«Our Scandinavian August» (the notes of an adventure seeker)

Since we entered Norway we have discovered the new kind of coast for ourselves – fjords. The majority of students have never seen it before. We have made several stops as we left Ballangen.

First, the group stopped near Kjerringvik on the shore of the Efjord. We could observe the landforms produced by glacial erosion. But one should start speaking from the explanation what a fjord is. It is a long, narrow arm of the sea which is a result of the “drowning” of a glaciated valley (especially after the melting of a glacier). The typical “representatives” of such landscapes are cirques. They are semi-circular, steep-sided basins cut into the side of a mountain. When the walls of the cirques are cut back of the back, steep-sided, knife-edge ridges are formed. They separate cirques. Scientists call them aretes.

But we were impressed not only by the cirques and aretes. The students became witnesses of tide, the stage of the low water. The little part of the bottom of the Efjord was not hidden under the water, so it was opened for our looks.

We reached Skardberget soon. It is located in the mouth of the Tysfjord. The road was interrupted by the narrow bottleneck of the fjord. To get the opposite side of the fjord’s mouth we took ferry. The trip lasted around 30 minutes, but it was enough to take photos of the surrounding scenery: pyramidal peaks of the Scandinavian mountains, steep aretes and the blue surface of the Efjord. We got off the ferry near Bognes where the group continued the route from.

Then we stopped near Tommerneset; we observed the landscape of the roche moutonnees (outcrops of resistant rocks smoothed by ice on the upstream end into gentle slopes, and plucked on the downstream end to give steep slopes). After that the group moved to the shore of the Sorfjord, with a good view on the steep slopes of the mountains, near Straumen for lunch. We also passed through several tunnels, made in the rocks of the mountains. What a wonderful “monument” to Norwegian engineers!

Finally we arrived in Saltstraumen –our last destination for that day. It was about 6 PM, the time when tidal current is the most powerful. To make it clear I’ll give some information on it.

Saltstraumen is situated in the bottleneck of the Saltfjord. The fjord is so long and its mouth is so narrow, that it leads to emergence of the world’s strongest tidal current. It culminates every 6 hours when great quantities of salt water rush through the 3 km long and 150 meter wide strait between Saltfjord and Skjerstadfjord (but actually we can say about 2 parts of the Saltfjord as one itself). According to the information given in the advertisement brochure the current speeds up to 20 knots! To sum it up, the huge whirlpools are formed in such conditions, reaching proportions of up to 10 meters in diameter and 4-5 meters in depth.

Also the current brings along plenty of plankton attracting a lot of fish (such species as saithe, cod, wolf fish, rose fish and halibut). When we got to the Saltstraumbrua (the bridge of Saltstraumen) we saw many birds flying so low over the water surface of the fjord. It is an evidence of big shoals. Our group regretted so much we did not bring our rods with us. The probability to catch something was so high even for non-anglers.

At that time it was the flow out. We came down almost to the rocky shore. I was much admired by the whirlpools that looked like funnels. The water was slightly green.

Then we went to the local camping where got very comfortable accommodation. The students also received the brochures with a timetable of the tidal current. The next one was supposed to be at 0:37 – a good reason to sacrifice our sleep. And many of us went to see the tide even it was raining. That was the incoming current. We devoted 10 minutes for that till the current got weaker.

We departed from Saltstraumen in 8:30. Our plan prepared a visit of the Svartisen Glacier – Norway’s second largest glacier (after Jostedalsbreen) and the lowest lying one in continental Europe. Today we are going to get to its western part. But it is ahead of us – now the bus is keeping the road Rv17.

The group made a stop after several kilometers. The site had a magnificent view of the opened Arctic Ocean. It was important to see, because the ocean was hidden beyond the steep slopes of fjords on the all way of our trip before this moment.

As it was said above, western slopes of the Scandinavian mountains are very steep. This “fence” retains much moisture air coming from the Atlantic Ocean. That is why there are many little powerful streams and rivers in Norway, which is favorable for producing of energy by means of HPS. And there is no wonder a place of our interest was a small stream rushing into the head of the Glomfjord (it is near Fykan). But turbines were hidden under the water and we saw only tubes coming up to the mountains. This river looks different from those I saw in the Caucasian mountains. It is much stronger!

Finally we arrived in Holand which is on the shore of the Holandsfjord. The group left the bus and came down to the shore. To approach the Svartisen Glacier (its snout), we caught the ferry. The “captain” of the “Isprins” (the title of the ferry that can be translated from Norwegian as “Ice Prince”) looked like real Viking. His name was Jan-Age Engen. He was nearly the same age with our group leader that is why they became friends immediately.

As we reached another shore the group took bus to cover remained hundreds of meters to get to our destination. The glacier we saw was a valley glacier. It develops from ice that has accumulated in the highlands. It is special ice made of pressed snow and frozen water. It flows down from the head.

We approached the snout of the glacier. There is a zone of ablation where ice gradually melts. It gave to birth a little stream which flows into a lake in front of the glacier. This lake is ice-dammed one. The terminal moraine, remained since the snout of the glacier retreated, plays a role of the dam. But there is a little strait connecting the lake with the Holandsfjord.

We start climbing up to the edge of the glacier’s snout to “touch” its ice and take photos, of course. I was much admired by its colour (I mean the inner body of the glacier). It was bluish and very bright! But snout’s surface was dirty, which accelerated the ice melting. Some of the students (especially those from Voronezh) cut out several pieces of glacier’s ice to bring it home. We also saw a group of climbers that were moving upwards along the glacier’s surface.

When we were coming down the clouds dissipated, which let the sun shine so brightly that surrounding became more beautiful. One could get blind looking at the ice at that moment – so bright it was!

We came back Holand by means of the same transport vehicles we took to get the glacier. Our drivers had to be jealous they had not seen such a beauty!

The group arrived in Jektvik at 18.00. We got on the ferry and moved to the south. The trip took us an hour. There was an important event – we crossed the Polar Circle again, but we were to the south from this latitude (66⁰33' N)!

The ferry reached Kilboghamn soon and we got in the bus to continue our route along the road Rv17. The bus went 10 km till we finally arrived in Bratland, where the local camping hosted us for a night.

Today we left our camping much later as it usually happens – at 10.00. Perhaps it was done to slightly extend our time, because according to the plan the bus had to cover only 120 km.

We passed through Mo I Rana, which is North Norway’s third largest city (25 000 inhabitants) where the county’s biggest industrial park is located, and nearly in 40 minutes arrived in Korgen. It is a little town, located on the road E6.

The local camping is conveniently located near meander of the Rossaga River. The owners of the camping did not expect our group so early, and we had to wait till the cleaning of cabins ends.

Eventually I stopped my look on a little bird near one of the cabins. This was a nestling of unknown bird. Perhaps he (or may be she) lost the way to a nest. I took photo of the bird, but when I came to see him again the bird had already disappeared.

Each cabin had its geographical title. I “settled” in that called “Roma” (means Rome).

After dinner the group leader offered us to climb a local mountain. And only some of the students agreed. I was among them.

We crossed the river along a bridge going the way we entered the camping in the opposite direction. Then the group approached the bottom of the mountain. But there was not any path for climbers – we saw only dense bushes among trees. The students had to pave the way themselves. We were eating raspberry and bilberry while climbing. The group was not aiming for the peak of the mountain. We reached a ground from where a wonderful view opened to us. The students saw the camping, meander of the Rossaga River, steep slopes of the opposite-standing mountains covered with coniferous forests. But there were also lots of bushes of bilberry on the ground, so we had eaten enough berries.

Suddenly it started raining that forced us to come back camping. When we returned the supper had been already prepared. I put on dry cloth and ate my meal. I did not regret I made this short journey, because I had eaten berries for the whole year ahead. With such ideas I fell asleep.