Netherlands-Norway Trip Part Two
Eidfjord, Norway
- 1 traditional geocache found
- 1 EarthCache logged
- 1 really foggy day
Our ship arrived in the small town of Eidfjord, Norway at 7:00 am. After breakfast onboard, we ventured out to explore the town. Of course, my first priority was to find a geocache, so we walked to the closest one from the pier. It was large enough that I was able to drop off a travel bug that I had picked up during Geowoodstock the month before.
Signal met a new troll friend, the first of many that we would encounter in Norway. We took a short walk along the rushing river Eid, shopped for souvenirs, and then returned to the pier to meet up with our tour group.
Today’s excursion began with a one hour cruise through the beautiful fjords. We saw waterfalls along the way and learned about the creation of the fjords and history of the area. We then took a bus ride up the mountain to see the famous Vøringsfossen Waterfall. Actually, what I just wrote is somewhat redundant because in Norwegian fossen means waterfall.
The bus took us to a view point above the waterfall. We discovered that there are actually two waterfalls here. The Vøringsfossen is about 600 feet high. Directly across the ravine from it is the smaller Tyssvikjofossen.
Today we experienced what we learned is typical Norwegian weather in the mountains. It was cool and very foggy. In fact, there was so much fog that we could barely see the Vøringsfossen far below us. Walking over to a second overlook we had a much better view of the Tyssvikjofossen.
I had brought along my Nikon camera and tripod expecting to take several photographs of the falls, but ended up taking far more photos with my iPhone instead. I never even used my tripod because at each viewpoint there were chest high fences to protect us from falling into the precipice below. These were too high for my camera to shoot over if affixed to the tripod, but they also provided a handy place to rest the camera and keep it steady.
At the falls I also collected the information I needed to log an EarthCache. We then rode the bus back to the ship.
I went out on the deck that afternoon to enjoy the scenery as we sailed away from Eidfjord and through the Hardangerfjord. The views were amazing, and a member of the ship’s crew provided scenic narration so that we would know what we were seeing and learn more about the area. We sailed under a suspension bridge that is one of the longest in the world, and from the top deck I could see that we barely made it under. In fact, an antenna atop our ship scraped along the bottom of the bridge as we passed under it.
Our entertainment this evening was the legendary women’s music artist Cris Williamson. We also attended a 10:00 show by Mikalah Gordon who was a top 12 finalist on American Idol years ago.
When we went to bed well after midnight, it was still light outside. We were to learn later during our trip that the time between sunset and sunrise during summer months is only about three hours. Even during those three hours, it does not get completely dark, but is more like dusk.
antbedy 