from the rugged coast through the fjords and into the mountains!

Today, we went from Alesund to Sunndalsora, at the tip of the Sunndals fjord, where Iren and her family live. As a crow fly, it is probably a maximun of 100km. However, we are not crows, and as the map of the area we covered today shows, the coast and near coast of this region are so deeply carved by the fjords that to go anywhere requires a complex route that involves a combination of ferrys, amazingly deep tunnels, and a lot of bridges.

We first headed off to Molde, which involved a 25 minutes ferry.

Molde is a largish city, that is barely reachable other than by sea (they are roads, obviously, since we took the car out of the ferry and drove from there, but all the road go to other, even more remote islands and peninsulas.....).

From Molde, we took a detour to Bud, because we wanted to take the Atlantic road, which we had read was spectacular. Bud itself was pretty and interesting, as it was part of the Atlantic wall, and you can still see the bunkers that overlook the Atlantic. Also, the scenery is spectacular - but must be brutal in the winter. Even on a nice sunny day, the wind is cold, and it is hard to imagine life here during the winter storms.




But a lot of people live there (see little house in foreground). In fact, what surprised me the most during this entire drive is that the coast is really quite highly populated - there are lovely villages scattered everywhere, and it is both grand an bucolic. But oh so hard to reach! It is hard to imagine how a uniform culture evolved there - it must have been so hard to go from one place to another before the bridges and tunnels, and ferrys of course..... no wonder the vikings became such good sailors.....

One of the canons of the Atlantic wall.




My hair- as always- provides a good indicator of how windy it is..... I have given up on trying to keep it presentable....

Just imagine what the winter storms must be like!

The Atlantic road is a marvel of engineering, linking little islands with beautiful bridges and great views.
 

People stop along the way to fish in the fjords, but we did not see anyone catch anything (apparently, it has been to cold and the salmon season is late).

 the vegetation is very pretty, but almost a tundra....

 Another magnificent bridge!



From Kristiansund, we took a very deep tunnel (like- REALLY deep!- it went down for about 2.5km, and rather steeply at that... If I were not too tired, I'd check hoe deep it is.....) under the Arsundfjorden, and headed back south toward Sunndalsora.

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While the views on the way were very pretty, it was not until after dinner that we were able (thanks to Iren's father) to get a really grand view of the fjord from above. We took the old road (before the 7km tunnel that now reaches the town much faster) which went along the fjord. It's obviously less practical then the tunnel - but what a view!
(picture of me and Joe - to prove that he is still around...)

 This is the city of Sunndalsora, where Iren lives.  In the foreground, you can see the very large aluminium plant that is the primary industry of the town  (because of the hydropower that comes for free from the mountains).

This is the view from Iren's background.....

 I took a sort walk after dinner along the base of the mountains that line the fjords.  There are water falls everywhere - just love being surrounded by that sound! 

 On my way back, the sun was just starting to get lower on the valley.  
Tomorrow - more mountains, water falls, hiking and maybe fishing.