Sixth Port of Call: Olden

Another small village at the head of another fjord. The main attraction near Olden is Briksdalen Glacier which can be reached by hiking 3 km from the “mountain lodge” (really a huge souvenir shop complex) about a half-hour drive from Olden. It felt cool at the beginning of the hike and I bundled up but with the slight incline up the mountain I warmed up pretty quickly and began shedding gloves, scarf and layers. The trail was quite scenic with moss covered rocks, brilliantly colored wildflowers, rapids, waterfalls and even a small group of goats off to the side. About halfway along the trail we spotted the glacier, then past markers noting where the face of the glacier had been situated in 1700s, 1800s and 1900s. When finally we got to the end of the trail we were a bit disappointed. A small lake of glacier melt prevented us from actually touching or standing on the glacier which itself looked rather puny! You expect a glacier to be massive in size…this one looked like an unfortunate pile of snow wedged between a couple of peaks. Oh, I don’t mean to sound too jaded…it really was a lovely invigorating hike.

 

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