The Hardanger is one of the designated national tourist routes of Norway and for much of its length uses route 13. It promises a varied mix of picturesque landscapes and roads and was roughly going south, so good to go.
I headed up into the mountains behind the campsite and 20 minutes later was able to look back at where I had come from.
The road wound its way across the high ground towards Voss.
With the high altitude (>600m) the lakes were still frozen
There was some lovely scenery and exciting roads as the route took me up and down the valley sides
This waterfall was about half way down the valley side.
This one Tvindefossen, further down the valley on the approach road to Voss, was very much on the tourist route
After Voss R13 continues to Gravin and then the ‘official’ tourist route continues along the fjord side and crosses by ferry further down.
I opted,however, to take the Vallavik tunnel which is a little bit special.
Apart from being 7.5km long it contains a roundabout from which the tunnel continues in two different directions. Surreal when you reach it for the first time! I have it on video from my helmet cam and will hopefully add it later - I chose to go down both routes in turn.
The first exits and continues for a few hundred metres and then exits onto a lovely valley from which you can see the bridge that the other route leads onto.
So I then turned around and went back into the tunnel and took the other exit off the roundabout across the bridge that appeared immediately at the tunnel exit and along that side of the fjord and down the river valley towards Odda.
In Odda I though I saw a sign for a glacier and so headed up the small road indicated. This was a little used gravel road that headed slowly upwards, very picturesque with the occasional rather cute wooly brown calves lying on the road verges.
The road was blocked for some reason further up and so I couldn't get very close to the glacier but took this shot just after I turned around - you can just see it creeping down off the mountain and its apparently called buarbreen.
Back onto route 13 and further down from Odda you suddenly come across Latefossen, a truly spectacular double waterfall that crashes down just metres from the road side covering anything that passes in copious amounts of spray as you drive across the narrow bridge.
It was now raining heavily again and so I ploughed on in search of somewhere to stay, eventually settling on a campsite in Roidal that had dry cabins for rent.
The next morning it was still wet and I continued heading south stopping only to take this shot of Flessefossen an hour further down the road.
Dry time was rare, sometimes there was a break in the rain for a short time, the only other respite was the tunnels, of which there were many varying in length from a hundred metres to several kilometres.
Cloud and rain was never far away though.
I was heading for Lysebotn today and had pre-booked a small local ferry that would take me from half way along the Fjord to Lysebotn itself to which there is only one road in and out.
The road down to the ferry point was a small little used one - the ferry itself does the length of the fijord, but only stops at this point if pre-boooked.
So I got there nice and early and waited quietly in the rain for the boat to appear.
The rain abated a little once on board and we headed off down the fjord towards its origin.
This Fjord has particularly dramatic cliffs at either side, that in the swirling mists reminded me of the ‘Gates of Mordor’ from The Lord of The Rings.
There is not much at Lysebotn itself, just a couple of campsites and the ferry stop itself. The attraction here is its remote location and the road out - the road goes from sea level up the cliffs via 27 hairpin bends and one tunnel.
The tunnel is about 1km long, has a 10% gradient, is unlit and even has a hairpin bend in it!
At about 700m up there is a coffee shop / cafe from where you can look down at the road you have just climbed.
It is not as visibly dramatic as the Trollstitigen, but is a more challenging road to ride and has double the amount of hairpin bends.
Once on the top the road continues to deliver an exciting ride up to the summit of around 1000m.
I headed off the main road a while later in search of a remote campsite that google was telling me was nearby.
Ah - there it is....
As I settled for the night, I realised this would be my last night in Norway, I had come along way since Nordkapp and the final section heading for home was about to begin.
I always get mixed feelings at this point on a trip - the highlights are over, things from now on become more ‘normal’ and with that there is a sense of losing something.
On the other hand of course, I’m going home, a decent bed, food, dry and fresh clothes and not having to get up and ride in all weathers every day await!
Just 3 more countries to cross.
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