August 22nd 2015: Norway: Glaciers

Monty the Motorhome is parked up for the next two nights at Bøyum Camping, close to the village of Fjærland (also called Mundal) at the head of Fjærlandsfjorden

On our first murky day for a long time we drove south, stopping to view the Bøyabreen glacier. This can be seen at close quarters from a viewpoint just off the main road. In the 1900’s it came right down to the spot where we looked at it from. However during the twentieth century it gradually retreated, halting in the 1980’s. Since then it had advanced again, sometimes as much as 2m a day! This is so quick that it is supposed to creak and groan, and occasionally ‘calf’ small pieces of ice off. However we neither heard nor saw any such activity.

Once again we were impressed with the scale of this natural feature, as well as the blueness of the ice. We had thought this colouring was from a lack of oxygen, however information boards re-educated us - it is due to ice not absorbing as much of the blue light spectrum compared to other colours, thus reflecting more blue than anything else.

The glacier 'oozing' over the rock face

Close up the 'blueness' is evident

Our destination for the next two days was Bøyum Camping - well praised by Sheila and Paul - again with good reason. We found it very quiet (well we did arrive just after midday) and exceptionally clean facilities. The setting is absolutely tranquil, on a broad stretch of flat land, right at the head of the fjord. The views are terrific, despite overcast conditions, and we have internet connection again.

In the afternoon we visited the Norwegian Glacier Museum, sited right next door to the campsite. The first part we went through was a multi-media exhibition with sounds, moving floors simulating earthquakes, great visuals and a finale by Sir David Attenborough about how fragile our earth really is. Straight on from this was a 20 minute multiscreen presentation on the Jostedalsbreen (the whole glacial region where we are). Filmed in the main from a helicopter, with a lovely soundtrack, it is visually stunning. The presentation is made across five huge screens, such that you need to look from side to side to take it all in. At the end I almost broke out in applause.

The rest of the museum had all kinds of fascinating exhibits, covering themes like glacial development, ice properties (fascinating hands on exhibits), glacial exploration and a particularly interesting feature on a 5000 year ‘Ice-Man’ corpse found almost completely preserved on the Italian-Austrian border in 1991.

All in all we found this to have been one of the most worthwhile museum experiences we have ever had. Really well worth going to.

We’ll probably just loaf about this evening, with the intention of visiting Mundal tomorrow.