A Walk Down the Valley to Flåm and a Fjord Safari

On Tuesday, August 1st, we had a good buffet breakfast, then caught the down-valley train.  We had considered various possibilities (including the long zipline that leaps over the twenty-one switchbacks near the beginning of the biking-walking path to Flåm).  The weather would be much better than the day before, perfect for walking.  Rick Steves recommended doing half of the hike down the valley, though in one place he prefers walking those switchbacks and catching the train at Berekvam, while in another he prefers the walk from Berekvam into Flåm.  We decided to do the latter.

It took us about two hours and ten minutes to get from Berekvam to Flåm.  On the outskirts of town is the old town center, upstream from the modern seaport.  There we visited the old wooden church, built in 1670.

We had more sandwiches (smoked salmon, again good) from Furukroa, then signed in for the 1:30 Fjord Safari excursion, which we had booked from home.  In order to go on this 12-passenger speedboat tour down the Nærøyfjord to Gudvangen and back, we had to put on a waterproof coverall, goggles and a life vest.  This turned out to be overkill, at least on this particular trip, since the weather was perfect (our driver-guide said it was the best he'd had all season) and the only time we got any spray at all was a tiny bit from hitting a boat wake coming back to Flåm.  The group of about twenty was divided into two boats.  The ride lasted two hours and fifteen minutes, ending at 3:45.  It was great, getting close to the water, while taking in a lot of terrific scenery.  The only "wildlife" we saw on this "safari" were some goats.  Sometimes, seals appear, but recently the seal population had been taken down by an incursion of orcas, 200 kilometers from the open ocean.  It was hard to get into our heads that this was actually an arm of the sea, so far inland, and Flåm is a seaport, at sea level.

We caught the Flåmsbana train again, for the third time, once more withstanding Huldra's seductive song (she didn't seem to have much success luring people into the mountain).

We had another good buffet dinner at the hotel.