Week 269 · Oslo to Jorpeland · Erfjord · Hardangerfjord · Bergen · Hemsedal
Norway
The beauty of Norway is that the whole country is a national park. There is no one single place that is a "10" like the Grand Canyon — but there are endless 8s and 9s, places that don't even show up on a map. We ended up driving almost 2,000 km. At first we stopped and got out, then stopped and took a picture, then just slowed down to take a picture — in the end we just stopped taking pictures. You do get spoiled quickly.
Norway has designated 18 National Scenic Routes (Nasjonale turistveger) to highlight the country's most spectacular driving landscapes. Each is marked with distinctive brown signs and features purpose-built viewing platforms, architect-designed rest areas, and interpretive installations. The routes were developed between 1994 and 2023 and now attract over 5 million visits annually. The southern routes — including Ryfylke (Jorpeland to Erfjord) and Hardanger — traverse fjord country through some of the world's most dramatic coastal scenery. Norway is also home to the world's most road tunnels per capita, with over 1,100 tunnels totalling more than 1,000 kilometres, including underwater and spiral sections and underground roundabouts where tunnels from different directions converge beneath the mountains.
A lot of pictures so I put them into separate posts by segment so that if you ever go to Norway, it gives you an idea of where to go in the south. Key points on this segment were Arendal and Kristiansand. Another feature is that in Norway they have 18 official scenic routes — not the easiest to plot out. We ended up going on two. Once you are on them, there are little brown signs but otherwise no clues.
We did an out-of-the-way loop early in the trip — great scenery but given all the driving we would do in subsequent days, we saw similar landscape and then the next day retraced our drive to get to Stavanger. In retrospect worth it on the first day when everything was new.
Initially a lot of farm and alpine lakes. The Hjelmelandsvågen ferry crossing is a good break from the driving. The turnaround near Erfjord is about as remote as we got on the whole trip.
Norway has 18 official scenic routes — not the easiest to plot out. Once you are on them there are little brown signs but otherwise no clues.
One of the distinctive features of driving in Norway's fjord country is the tunnel system — long tunnels under the mountains, including intersecting tunnels with traffic circles underground. By the end of almost 2,000 km of driving, you just start treating them like normal road.
"At first we stopped and got out. Then we stopped and took a picture. Then just slowed down. In the end we just stopped taking pictures. You do get spoiled quickly."