We drive up Norway’s Trollstigen, or Troll’s Road, peek into the Norwegian wood, and learn what happens when a large rock falls into a fjord.
From the foothills of the Troll’s Wall (red arrow), we go up the Troll’s Road. We climb high above the glacial valley, crossing a waterfall on a bridge built nearly 90 years ago.We pause to take pictures from the bridge, of course.We find a trail that leads from the saddle into the mountain. We hit the trail, but the strong wind quickly cools our enthusiasm. We rush back into the car and drive down to the green valley on the other side of the saddle.Once down below, we turn off on a dirt road to see what the Norwegian wood is all about.We find countless blueberries in the Norwegian wood, only they are not yet ripe.We also come across Norwegian sheep grazing on their own – without shepherds or dogs.The shepherds are not in the shepherd’s hut either.We take another road and reach a coniferous forest and lupines.The road leads us to a mountain hut.We peek through the window. It looks cozy inside. However, the hut is locked. There isn’t a soul in sight. No shepherds, no hut wardens! Mountains are big, people are few, what else can we expect…On the way down from the hut, we notice a place where part of the cliff has broken away. We’re trying to imagine what exactly happens when a wreckage like that collapses into a narrow and deep fjord.In fact, this already had happened on April 7, 1934 when about 2 million cubic meters of rocks fell from a height of 700 meters in Tafjord. That rockslide triggered a tsunami that killed forty people along the coast.A sixteen-meter wave flooded the town of Tafjord, killing twenty three.There were also victims in the town of Valldal, at the mouth of of the fjord.Today, there is no trace from the tsunami in Valldal. Children happily dive in the cold fjord waters, as if they were in Greece instead of Norway.We sit down at a picnic table at the pier end. Peace and tranquility reign in our souls, as if nothing bad has ever happened and would never happen.
