Odda

I came to Odda, in Norway, with the intention of climbing Trolltunga mountain. Odda is a small town situated at the end of a long fjord, and it is a popular base for hikers wanting to go to Trolltunga, along with many other mountain based activities in the area. The town has good accommodation for tourists and even a shuttle bus to get hikers to the Trolltunga trail head, or at least it does in during the summer season. I was there in winter/spring and the weather was not great, with lots of rain. The up side was that everything was nice and quiet.

I had a long weekend break from work so I had some time to explore Odda and the surrounding area.

I arrived by bus on Friday afternoon. To get to Odda, I flew in to Bergen from Gdansk (my current base) and then took the bus (where I got the last window seat available). There were some amazing views on the bus ride, and quite a few places were the road went through tunnels beneath the mountains.

Odda is situated in a long valley at the end of a fjord. I took this photo on my last day here and it shows the city with the fjord extending into the distance. The landscape was so fascinating, the town was nestled between giant mountains on either side and houses reached up the sides as high as was feasible.

Some of the houses were really pretty, painted in bright vibrant colours.

I walked past this old industrial site a number of times during my stay. I never figured out what it was used for but I did learn that Norway has a strong history in heavy industry.

A couple more views of Odda I took when walking to the hotel. In this valley, Odda is situated between the Fjord, and a lake. My accommodation was next to the lake, basically on the other side of town. In total it was about a two kilometer walk but what I didn't realize is that there is almost 80 meters of elevation gain from the fjord to the lake.

And this is the main street. I came here a couple of times for dinner and for a coffee in the morning.

This is a view of the main town from an empty dock near the bus stop.

This is the view from the dock looking out over the fjord. By this point on the Friday evening the clouds hung low and the rain was falling, but I still think the images turned out well. Looking over the fjord I could see this peninsula sticking out that had all these factory and industrial buildings on it.

I really liked this photo, also taken at the Fjord. I love how cute these houses look scattered on the rising mountainside.

I stayed at Trolltunga Camping where I had a small single person room in the main building. This hotel was literally right on the doorstep of the lake, with beautiful views over the lake just fifty meters from the doors of the main building.

I took these pictures on the first evening. I would see this lake every day and every day the view was different because of the changing weather. On Friday there was so much fog the scene had an ethereal feel to it and a sense of mystery. That mystery was further enhanced as I had not yet had the opportunity to see this view without the fog.

Here are three panoramas to compare, all taken at different times but from roughly the same spot.

The lake view on Saturday evening was especially magical as these low hanging clouds flowed through the valley, undulating and transforming like wisps of smoke.

On my last day in Odda I discovered this look out point with views over the lake. I was a little sad I hadn't discovered this spot sooner as there were two benches here that would have been a wonderful spot to sit and relax after a long days hike.

Trolltunga Atempt

On Sunday I joined a tour group lead by a couple local guides with the goal of hiking to Trolltunga. Unfortunately, we would only make it half way before turning back because of the bad weather conditions.

The closes car park was closed because of the snow so we had to hike from the lower car park. That meant climbing up this winding road to get from the valley floor to the alpine plateau.

We first used spikes on our shoes to walk on the icy snow of the road, then further up we swapped to snow shoes. There was so much snow up on the plateau, and I was very glad for the guides and all the equipment they provided.

This is the halfway hut to Trolltunga and the point where we turned back. I didn't take any other good pictures between the last photo and here because of the weather. There was a steady rain when we reached the alpine plateau that eventually became snow and hail. We climbed higher and came to a large open area with a strong wind. The wind made everything worse. There was the wind chill factor, making a cold day even colder. Then there was what felt like flakes of ice picked up by the wind and hurled at incredible speeds into any creature walking upon the plain. It felt like I was being assaulted by a million tiny bullets and I tried my best to protect any exposed skin on my face. Needless to say, we were all very glad to shelter for a time in the cabin where we were no longer exposed to the elements.

In the cabin we decided to turn back. The guide told us that the wind conditions were typically worse at Trolltunga compared to the halfway hut, so if its bad here, it would be worse at Trolltunga. With this in mind turning back seemed the right choice and so we stayed longer in the cabin to have a hot chocolate and lunch.

This picture was taken from the halfway hut and shows the exposed plateau where the wind assaulted us. Something I found so interesting about Norway was the contrast between the valleys and the alpine plateau. In the valleys the mountain slopes are so steep and rise quickly to their peaks, but once I got up there, rather than a quick descent into the next valley there are high, relatively flat, alpine regions stretching far into the distance. Norway is less so a series of pointy mountain peaks but more a high plateau that has been deeply cut by glacial valleys.

The tiny people you see in the image above was the other group going to Trolltunga. There were only two groups hiking today, the other group tried going a little further than us, but they too had to turn back because of the weather.

I was able to take this on the way back after we had passed the windy area. We had previously hiked up this rise before with out snow shoes, but on the way back we had a fun alternative. The guide took us to a good spot where we could slide down the hill, the faster and funner way to get down a snowy ridge.

Here are some of the pictures I was able to take with my phone. We never had a really good view point looking out over a valley (we would have to have made it to Trolltunga for that) but I still loved looking over this starkly white snow covered landscape. These hills were much smoother and gentler compared to many of the other scenes I saw in Norway. They reminded me of the Australian alps, with the main difference being that here there was so much more snow.

In this image, if you look closely, you can see a number of small huts. The guide told us that these were owned by private citizens who use them as holiday homes.

In summer time the trail would cross this bridge but now in winter we just walked around the bridge on our snow shoes.

We saw a wild Rock Ptarmigan as we reached the road. The bird was beautiful and covered in white feathers to camouflage with the snow. It was however too quick for me to photograph so please enjoy this picture of the sign instead.

These were taken from the top car park that would ordinarily be open in summer time. The "queue here" sign is for the summer shuttle bus.

We hiked back down into the valley and this time I saw a waterfall I had missed on the way up.

Another view on the way down.

This is the lake that is next to Trolltunga. If we had made it to the mountain, I would have had a view of the other end of this lake. But from this end we could see the hydro electric damn that is over a hundred years old. Apparently it produced so much electricity that they couldn't use it all so factories were built nearby to use the extra power.

Back in Odda, I wanted to share a few more pictures.

The path shown here starts at Trolltunga Camping and follows the shore of the lake. This path was great for me to get some good view points of the lake.

Continuing on the path I arrived at the outlet of the lake.

The river from the lake descends rapidly and flows the short distance to the fjord.

I walked passed this river twice, once at the start of the weekend and once at the end, after all the rain.

I was so surprised to see how much the water level had risen in just two days. But this does show just how much rain I had to deal with over the weekend when I went hiking.

Even though it rained so much, and I had to turn back early for both of the hikes I attempted, I still really enjoyed my time in Odda. Despite the weather the scenery was still beautiful and I have learnt that there is so much to explore in this area. I most definitely hope to return one day.

Thanks for reading – Edward

Written 24th of April 2024