliffs rising on either side, the untamed landscape dotted with pastures and farming villages.
As the tour boat docks in Flåm we disembark and go back to the big ship for lunch. It’s close by and easily accessible and we are able to pick up Jasper, who has spent the morning at the kids’ club, to join us for our afternoon train ride on the Flåmsbana.
Would I Return?
Yes. I would certainly love to return here, it is renowned for its mountain hikes and glacier walks. But perhaps what would draw me back is the little villages, each with its own story to be told, reminiscent of a slower pace of life. If one thing is certain it is that more time is needed.
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