Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Day19 - from Bergen to Preikestolen



We leave from Bergen as early as possible for us, meaning 12 o’clock. The sun is up telling us to have our bathing suits quickly ready at our next stop. We find our way out of the city to face more fjord-views that are never the same and we just can’t get enough of. 
Everywhere we look, there's proof of Norwegian racing talents on the road.... or tourists braking... maybe both. Miji is warned by the Co-pilote to not leave any trace!


Today’s goal is the camping close to the famous Preikestolen (pulpit rock) looking over the Lysefjord. On our way, Miji decides to skip a tunnel to enjoy more curvy roads around the mountain. We are not disappointed, the views are definitely better than the tunnel. 




We are trying to get to Bruraviki, from where our next ferry leaves. Curiously, we repeatedly see a sign with Bruraviki crossed... and then not crossed anymore, and then crossed again... We wonder what it could mean… impossible that the town just doesn’t exist anymore... mmm... weird, there are almost no cars on this road, we haven't seen any for the last 15 mins... weird... 
We just go on as planned until we reach the place of departure. Ok, ok. We get it. There is no ferry anymore!



But what should we do now? How do we get on the other side? There is nothing on the water, no boats at all, not even far away...



We decide to continue the road along the fjord… there is another ferry ~30km away... probably we can take that one... but then 3 minutes later, there is our solution! A huge bridge!!


Our road drives towards a tunnel, but this tunnel is the one we avoided earlier, mmm... we must be wrong... how do we go from the tunnel into the bridge?  mmm... and ?!!?? Why would they put a disco in the middle of the tunnel!?...



Ahh, its not a disco… but a roundabout in the tunnel! Amazing! Civil engineers in Norway must have a blast!!

We cross the bridge and, at the other side, there is another disco.... nice discooo, oups!! Wrong disco exit!  No problem, we need a break anyways! We stop at the Bu Kafè, which is just at the end of the tunnel if you take the wrong disco exit.



The owner wearing a ‘mi-casa-es-su-casa’ T-shirt explains us the story of the ferry and the bridge and the discos: It is the longest bridge in Norway and has cost 3.2 billion NOKs, well, a lot of money. The whole town was against this project, especially since the locals would have to pay a toll 3x higher for each crossing than the price of one ferry-crossing. Then there was this gigantic windstorm a few years back, and the place where the tunnel was anchored became lose. The bridge had to be closed to make new anchoring. It's a huge thing, and now, with the discos inside, tourists get disoriented and lost (blinded?) and end up in her café… she gets about 10 tourists per day, just like us. So she tells us to have a coffee, relax and get oriented again. We do as told.

Once back on the road, we go through the tunnel and disco again, take the right disco exit and… where are we??? oh! It’s Lavaux in Lausanne! This just looks alike! Except the wines are growing cherry trees. 



We stop again, to buy and taste the local Moreller.


The heat is not only getting to us. Everywhere we look, people are enjoying the cool water. We have lost some time with our disco-tunnel-experience, so we still resist doing the same.




Miji – feeling a bit lonely on these bike-perfect-roads - practices his learned echolocation… and success!  He detects a baby squid to chase and play with.


Waterfalls into the fjords are present everywhere. We pass another tourist attraction – the twin falls. Very refreshing! We go on, and oh!!!



In the middle of beautiful transparent lakes Isa yells: the lens hood is gone again! What! Nooo! How? Why!? Amazing, this last one lasted for only one day... Here is the last pic with it falling off…


Mood is tense again… how could the photographer loose it again???!!! Why is she soooo... distracted??? Hmm… beautiful scenery, 40°Celsius in bike-cloths, water all over? Might these be reasonable excuses? mm.... A few minutes later, a beautiful swimming spot presents itself, the driver silently stops… Isa jumps in… Miji follows (not daring to admit that it’s too cold for him)…. Oh what a great feeling!! The mood lightens again!! After all, it’s superb here!


The sun is about to set and we are still riding.... but it is so beautiful...



We arrive at the camping, we have lake view. We try to eat our diner outside but instead we start fighting with thousands of tiny tiny mosquitoes… they are soo small that they are almost impossible to see! What are these beasts!? They bite too! We loose the fight and escape inside. We then do a bit of blogging and get our  things ready for tomorrow’s hike.




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