Another lazy start was had here as (we thought) we had no particular time pressures to get ourselves over to Aurland. Looking out of our cabin window we saw that the morning was bright, and so we checked out via a reception full of wool and wooden trinkets and headed back along the 550 to the ferry port of Utne.
We could see the ferry at the other port, so had a short wander through the pretty village before embarking onto the 10.30 ferry. Having done a spot of research since getting up, we'd come to discover that this wouldn't be our only ferry trip of the day. A tunnel later on our route had been subject to a bus fire 10 days previous which led to its closure for repair. This meant that instead of a 20 minute drive through a tunnel, once we'd disembarked from the Utne ferry we would head for Gudvangen, another port.
Meanwhile, the journey from Utne was very picturesque, the village being bathed in sunlight as we left, and we got to see our first fjord rainbow! A happy discovery upon leaving was that if we didn't encounter any hold-ups we'd arrive just in time for the Gudvangen ferry.
This we did, but we soon realised that this was a passenger ferry! Thankfully car ferries did run this route but the next one wasn't for another two and a half hours (added to the two hour ferry journey at 990k (£80ish) this made for quite an excursion due to a shut tunnel) so we sourced some lunch in a nearby timber building. Peter tried the reindeer patties, hoping for something similar to the saltfish patties I feed him, but unfortunately this is Norway, not the Caribbean, so the patties actually resembled what I can only describe as faggots. . .
Once on the ferry, the journey was pretty spectacular. I even took a break from Don Fink to admire the narrowness of the fjord and the green surroundings. Arriving into Flam at around 17.30, we made straight for our lodgings for the night, close to Aurland.
When I say close, I mean, on a map they looked close. The twenty or so hairpin bends on the map should have been a clue, but we were actually staying incredibly high up! A scary drive up was rewarded by a stunning view at Stegastain, after which we were glad to find our very young but lovely Norwegian hostess and our large lodgings at Bjorgo Gard. My poor judgement reversing up the drive (and subsequent strong clutch smell which lingered in Eric for days) could not even dampen our spirits and relief to have arrived.
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