Scandinavia - Day 8

After a rough sleep camping on a hill, we made coffee and oatmeal in the van before leaving Geiranger and heading - you guessed it - UP. We should come to expect crazy steep switchback roads by now. Again though, at least our early departure made for minimal oncoming traffic up the narrow road. We also noted that a cruise ship had come into the fjord in the night.

Continuing our trek along Road 63, we took the toll road up the spiral peak at Dalsnibba, where the mountain continues to narrow as you wind to the summit....where there is basically room for a small parking lot and a visitor's centre. It was cold, and extremely windy. We had the place to ourselves, but did not linger long for fear of losing a phone or van door to the wind. Still, it did afford a stunning panorama of the road and fjord below, complete with "tiny" cruise ship visible at the village.

We branched west on Highway 15 and followed several long tunnels towards the serpentine river valley and glacial lakes that lead to Stryn. As the rain continued, we took the roundabout in the middle of Stryn and headed for Loen and beyond. We drove a single lane road (not lane and a half narrow, but single lane narrow) around blind mountain curves to get a glimpse of glacial lake Lovatnet. Thankfully there was the occasional pullout.

Back in Loen, we checked the webcam at the top and decided it was worth the trip up the Skylift in spite of the fog and rain. It was a scenic ride up, and we enjoyed coffee and warmth in the restaurant at the top before soaking in more panoramic views outside. The rain did abate and the fog lifted some too.

Back on the ground after a very steep descent, we back-tracked to Stryn and made a grocery stop at Kiwi. With the help of a friendly local, we even tried out the automatic bread slicer that is ever-present in various grocery chains....and some more local potato chips to sample.

We continued west on 15, before jumping on E39, eventually catching the ferry from Lote to Anda. The rain intensified, as we followed E39 south now through high canyons and minimal visibility with water running off and flooding everywhere. At Skei, we stopped for coffee and a mental break at the Circle K.

Reinvigorated, we forked southeast from Skei and followed Road 5 down to Selseng, where we found a free park-up for the night at a very quiet public rest station on a lake. We boiled hotdogs, dug into the new paprika chips, and tried some sweet Norwegian brunost (brown cheese) on our fresh sliced bread.

Coffee and a "quick lunch".....for breakfast!

Geirangerfjord far below - that's a cruise ship down there, just for some sense of scale

Cold and windy atop Dalsnibba

Another long climb up some crazy roads

Mike and Winston negotiate a sketchy descent with little room for error

 

Cool authentic building at the Glacier Centre near Stryn

Grocery run in Stryn

Bread comes unsliced....then you slice it yourself right in the store!

Glacial lake at Lovatnet

Heading up the Loen cable car on a miserable day

The view from the top

Lovatnet to the left and Innvikfjorden to the right

Luckily the fog and rain relented a little later

Free park-up for the night at a rest stop

Sorlands chips win again!

But this was a little different!

The stunning drive back down from Dalsnibba