CHAPTER XII.
THE HARDANGER FJORD.
A Sabbath at Vik—Road Building—Visit to the Vöringsfos—Odde on the Sörfjord—Excursion to the Skjæggedalsfos—The Bruarbræ—From Odde by Steamer to Bergen.
We met at Eide a Norwegian-American, a gentleman of wealth and intelligence from Wisconsin, who was revisiting his native land accompanied by his American wife, after an absence of twenty-six years; and during all our stay upon the Hardanger fjord we enjoyed the pleasure of their company, which was of especial benefit, as Mr. L. still spoke Norwegian as well as when he first left his native land.
We left Eide on a small steamer at eight o’clock in the evening, and steaming down a narrow branch of the fjord came to a beautiful point of view at Utne, where four arms of the Hardanger fjord branch out in as many different directions. We proceeded up the east arm, called the Eidfjord, its shores rocky and abrupt, with the ever-grand mountain background, and in the mellow twilight, softening the sharp outlines of cliff and peak, steamed onward for two hours until we arrived at a little village called Vik.
The next day was the Sabbath, and as we sat before our comfortable inn, there appeared far down the fjord, first one row boat and then another coming from the little bays at the sides, until there was a long procession of over twenty boats, some containing a dozen people; each boat was rowed by six or eight oars, with a man or woman at each oar, keeping perfect time, and furnishing a beautiful sight as the oars dipped, and then rose from the water, all together. The boats slowly advanced up the fjord, bringing the farmers and their families from their isolated homes scattered along the mountain sides, to the simple service in the little stone church at Vik.
The women wore the prettiest of all the Norwegian costumes, the most striking feature of which is the head covering of snow-white linen stiffly starched and plaited into narrow flutings, forming a small cap on the crown of the head with a wide protruding fold at each side back of the ears; it then extends down the back, gradually tapering to a point. The usual sleeveless red bodice, gayly embroidered, was worn over a loose white waist fastened at the throat with quaint silver brooches with many pendants. The boats were drawn up along the shore, and the women and girls, after landing, before going to the church, stopped to adjust their caps and put the finishing touches to their toilette, the same as their sisters in all parts of the world. After the service, the men and women, old and young, gathered in groups on the shore or before the little houses, and passed a few hours in gossip concerning the meagre events of the week; then one boat after another received its occupants and was rowed down the fjord, the families returning to their lonely homes, probably not to leave them during the week.
The chief attraction near Vik is the Vöringsfos, a magnificent waterfall (the word fos meaning fall), which requires from eight to ten hours, on the part of good walkers, for an excursion there and back. We started early one morning, and after a walk of twenty minutes over a neck of land between the fjord and the lake, were rowed in an hour to the opposite end of the lake. The mountains enclosing the lake rise precipitously, and along one side a road is being built, which seemed to us an immense undertaking; but the Norwegians are as good road-builders as the Swiss, and are nothing daunted by the obstacles of nature.
They had blasted great sections of rock from the base of the mountain, and breaking them into smaller fragments, piled them up so as to form the foundation of a road bed rising out of the water; in places they had tunnelled through great masses of rock that had slipped from the mountain side and were too large to be removed by blasting, and in others had blasted into the mountain, so that the road passed beneath masses of overhanging rock. One hundred men had been at work for six months, and had constructed about two miles of road. A man has a contract for clearing the mountain side of all boulders and detached rocks, which are liable to fall upon the road when completed and destroy life; we saw a group of men, high up the mountain, who were evidently making arrangements to topple a massive boulder into the lake below. This part of the enterprise seems a responsible undertaking, particularly if the blame of future landslides is to be laid to the contractor.
The road is projected to extend for fifty miles until it joins a road in the south; and they pointed out its intended course, over and among the mountains, where no one would imagine it could be built; yet had we viewed some of the famous Alpine passes before the present well-made roads crossed them, we would probably have equally doubted the accomplishment of the undertaking.
From the lake it is a walk of over two hours to the fall; after passing a cluster of farm houses, the path ascends an old moraine, and continuing beside a river with many foaming rapids, we came to the rough path constructed by the Norwegian Tourist Club. We ascend over smooth ledges and through a wild gorge, in which are scattered great boulders; then the path mounts the side of a rocky cliff, at the base of which flows a river, and as we advance we hear the roar of falling water and finally the upper part of the fall comes into view; we here cross the river by a frail swinging suspension bridge, and the grand waterfall is before us.