Norway Road Trip Stop 4: A beautiful surprise | Adventure Every Day
It’s not about the destination. It’s about those beautiful moments along the way. That may be adventure cliché, but some things are said for a reason.
Mom and I were late leaving the cabin. No surprise – I’m not a morning person.
Plus, I needed some time to play with my new companion of the drone variety, affectionately called Lil’ Sparky by now, so I could make that video from yesterday’s post.
We were supposed to make good time to Geiranger to do the tourist things there.
But here’s the thing about Norway: You just can’t escape the beauty in nature.
I say that often enough that perhaps it’s becoming cliché. But it’s true.
It’s almost like it doesn’t matter where you go. You certainly don’t have to go to the tourist spots – Geiranger, Trolltunga, Preikestolen, etc. – although those places of course are amazing.
You just have to keep your eyes open and take the most unexpected turns every now and then.
That’s how we found Reinheimen.
Hvor er det?
Reinheimen is nestled between the main roads E134 and Riksvei 15, both corridors leading to the heavily trafficked tourist centers of Geiranger and Trollstigen.
There were no plans to stop here. It was unknown to us when we left.
But after driving past more than one amazing-looking waterfall (Norway is full of them!), I thought we should finally stop and check one out.
Lucky for us, this was a good one to check out!
More so a rushing river than a waterfall, this thing really brought some impressive power. Summer in this region still means snowmelt in the mountainsides, and you could really tell it by the sheer amount of water careening through this canyon.
One of the first amazing sites was a standing wave caused by the water blasting up against a large boulder. It might not be so obvious here, but the wave can be seen right in the middle of this photo:
And then there was the color of this water. It was unreal. That is, in the areas calm enough to see more than just whitewater.
Every bit as beautiful as those teal blues you see in the Mediterranean and other such coastal areas, but with a tint all of its own. I'm not quite sure the pictures can even display it properly, but maybe Lil' Sparky can help:
Some more on Reinheimen
Reinheimen nasjonalpark is pretty new - just recently founded in 2006. It is, however, the third largest national park on the Norwegian mainland (not including Svalbard that is), behind only Hardangervidda and Saltfjellet/Svartisen.
I sure wish we had more time to explore it. There was surely way more amazing things than just the waterfall/river we stumbled upon.
Like it's wild herds of reindeer, for instance. Or the six DNT cabins on the land. But mostly, it's just vast wilderness, with few marked trails and even fewer buildings. Nydelig!
Trivia Time!
Okay geologists and earth historians, here’s the question:
How long ago (in years) is it estimated that Reinheimen was uncovered from the glacier that used to sit atop it?
An answer within the 1000-year estimated window wins 1 SBD.
Perhaps another time there will be more time to explore here...but for now, it was time to move on to Geiranger. At least that was the plan, until the events of tomorrow's post unfurled and brought the whole trip into question.
Adventure Every Day is a travel & exploration channel started in 2016. In addition to the Steemit blog, I post short films of my adventures to the Adventure Every Day YouTube channel.
Awesome - Norway is definitely near the top of my travel list (not far from SW England).
“It’s not about the destination. It’s about those beautiful moments along the way.” Couldn't have said it better myself.
Not sure when Reinheimen was uncovered from the glacier. I would guess sometime around the end of the Ice Age (11,700 years ago).
I did find this cool article, though, discussing all of the cool artefacts uncovered at Reinheimen (including a 1300 year-old-ski): https://thornews.com/2014/10/09/found-1300-year-old-ski-and-6000-year-old-arrows-in-reinheimen/
Thank you so much! And I do hope you make it to Norway! Let me know if you make any plans and want some tips, or a tour around Oslo if you come this way :)
Awesome - will do - thanks :D
If you're interested in going to Norway, flight tickets are generally very cheap from the UK to Norway, so pack a tent and you can go here and check out the nature for very cheap ;)
Great advice! Norway is of course an expensive country, but as you point out, there are ways to do it withot breaking the bank!
Yeah, absolutely. However, I think it can be really difficult for tourists to know how to visit Norway without spending a shitton of money. What I generally suggest is to bring a tent (because hotels are very expensive) and only buy food from the supermarkets (no eating out), and it could actually be pretty cheap.
Very true! I suggest the same to people coming, and try to practice it myself as much as possible!
Wow! That ski is really something. Probably one of the coolest artifacts I've seen here, and I've been to a lot of museums haha. Thanks for sharing that, as well as taking a guess at the trivia. It is possible that you are right, but the Ice Age held out a little longer up here, at least according to the sign at the park, so it was a bit more recent than 11,700 years ago that the ice retreated in this region.
Lovely!
Excellent information and clear writing.
I won't try the quiz. ;)
Haha thanks my friend! Yes, I was thinking it would be nice to be able to award a variety of folks through the questions, so I appreciate you letting it be for now, but feel free to stop by in a couple days and take a guess if nobody has gotten it yet!
That's fine. :)
I enjoy your posts - can't sell my soul for 1 SBD.
I can at least give you a small bit by upvoting comments! :)
Thank you! My vote won't matter at the moment. :)
My bucket list includes traveling Norway, Sweden & Denmark! I love exploring and fell in love with Iceland when I visited last summer. My guess to your trivia.... 6000 years! 😆
That's a good list! All 3 are surprisingly different even though they compromise Scandinavia and have very similar languages. When you come to Norway, be sure to spend as much time as possible *not' in cities, because the nature is what's special here. Hit me up when you're coming if you want any tips or possibly meet up :)
And good guess on the question, but unfortunately, it's not quite in the range given on the sign there. Sorry!
Yes I would definitely stay away from the cities! I like road trippin and finding cool stops along the way! Now you got me wanting to research a trip there sooner than later lol
Do it!! You've definitely got the right mindset for an amazing experience here!
Lofoten might be a place that interests you...
Thanks for the encouragement! I think I may have to start saving my pennies now! What month would you recommend to visit?
I would recommend summer, when the weather is nice (warm but not too hot) and the days are long (midnight sun!). Unless you want to see the northern lights, then you have to come from October-March. But if you want to tour and see the most, late May through early September would be the best.
That's a really nice place to end up when you didn't plan for it!
Indeed it was! Have you been there before? I wish there was more time to explore it.
No, I haven't, but I hope to visit the national park some day :) I haven't really been much around Norway at all; I've grown up and live in the Southeastern part, and this + the west part is what I've been doing some traveling in. However, I do live close to the Hardangervidda, so most of my trips revolve in the area around there :)
Such a beautiful country, you need to get out more! :)
Hardangervidda is cool though, I really want to explore more there as well.
Haha, yeah, absolutely! I intend to get a caravan (campingvogn) in a few years and explore some more parts of Norway ;)
Det må du gjøre!
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