Extreme Sports in a Bus

“One learns more from listening than speaking. And both the wind and the people who continue to live close to nature still have much to tell us which we cannot hear within university walls”. – Thor Heyerdahl, Norwegian explorer and adventurer.

The next day we walked down to the train station in Bergen to catch our train to Voss. Voss is a small village. Until 1964, when it incorporated a number of neighboring villages, Voss’ population was less than 5,000 people. After the German invasion of Norway in 1940, Voss was the main mobilization point for the Norwegian Army. Voss was bombed late in April of the same year and sadly, it completely destroyed the old wood-built town centre (houses and guilds much like what we had seen in Bryggen). They then remained occupied by the Germans until 1945.

In the winter, the village is an Olympic sports centre, being an ideal place for biathletes, and alpine, Nordic, and freestyle skiers to train. A lot of our fellow passengers on the train were heading off on several days of hiking once they disembarked at Voss. The village is surrounded by mountains with snow slumped on their shoulders; thick, ominous forests, and more white water rivers than I have ever seen in one place. In the summer, it is home to rock-climbing, hiking, paragliding, and white-water kayaking. But we were there merely to board a coach bus.

However, as the bus travelled to Gudvangen quay – where we would be taking a ferry up the Naeroyfjord to Flam – we were to experience our own kind of extreme sport. That of negotiating hair-pin turns. Thirteen hair-pin turns to be exact. In the rain. And did I not mention the fog. 

This road is called the Stalheimskleiva, considered one of Europe’s most dangerous roads. It is only open during the summer and closed to traffic in the winter. As we inched and lurched the large bus around truly the tightest turns (all downhill) I have ever experienced, I had not to wonder at all as to why they closed in the winter. It is one of the steepest roads in Northern Europe (built between 1842 and 1846). It is a very narrow and one-way (down).

The views over the side of the road and down to the valley bottom (the Naeroydalen valley, stunning and another UNESCO World Heritage site), and down to where waterfalls dropped from incredible heights was – interesting. Truly enhancing the feeling that though we sat in cushy seats in the comfort of a large bus, we were surely still having a hair-raising adventure.  On one side is the Stalheim waterfall (126 meter drop) and on the other side of the road the Sivle waterfall (142 meter drop). Even had it not been raining and foggy, we would have gotten wet.

It was with a sigh of relief (but also a shiver of thrill) that we came to the bottom and pulled into the quay. We disembarked from the bus and queued for the ferry.