Journey Home

This is just going to be a load of pictures, with as little text as I can get away with for fear of inducing sleep in viewers.
I'll start with a nice scene from the ferry on the Anda to Lote crossing, at the head of Utfjorden, looking west through Hundvikfjorden, with the entrance to Gloppe fjorden, centre left.

Our route took us east past the shores of Hornindalsvatn. Over 500 metres deep, it is Europe's deepest lake.

Heading north through Hornindal we took a break at Horndøla bru (bridge). It's rather impressive, and in the background is a sharp peaked mountain called Hornindalsrokken.

Next stop was Hellesylt, a lovely little village at the south end of Sunnylvsfjorden.

Road access to the village is through a short (370m) curving tunnel called Hellesyltporten (The Hellesylt gate), which passes under the hill at the centre of this picture.

The village itself is one of the most scenic in the area.

 Especially the river which cascades down below the road bridge.

A ferry runs between Hellesylt and Geiranger. This route is extremely popular with tourists. I haven't been on it yet but that is on the cards very soon.
Here's the view out the fjord. The entrance to Geirangerfjorden is on the right.

Heading north from Hellesylt we passed through what are possibly the worst tunnels in Norway. Built in the late 50s or early 60s they pass through very unstable rock and there's a lot of water in them. To make matters worse just now the roadsurface of one of them had been dug up for resurfacing. At a few points in the tunnels there are actually small openings in the wall where you get a glimpse of the outside world.
Between the tunnels there are some magical viewpoints.
This is the view from just after the 2nd tunnel, looking in the mouth of Geirangerfjorden. The boat heading in is one of the coastal liners.

And this is the view from the main viewpoint before the last tunnel, looking northeast over Sunnylvsfjorden.
It's just a little bit further out this fjord, at Åkerneset, that a large chunk of the mountain (up to 85 million cubic metres) is being monitored, for fears that it may slip into the fjord creating a tsunami. If it were to happen many villages including Hellesylt could be wiped off the map.

We passed through Stranda and climbed the mountain road towards Sykkylven. There were a few nice mountains worthy of snapping.

The road down into Velledalen drops at about a 10% gradient in places. I stopped at a layby for this picture of the valley.

And the mountain at the north side of the valley.

We caught the ferry from Aursnes to Magerholm, across Storfjorden.
This is the view, in the fjord.

The view back towards Aursnes and Sykkylven.

And the view west towards Ålesund, which nestles behind the hills in the centre of the picture.

While on the ferry I spotted Peerie Trowie studying the map. No doubt plotting a devious route for our next road trip. By the way, I think that's only the 3rd time the sunroof of the car has been open this year.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Yun's aa fir enoo.