June 18 - Geiranger to Fjaerland/Mundal

When we awoke this morning, the tops of the peaks around Geiranger were shrouded in cloud, meaning that to drive out of the fjord, we would be driving up and through these clouds. We encountered the cloud ceiling at about 600 m, and were still in dense cloud at 1000 m when we went over the pass south of Geiranger. We were sure glad to have come up this way yesterday to see everything in sunshine.

As we headed down the other side of the pass, the cloud thinned, and the sun broke through at about 650 m. So down the other side we traveled until we reached first the Jostedalsbreen National Park Centre, and then on to Stryn on the north shore of Nordfjorden. From there, we headed around the head of the fjord and along the south shore to Olden. All around us were tall snow-capped mountains (1500 - 2100 m) that rose dramatically and majestically above the lush green farmlands surrounding the fjord.

At the head of the Oldedal Valley is Briksdalsbreen, a tongue of the Jostedalsbreen Ice Cap . The ice cap, mainland Europe’s largest, covers an area of almost 500 km2 and 400 m thick in places. With global warming, the toe of the glacier has retreated about 150 m during the past 10 years.

We stopped for lunch overlooking Nordfjorden just above Utvik in the bright sunshine. As we drove over Utvikfjellen towards Byrkjelo, the phone rang, just as we were passing a downhill ski area. It was Eric, so pulled over for a quick roadside chat.

On then, down a narrow U-shaped valley, Valedalen, with trees extending all the way up to the skyline. At Skei, we decided to head towards Fjaerland & Mundal to see the Boyabreen and Supphellebreen glacier tongues (part of Jostedalsbreen), and the Norwegian Glacier Museum. Until recently, both of the glacier tongues were quite easily accessible, but now, they too have retreated upwards several hundred metres, leaving a rocky and cliffed pathway that is inaccessible to most people. It was fun to see the rugged and extensively crevassed blue-green ice at the ends of the glacier tongues.

We should mention too that the lake valley that extends southeast from Skei is quite spectacular with its sheer rocky sides that appear to be eroding in sheets from the dome-like mountains. Along this section of highway, there are some tunnels, including one that is almost 7 km in length.

At this point, it suddenly dawned on us that it was early evening, and time to stop. The day had flown by. We decided to look for accommodation in the Fjaerland/Mundal area, and here we are for the night in a small hotel on the shores of Fjaerlandsfjorden, a north trending arm from Sognefjorden to the south.

And that ends what seems to have been our ‘glacier day’.